A Shot in the Dark is the best
The Pink Panther is a close second.
The other Sellers Panthers done in the 70's are serviceable, but nowhere near as good.
I'm not even going to give Steven Martin's Panther a chance, though.
Proud member of SHREWS (Society for the Honor Required of Eyes Wide Shut)

A shot In The Dark
The Pink Panther Strikes Again
The Pink Panther
Trail of The Pink Panther

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Agree with you completely Rogueforte. Would have loved to have seen more of Clouseau and Hercule (When he trips over Hercule at the Ballon home 'YouYouFool! Just for that you're off the case!!')

A Shot in the Dark
is easily the best of the so-called 'Pink Panther' movies. The comic timing is perfect (no easy task), particularly by Peter Sellers, along with an impeccable supporting cast. My favorite is Hercule (Graham Stark). The look on Stark's face as he patiently listens and waits while Clouseau prattles on are absolutely priceless. Sanders does a likewise great job with a condescending, tolerant expression on his face during Clouseau's antics.
A true comedic classic in all aspects, right from the beginning with a great cartoon opening and soundtrack: Mancini's theme song, and the actually rather haunting
Shadows of Paris
. In fact, I dare say that the theme song for
A Shot in the Dark
is actually better than the now all-too-familiar and over-played
Pink Panther Theme
.

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My favorite is Return the one where Chistopher Plummer plays Sir Charles Phantom, the notorious Litton

I might as well copy and paste daronimo's post, because it's exactly what I think. ASITD is the best IMO.
"Warhorse. Warhead, Fuq 'em, man, White knuckle tight. Through black and white"

Well of course it is a totally subjective question, and you will get a totally subjective answer but my preference of the Peter Sellers Inspector Clouseau films is in this order:

1. A Shot in the Dark - 5/5 (the rewrite of the Harry Kurnitz play/the one with the nudist camp)
2. The Pink Panther Strikes Again - 4.5/5 (the one where Dreyfuss attempts to take over the world)
3. The Pink Panther - 4/5 (the one with Sir Charles Litton is having affair with Clouseau's wife & tries to steal the eponymous diamond)
4. Return of the Pink Panther - 4/5 (the one where the diamond is again stolen with Christopher Plummer as Sir Litton)
5. Revenge of the Pink Panther - 3/5 (the one where Clouseau is "killed" and goes to Hong Kong)
6. Trail of the Pink Panther - 2.5 (the one with all the out-takes, pretending to be a movie)
   Okay then the other films are "Inspector Clouseau", "Curse of the Pink Panther", "Son of the Pink Panther" and the 2006 Steve Martin reboot "The Pink Panther". I haven't watched any of them (only parts of "Curse" or "Son") so I can't make a complete statement. However "Curse" seems okay if completely uninspired. "Son" is absolutely horrendous which is why I couldn't watch it all. "Inspector Clouseau" seems an intriguing curio with Alan Arkin taking over the role and made in the gap between "A Shot in the Dark" and "Return" by other hands. From what I have seen (the trailers and some preview stuff) and heard about the new movie I don't think I want to ever watch it Steve Martin was always a totally up-himself git that was completely unfunny so I'm sure it will be dreadful.

A heated debate indeed folks. Always makes me smile when people are so passionate about movies.
I like all of the main five pink panther films and can't understand why anyone would want to knock any of them. Its difficult for me to seperate them but if i had to the order of preference would be -

1. The Return of the Pink Panther.
2. A Shot in the Dark.
3. The Pink Panther Strikes Again.
4. The Pink Panther.
5. The Revenge of the Pink Panther.
   I actually saw the "new" Pink Panther movie starring Steve Martin last summer on a plane when going to the states. It was a movie that i wouldn't have touched with a barge pole under normal circumstances but as i was a captive audience so to speak i gave it a go. There were a few isolated laugh out loud moments, but the plot was awful and it just didn't work.

Well, if you expected the Pink Panther to be a Clouseau-movie, surely you were disappointed, as the main character was not Coluseau, but Charles Litton. Actually, the detective was to be played by Peter Ustinov, but he resigned just before it was to be recorded. Sellers was a last minute solution. That does not imply that he was bad, but, unlike the other movies, the script was not created to suit him.

