In the Pink of the Night (1969) User Reviews

Pink fun

[rbverhoef · 6/10 · 11 January 2004]

This is a pretty entertaining short starring the panther in pink. When the panther is late for work he buys a cuckoo clock. The cuckoo inside is alive and when the panther is awakened by the cuckoo he gets a little mad. In the end he throws the cuckoo and the clock off a bridge but he feels guilty.

There are some very nice moments in this short and therefore it was good enough. The cuckoo gets most of the laughs but I think it could have been funnier than it is now.

Now is a particularly appropriate time to view . . .

[pixrox1 · 8/10 · 31 December 2022]

. . . this spoof of IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, because Mister T-i-b-b-s, the main character of that 1967 feature film, passed away in 2022. There's an old saying in Tinsel Town that goes something like this: "If you can't join them, lick them!" During IN THE PINK OF THE NIGHT, the cuckoo steps into the crucial role of Mr. T's enabler, functioning as murder victim Colbert's widow. This parallel dynamic is borne out right through PINK's final scene, which finds the cuckoo under the covers with the Pink Panther. From the moment that they meet, the big cat and the bird clearly have something going on between themselves. Pink's feathered friend echoes the feature film by becoming a one-critter band, while the flighty feline reciprocates by swimming the Hudson River in search of his comfort cuckoo. From the patty cake scene to the round of mutual face-slapping, fans of Neapolitan film n-o-i-r will love having a touch of strawberry added to their dessert.

A Cartoon To Go Cuckoo Over

[ccthemovieman-1 · 10/10 · 11 June 2007]

This is an incredible cartoon, something so far out you could only see it in an animated film. In a nutshell, it's about the Pink Panther buying alarm clocks but not wanting them to really work because he'd rather sleep. However, he knows he has to get up for his job so he buys the best alarm he could ever get - a cuckoo clock. What makes this one so effective is the little cuckoo inside. He is determined to wake up his master, so every time the Panther tries to shut him up and go back to sleep, the cuckoo goes to greater lengths to wake him up.

The cuckoo bird yells louder, plays a loud trumpet, even becomes a one-man band, rigs trap doors so the Panther will fall and wake up.....he'll do anything to complete his job. He just simply does so many outlandish things you have to see this to believe it.

The wildest gag of them all is the ending, something you totally do not expect. This is one of the best Pink Panther cartoons I have been fortunate enough to see.

The one with Pinky and the cuckoo clock

[TheLittleSongbird · 10/10 · 2 November 2013]

So far the Pink Panther cartoons have been very entertaining, there are a couple of strange and disappointing ones but none have been bad and most range from good to classic. In the Pink of the Night is one of the classics and a highlight of the remarkably consistent set of the 1969 Pink Panther cartoons(probably so far the 1969 collection has been the most consistent of the yearly collections produced). Some Pink Panther cartoons are routine but In the Pink of the Night is one of the more original ones concept-wise, the structure is similar but the idea is a little different to what has been seen before and since. This can be seen especially in the ending, which is unexpected and uproariously funny. As well as being among the best and one of the more original Pink Panther cartoons, In the Pink of the Night is also one of the funniest. The laughs are consistent in quality, and the gags, as with most Pink Panther cartoons they're visual-driven rather than dialogue-driven and all the better for it, are a vast majority of the time hilarious, never less than very amusing. The ending is the best part. The animation maintains the simplicity that has always been one of the cartoons' charms and does so elegantly and colourfully. The music is jazzy and fits with the action well, and there is no real need to say that no matter how many times you hear the theme tune you can never get annoyed by it. Pinky is cool and likable and his comic timing amuses and endears. The cuckoo bird is cute though it is easy to see how problematic it is for Pinky, you do feel sorry for him. All in all, a classic Pink Panther cartoon, one of the best. 10/10 Bethany Cox

One of the funniest episodes

[cruelmo · 23 February 2006]

From the very beginning of this short, the humor is pure genius. That having been said, I must point out that there are really two distinct types of P.P. cartoons, those with dialogue and those without. I tend to prefer the ones without. This particular short is one of those. P.P's expressions say so much more than any dialogue can. I won't give the story away, but I'll just say that P.P's methods of dealing with his situation are simply hilarious. In most of these cartoons, either P.P. has something or someone getting on his nerves and we watch as he attempts to subdue the thing/person, or P.P. himself is the one getting on someone else's nerves. The former is the case in this particular short. All I can say is, get the 5-disc DVD set, it's well worth the price for 124 of these hilarious cartoons; over 9 hours worth! If you loved these cartoons half as much as I did, you won't regret it!

A full plate

[Atreyu_II · 10/10 · 8 September 2007]

"In The Pink Of The Night", what can I say? One of my favorite Pink Panther's cartoons! Like most of Pink Panther's animated classics, this one is highly entertaining, great fun, hilarious and very well made.

