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Chief Inspector Charles LaRousse Dreyfus is a fictional police officer in Blake Edwards's Pink Panther series. His first appearance was in A Shot in The Dark where he held the rank of the Commissioner, despite his health problems, involving personal injuries with his gun and a cigarette lighter resembling the gun or accidentally cutting off his thumb with a cigar cutter. His trauma leads him to accidentally strangle his therapist while fantasizing Clouseau's death, then trying to assassinate Clouseau with a sniper's rifle. He is constantly driven to distraction by Clouseau's bungling and is eventually driven insane. In The Return of the Pink Panther, Dreyfus holds the rank of Chief Inspector (but again becomes insane by the end of the film) which shows Dreyfus straitjacketed in a padded cell, writing "Kill Clouseau" on the wall (with his toes).


In The Pink Panther Strikes Again, It is Titularly Main Protagonist. Dreyfus is about to be released from an asylum after a complete recovery; however, within five minutes of Clouseau's arrival to speak to the board on Dreyfus' behalf, he suffers a variety of injuries, causing him to relapse. Thence Dreyfus escapes the asylum and kidnaps a scientist, forcing him to build a disintegrator ray later used to intimidate the rest of the world into attempting to assassinate Clouseau. Dreyfus appears to disintegrate at the end of Strikes Again, but subsequently (and without any explanation) re-appears in Revenge of the Pink Panther and is reinstated Chief Inspector when Clouseau is mistakenly declared dead. At the end of the film, he tries to shoot Clouseau in a firework storage room, only to accidentally activate them with a lighter. In the end, he is arrested and was either put in jail or back to the insane Asylum. Herbert Lom famously gave his character a pronounced tic which occurred under particular stress...and an accompanying childlike giggle when plotting Clouseau's murder.


Friends and Family[]

Enemies[]

  • Phantom - Old Friend and Enemy/Ally (Different Beliefs)
  • Lady Simone Litton - Foster Adopted Sister turned Enemy
  • Inspector Clouseau -Sometimes when the mission fails (in The Pink Panther Strikes Again)
  • Nanna - Enemy
  • George Lytton - Enemy
  • Countess Chandra - Enemy
  • Clouseau's Father - Enemy
  • Drummond and Quinlan - Enemy
  • Charwoman - Former Student turned Enemy
  • Artoff - Former Student turned Enemy
  • Mr. Chong - Former Student turned Enemy
  • Thugs - Enemy
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