The Pink Panther Strikes Again Clouseau prompts a relapse which cancels Dreyfus's planned discharge, but he soon escapes anyway and organizes an elaborate plot to threaten the countries of the world with annihilation by a large laser if they do not assassinate Clouseau for him. Unused footage from the film was later included in "Trail of the Pink Panther" (1982), after Sellers' death. At a psychiatric hospital, former Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) is largely recovered from his obsession to kill the new Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers) and is about to be released when Clouseau, arriving to speak on Dreyfus' behalf, within
The Pink Panther creation, or "The Thin Man" was used in a series of detective films. "A Shot in the Dark," a film which was not originally intended to feature Clouseau, is the first of two films in the series (the other being "Inspector Clouseau") that features neither the diamond nor the distinctive animated Pink Panther in the opening credits and ending. Many critics, including Leonard Maltin, regard this film as the best in the series. In the original film, released in 1963, the main focus was on David Niven's role as Sir Charles Litton, the infamous jewel thief nicknamed "the Phantom," and