Peter Sellers died in July 1980, just two years after Revenge of the Pink Panther wrapped production. While nothing about his performance here screams declining health in an obvious way, certain close-ups reveal a face that has changed dramatically from a decade earlier. There’s a visible effort behind the brilliance now, and knowing this is the final film featuring new Sellers footage as Clouseau gives the whole thing a bittersweet weight it never intended. Kino Lorber’s new 4K UHD treats it with the respect a farewell deserves.

The setup is simple and effective. Philippe Douvier (Robert Webber), a veteran French drug lord whose authority is being challenged, decides to prove his dominance by assassinating the most famous cop in France: Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Sellers). First attempt: a bomb in an antiques shop. Clouseau survives. Second attempt: a martial arts assassin from Hong Kong. Clouseau survives that too, through sheer accidental luck. When a transvestite criminal (eek! Remember, this was 1978!) steals Clouseau’s car, gets shot, and burns up inside it, the authorities declare Clouseau dead.

Now officially a ghost, Clouseau goes undercover with his manservant Cato (Burt Kwouk) to find out who’s been trying to kill him, cycling through a parade of disguises that represents his most diverse character work in the series.

Edwards originally wanted to build this film largely from footage cut from The Pink Panther Strikes Again, writing and shooting new scenes around the existing material. Sellers refused, insisting on all-new footage, and the resulting $12 million production filmed across Paris, Nice, Shepperton Studios, and Hong Kong.

The opening animated titles mark the return of DePatie-Freleng Enterprises for the first time since 1968, and the strained Edwards-Sellers relationship gets its own winking acknowledgment in the credits, which list it as a “Sellers-Edwards” production. Dyan Cannon joins the cast alongside returning favorites Lom and Kwouk, and the film was one of the highest-rated entries by critics out of the gate in the classic series.

The film is the most chaotic of all the Clouseau entries, and that works in its favor. Sellers cycles through an Italian gangster, a Swedish pirate, a Chinese holy man, a French vicar, and an amateur Toulouse-Lautrec impersonator, all with visible relish. The action is broader and more explosive than anything the series had attempted, and it’s worth noting that several character ideas here — the inflatable villain, the transvestite criminal — would later resurface in the Austin Powers films in strikingly similar contexts. Mancini’s score leans into the disco trends of the late seventies, reworking the classic Pink Panther theme with a danceable bassline and electric guitar solo.

Kino Lorber’s 4K disc delivers a new HDR/Dolby Vision master from a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative. The image is clean and detailed, with the Hong Kong and French Riviera locations benefiting from the expanded color space. An audio commentary from film historian William Patrick Maynard accompanies both discs, with trailers, TV spots, and radio spots rounding out the package.

It’s not the most polished Panther film, but it might be the most energetic. As an unintentional farewell to one of comedy’s greatest screen presences, it gives Sellers exactly what he needed: space to be every character in the room.