The Pink Panther is an almost 100% silent character, but that doesn't stop him from being a very funny character (a bit like Charlie Chaplin and Mr. Bean).

The artwork here is simple yet pretty good, like in most of Pink Panther's classics.

The story is pure fun and silly humor, which makes it so pleasant to watch: the Pink Panther wakes up late and does everything in a hurry because he's already late for work. He leaves his house running, but loses the train precisely in the last second. Angry, he decides to buy a cuckoo clock to avoid more oversleeping.

That's when the whole fun starts: the cuckoo clock works out very well in fact, but the Panther gets so irritated for being awake that he decides to silent the cuckoo in every ways. But the cuckoo is very persistent, so he never gives up. He does everything to wake up his new master. Everything. The craziest and most hilarious things. The more the Pink Panther tries to silent him, the more the cuckoo insists.

This is pure classic humor! A real scream, I'd say. A very enjoyable Pink Panther animated short full of comic gags.

My favorite Pink Panther cartoon!

[OllieSuave-007 · 10/10 · 26 September 2013]

This is my favorite Pink Panther cartoon. Here, the Pink Panther sleeps through the morning and is late for work due to his undesired wish to get out of bed. The tactics he uses to silence his alarm clock, his radio and his telephone to keep the noise from bothering him are hilarious and golden.

The Pink Panther finally resorts to buying a cuckoo clock, which actually contains a live bird. He will see to it that the Pink Panther gets up on time so he won't be late for work again.

This is truly a cartoon classic and is an enjoyable short to watch. It makes you want to go out and get yourself a cuckoo clock for your enjoyment. My parents bought one from Germany and it always reminds me of this cartoon.

Grade A

In the Boredom of the Night

[Horst_In_Translation · 4/10 · 26 August 2015]

"In the Pink of the Night" is a 6-minute cartoon starring the Pink Panther and obviously a title reference to the popular Academy Award winning feature film "In the Heat of the Night" which came out shortly before this. But back to this one here: It's basically about the Panther's struggles with getting out of bed and making it to work on time. The cuckoo is supposed to help him with that difficult task, but in the end he proves to be a partner in crime. I have seen some Pink Panther short films, but I cannot say that this one here is among my favorites despite the contributions of famous cartoon directors Arthur Davis and Friz Freleng. None of the jokes are really funny and I only kinda liked the ending. Not recommended.

The above is my review from summer 2015 and now, almost 10 years later, in 2024 I gave this one another watch:

I stand with my overall rating of 2/5 still and with the thumbs-down as a whole. The comedy in here in this film from now 55 years ago was not good enough to win me over. There are pretty much three chapters: First is all before the cuckoo including a depiction of all the alarm clocks the panthers has destroyed, the second chapter includes all the fighting with the cuckoo and the third then is what happens after the Panther threw the little bird off the bridge. The Golden Gate Bridge? Well, it just seemed not too realistic how much of a guilty conscience the Panther now has all of a sudden, just like how it was such a twist that oh so reliable cuckoo now became as lazy as the panther in the end. I could have looked past these flaws if the gags had been really funny, but just like back then I would say the only thing that made me smile from these under 6.5 minutes was really how the birdie is in bed too at the end and does pretty much exactly what the Panther was doing at the beginning. I mean I was woken up by a telephone ringing this very day (I kid you not) and I still have a hard time relating with the Panther here. Besides, even if I know it is a stylistic decision, the animation is just inferior to many older cartoons. This became especially visible the moment the Panther stepped out of his house the first time here. I also might have liked the outcome more if it had more connection with the aforementioned film it references in the title than just playing during nighttime. Which is not even the case for the entire film. All in all, this MGM cartoon is one you should skip, but I guess you don't need the recommendation because by the time you think about watching this one, you have seen many other Pink Panther cartoons already for sure. It is not one of the most known from the series at all. It is still among the earlier releases, but also not very early.

I remember this one

[shiningrockstar · 9/10 · 13 August 2008]

I saw this one when I was little. I used to watch Pink Panther cartoons a lot a long time ago along with my big brother. I remember the Pink Panther missed the train to work because he wasn't getting enough sleep so he decided to buy a cuckoo clock which was guaranteed to wake him up. Sure enough, after he installed the clock and set the alarm, a real live cuckoo bird was starting to get really annoying by trying to wake up his master which I found pretty funny! Annoyed and angry, the Pink Panther tries to shut that crazy bird up, but the little bird won't give up until he gets the job done; but the P.P. declares that this is the last straw when the bird tries to wake him up with a one-man (or shall I say, one-bird) band, and dumps him in the ocean. However, he begins to feel guilty for what he had done, thinking of what would have happened to that poor thing and races to find him.