A princess who is in France to accompany her father on a diplomatic mission. She is kidnapped by people who wants her father to abdicate, which he will not do even for her. And since her country has such close ties to France the president instructs police commissioner Dreyfuss to go where the princess was kidnapped and oversee the investigation. On the way he runs into the kidnappers and were to be shot when a patrolman stumbles into them and saves Dreyfuss. Dreyfuss thinks that there is something familiar about this policeman. When he goes to the local police chief and tells him that he will be handling the investigation and asks for his best man, he gives him Gambrelli, who just happens to be the policeman he met earlier as a means of retaliation. And having another encounter with Gambrelli, he goes to his home to meet his mother, and is shocked to discover that his father's Clouseau, which is whom Gambrelli reminds Dreyfuss of. After Dreyfuss is injured, he gives the task of finding the princess to Gambrelli, cause he is the only one who knows who the kidnappers are. And just like his father, he bumbles through it.

The character of Maria Gambrelli, played here by Claudia Cardinale (who appeared as Princess Dala in the first film, The Pink Panther (1963)), originally appeared in A Shot in the Dark (1964) and was played by Elke Sommer.

Maria Gambrelli:
Your father played the violin. Not well, but passionitely. He made love the same way.

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Commissioner Dreyfus' non-recognition of Maria Gambrelli during the encounter at the Gambrelli home. Dreyfus considered Gambrelli a prime murder suspect in A Shot in the Dark (1964), but she looks different (in fact, this is probably a joke on the fact she's played by a different actress).