Wednesday, Jun. 29, 2011
The Pink Panther Series: The Many Faces of Simone
Given how much the good inspector bumbles, it's a wonder he ever lands any woman. Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers) has a wife in the first film, 1963's The Pink Panther, Simone, who is played by Capucine. She's gone by A Shot in the Dark in 1964, and Clouseau has moved onto Maria Gambrelli (Elke Summer). He also hooks up with Russian spy played by Lesley Anne-Down in The Pink Panther Strikes Again. But Clouseau is mostly a one-night stand kind of guy, partly thanks to his servant Cato's tendency to interrupt all his romantic liaisons. In Sellers's last film as Clouseau (let's not speak of the recent remakes) he hooks up with an entirely different Simone (Dyan Cannon). While the names may reoccur, the actual love interests don't.