Although the prior Pink Panther film, Trail of the Pink Panther, essentially had no plot, Curse of the Pink Panther picks up where it left off.

That's a tricky place to start, and it doesn't go entirely well. Finally acknowledging the death of Peter Sellers three years earlier, Curse posits that Clouseau is still missing and that, well, somebody ought to find him. Enter what the studio obvious hoped would be a replacement for Sellers, Ted Wass, playing "the world's second best detective," Sergeant Clifton Sleigh. (Of course, Wass didn't really take, the movie flopped, and that was that. Wass is now a television director, but he's best known for his work playing the dad on TV's Blossom.)

Sadly, Wass just can't do what Peter Sellers could (and this has been repeated with everyone who's tried to fill Sellers' shoes, which I now number at four wannabes). Sure, he bumbles his way through broken sculptures, bad disguises, and Macauley Culkin "O" faces, but there's more to Clouseau than just making a mess of things. The problem is it's hard to finger just what that something is, but Clouseau was a good-natured hero who dropped the ball repeatedly while getting the job done. Everyone else comes across as little more than a no-talent ass clown.