Playing fed up: Herbert Lom s masterful performance in the Pink Panther films (September 11 is Herbert Lom s 100th birth anniversary)

Most of us in our working life may be unfortunate to encounter a subordinate whose incompetence is boundless and and exasperating beyond measure but despite their bumbling and usually destructive approach end up successful. This actor however made a career of playing such a hapless and increasingly vexed boss with flair and panache.

In a career spanning from before the Second World War to the 21st century he had a number of acclaimed performances including twice portraying Napoleon but the role of Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus in the "Pink Panther" series is what Czech-born British actor Herbert Lom is most famous for. Lom whose 100th birth anniversary is on Monday played the long-suffering boss of bungling and clumsy Inspector Jacques Closeau (Peter Sellers) in seven of the series nine films from "A Shot in the Dark" (1964) to "Son of the Pink Panther" (1993) - two more than Sellers himself. (Sellers sixth posthumous appearance was made possible by using unused material from an earlier film and scenes from others). So popular was Lom that he returns regularly despite his sordid fate at the end of most installments - going a murderous rampage in "A Shot in the Dark" as he tries to kill Closeau strait-jacketed in a padded cell in the end of "The Return of the Pink Panther" (1975) as his hate of Closeau has reached manic levels or disintegrating at the climax of "The Pink Panther Strikes Again" where he has become a criminal mastermind who uses a doomsday machine to blackmail the world powers to kill Closeau. But then he is miraculously back in his position in subsequent installments though still itching to kill Closeau. And such as Lom s craft that he managed to steal almost every scene he and Sellers are both in despite Sellers expertise in this regard. While Sellers zany and straight-faced performance is unparallelled it is Dreyfus growing exasperation manifested in tics and rising blood pressure in his oblivious subordinate that strikes a chord. Take "The Return of the Pink Panther". Be it the scene in the opening where Closeau demoted to a beat cop is being roasted for not preventing a bank robbery and asks how can a blind man be a lookout Dreyfus imitating him responds "How can an idiot be a policeman? Answer me that!" or when Closeau complaining after his flat is blown up says: "I tell you infamous powers are at work! The instant you assign me to a case the Underworld hears about it and I am set upon! It is amazing that I am still alive!" and Dreyfus trying to stifle a giggle responds: " Amazing " is not the word." Or in "Revenge of the Pink Panther" (1978) after firing at Closeau and asking him if he is wounded Dreyfus on being told that he was saved by the darkness quips: "So what we need is more light." Even in scenes where Closeau is not present Lom leaves his mark with some masterful acting - the way he stifles giggles as emotional reactions while reading an eulogy in church for Closeau or tells another subordinate that he is worried that one day he will open his closet or car trunk and find Closeau in it and imitates his catchword "Peak-Boo" with rolling eyes or the one where he nearly shoots himself after confusing his real pistol with one which is a lighter. But there was much more to Lom who was born Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchacevic ze Schluderpacheru in Prague in 1917 and began acting in Czech films from 1937 having changed his surname to Lom "as it was the shortest name found in the telephone directory". Ahead of Nazi Germany s aggression he moved to London in January 1939 and began appearing in films there especially as Napoleon in "The Young Mr Pitt" (1942) (he would reprise the role in a 1956 version of "War and Peace"). With his rich authoritative voice intense eyes and penchant for playing arrogant menacing villains he was notable as one of the criminals in Ealing black comedy "The Ladykillers" a mysterious journalist in Raj thriller "North West Frontier" a noble Moorish warrior in "El Cid" a pirate chief in "Spartacus" Dracula s nemesis Van Helsing in the non-Hammer "Count Dracula" and more till his last appearance in a TV adaptation of Agatha Christie s Miss Marple series. He died on September 27 2012 aged 95. (Vikas Datta can be contacted at vikas.d@ians.in) --IANS vd/vm