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1. Strikes Again
   was definitely the best and funniest from start to finish.
2. Return
   was almost as good.
3. Shot in the Dark
   was pretty good. Had some funny moments but Sellers hadn't found the character yet and the Kato scenes weren't that good yet.
4. Revenge
   tried really hard to be good but just didn't do anything for me.
5. The Pink Panther
   was just not funny, to the point of being bad and the pacing was poor and the fact that Clouseau's wife is having an affair with the jewel thief is just stupid.

Funniest PP films for me >
1-Pink Panther Strikes Again
2-The Return of the Pink Panther
3-A Shot in the Dark
4-Revenge of the Pink Panther
5-The Pink Panther- I'm sorry but the first movie was just way too boring and Sellers hadn't perfected his roll yet and played it too serious.

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"*3. The one where he fails to notice the bank robbery going on right behind him as he tickets an organ grinder and his monkey. "
That's Return. So far, my favorite one.

Ok I've been reading these posts and i'm quite surprised. Even though I know it all comes down to your own particular taste, seeing the 70's movies compared to the 2 classics of the 60's, is really starting to bug me. Sure, The Pink Panther has a far different style of humor than any of the others, I wouldn't expect to see it listed worse than #2 by anyone over the age of 12. I thought there were more sophisticated people on here than that. If all you want is over-the-top slap stick, then go with revenge, return and strikes again. In the Pink Panther, you actually get very little slap stick, other than the infamous falling off the globe, and a few other examples, it is a much more straight kind of humor. With A shot in the dark, you get a little bit more slap stick, i.e. him falling in the pond, damaging the pool table, and also added a almost childish run on joke gag, getting hauled off to prison 4 times. All and all, I rank the first two about the same, a shot in the dark is given bonus points for its opening scene with the song shadows of paris, the cartoon opening credits are far superior to those used in pink panther, and the Hawaiian, Spanish Tapas, and Russian Cossack scenes, and for the finale (if you can manage to surprise the audience when they already know the ending, then its a classic Anyone seen Elvira Madigan?)
The Pink Panther, of course had the only great story line from any entry in the series, that and the song and dance # sung in italian is very sexy. Like i said about the humor, its more adult, there is more subtleness to it, and almost parody like, or satire like. It is making fun of Inspector Cluoseu, without actually using slap-stick gags (in addition to a few slap stick here and there)
When I first saw all of the movies in jr. high, i thought they were all hilarious, with the one exception, trail of the panther. Having grown up now, i recognize Revenge, Return, and Pink panther strikes again, are far inferior, and I have actually found an appreciation for Trail of the Pink Panther, despite its using only archive footage of peter sellers. Haven't any of you seen Trail, all but one of you seem to have neglected mentioning it when i watched it recently i was dying to think of where i knew the TV reporter from then it dawned on me PATSIE!! FROM ABSOLUTELY fABULOUS!!!!
here it is:
*1. The Pink Panther
*1. A Shot in the Dark
*3. Trail of the Pink Panther
*3. The one where he fails to notice the bank robbery going on right behind him as he tickets an organ grinder and his monkey.
*5. The other two
*5. The other two

• denotes a tie
  Note: there is a huge gap between 1, and 3.

I completely agree with this list

Could'nt stand Revenge at all. Horrible, made me sad to be honest.

1. A shot in the dark
2. The pink panther strikes again
3. Return of the pink panther
4. The pink panther
   .
   .
   .
   .
5. Revenge of the pink panther
   Don't get me wrong, I am a huge fan, but revenge is just plain horrible.

1. Shot in the Dark
2. Return
3. Strikes
4. Pink Panther
5. Revenge
   A classic line from A Shot in the Dark
   Clouseau: "Then I submit, Inspector Ballon, that you arrived home, found Miguel with Maria Gambrelli, and killed him in a rit of fealous jage".

My favorite is A Shot In The Dark, which is where everything we have come to assocciate with the Pink Panther really came into being. I love everything about it.
The best part of waking up is Satan in your cup.

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