The Pink Panther

As detailed in the director's commentary for the first film, the Inspector Clouseau character was originally conceived as a vehicle for David Niven, but once written it was decided he should play the raconteur/thief.

The jazz-based Pink Panther Theme was composed by Henry Mancini.

In addition to the credits sequences, the theme often accompanies any suspenseful sequence in the first film and in most of the subsequent films featuring the character of Clouseau.

This is explained at the beginning of the first film, and the camera zooms in on the diamond to reveal the blurry flaw, which focuses on the cartoon Panther (though not actually leaping) to begin the opening credits sequence. (This is also done in The Return of the Pink Panther [1975].) The plot of the first film is based on the theft of this diamond.

The diamond reappears in several later films in the series, The Return of the Pink Panther (1975), Trail of the Pink Panther (1982) and Curse of the Pink Panther (1983).

It also appears in the revival of the Inspector Clouseau character in the Steve Martin reboot films The Pink Panther (2006), and its sequel The Pink Panther 2 (2009).