Most of Catherine Schell's (Lady Litton's) laughter is genuine. Peter Sellers (Inspector Jacques Clouseau) made her laugh so hard once the camera was rolling; she had a real problem keeping a straight face in many of her scenes with him. This resulted in writer, producer, and director Blake Edwards giving up on trying to get her to react like she was supposed to in the script.

Dame Julie Andrews filmed a cameo role as a maid removing the unconscious Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Peter Sellers) from Lady Claudine Litton's (Catherine Schell's) room, but her part was edited out.

Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. was offered the role of Sir Charles after David Niven proved to be unavailable. After some consideration, he turned it down, paving the way for Christopher Plummer.

Unlike the other movies in the original Pink Panther film franchise, United Artists was not directly involved in the making of this movie. Because the careers of writer, producer, and director Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers were declining, United Artists had no desire to finance another Panther movie. Edwards took his script of this movie to British producer Sir Lew Grade, who subsequently bought the rights. Grade financed this movie himself, while giving United Artists worldwide distribution rights, ownership in the copyright, and a stake in the profits (as they owned the characters) in order to make the movie. Distribution rights in later years reverted back to Grade's company, ITC. This is the reason why, until recently, this movie had not been featured in compilation DVD box sets along with the other Panther movies. United Artists (via MGM) has since reacquired domestic rights to this movie and it has now been issued in a Blu-ray box set of all of Sellers' "Pink Panther" movies, while international rights are now with Universal Pictures.

This movie was originally intended to be a 26-part Pink Panther mini-series produced by writer, producer, and director Blake Edwards for the British ATV. The ATV then decided to turn it into a "movie-of-the-week", followed by a move to a feature film.

Continuity

Lady Litton's drink disappears while she's in the pool.

The "jumping light bulb" changes places just before Clouseau discovers it.

Lady Litton dives headfirst into the pool, then swims back towards Sir Charles; in the next shot, just before he rolls off the inflatable chair on top of her, her hair is completely dry.

When Clouseau is repairing Sir Charles' doorbell, he takes out several tools including a hammer. He tries several times to stop the ringing with the hammer, and then sets it down. The shot changes to show the butler in the doorway, and when it returns to Clouseau, he is suddenly holding the hammer again.

During Clouseau's exchange with the accordion player outside of a bank, there's a Halles L?pante across the street. No car is parked there until one shot, where a tan Volkswagen bus is visible.



Factual errors

In the beginning of the film the guide explains to the tour group that a slight change in the pressure in the chamber where the pink panther stone is held will cause the alarms to sound and lock down of the room. He even demonstrates that. Yet, once the thief removes the stone from the chamber, no alarm or lock down is initiated. If you look closely, during the heist the thief uses two extending hooks - one that lifts the diamond, and one that is set on the pressure sensor to prevent it from going off. The second hook is then removed once the glove is placed on the pressure sensor.



Revealing mistakes

Obvious stuntman when Clouseau lands in the kitchen.

The wires that lift the old woman's chair when the bomb explodes are visible.

There is no sign of blood after Col Sharki is shot dead in Lady Litton's hotel room by Inspector Dreyfus from across the street.

When Clouseau gets the bomb, he tries to get rid of it and we cut to the old woman next door. Her chair lifts into the air before the bomb goes off and breaks down the wall.

The walls in Clouseau's apartment flex slightly when Clouseau and Cato impact against them during their fight, indicating this is an obvious studio set.



Crew or equipment visible

When Clouseau looks for Cato in the apartment, just before Cato attacks him, you can see a hanging coat moving. One of the crew must have touched the coat while following Clouseau.

When Clouseau arrives at the museum, a camera shadow can be seen on the left wall when he is walking down the hallway.

The camera's vague reflection is seen on the glass doors as Clouseau arrives home with his groceries and looks for Cato in his apartment.

During the jumping light bulb sequence, you can clearly see the device in the socket that makes the light bulb jump out - an electronic trigger mechanism that ejects the bulb at will.



Errors in geography

The hotel staff in Gstaadt, Switzerland repeatedly speaks French (addressing guests as "Monsieur" and "Madame" for example); however, Gstaadt is located in the German-speaking part of Switzerland and so it would be very unusual for the hotel staff to use French, but rather they would speak German.



Plot holes

In Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) and Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), Lady Litton's name is Simone not Claudine. She was Simone Clouseau in the original The Pink Panther (1963). She was married to Clouseau and left him for Sir Charles Litton. So presumably the same Lady Litton even with the wrong name. However, there is no sense of familiarity or connection in the movie between the former spouses. (Note: Both "Trail of the Pink Panther" (1982) and "Curse of the Pink Panther" (1983) are generally not considered to be cannon). Clearly, Claudine and Simone are two different women. There is nothing to suggest that Sir Charles didn't end his relationship with Simone, marry Claudine, divorce her, then reunite with Simone.

In "A Shot in the Dark" (1964), Chief Inspector Dreyfus has proved to have killed four people - yet remains Chief Inspector in this movie. The audience is aware that Dreyfus was responsible for those deaths in "A Shot in the Dark", but there's no evidence "in the movie" that he did so, and due to his status as the head of the Surete, he could have easily covered up his involvement in those crimes.



Character error

Clouseau claims to be a telephone repairman, yet he is addressed as "Inspector" shortly before exiting the Littons' house. However, the Littons' butler undoubtedly knows exactly who Clouseau is with absolute certainty (as well as Lady Litton, who was secretly laughing at Clouseau behind the door when he "fixed" their doorbell); the butler becoming irate at the sound of him making a shambles out of the study, addressing him as "Inspector" (giving up the ruse of falling for his attempted disguise), while Clouseau, desperately trying to extricate himself from glue he sat in on a chair, is too preoccupied to notice that his "cover" is blown.

When Clouseau, presenting as a telephone repairman, is inside the office, Mac knocks on the door and calls "Inspector?".