An aesthetically contemptible, crassly commercial work.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
This is mildly amusing, and the scenes with Niven -- his last, and reportedly dubbed by impressionist Rich Little when Niven's illness had taken the strength from his voice -- are poignant. But there is no restoring the force that made the earlier Panthers work. [12 Aug 1983, p.C5]
A dispiriting attempt to wring a last gasp of mirth from an already dangerously overextended series. [22 Aug 1983, p.73]
Washington Post by Gary Arnold
Edwards persists in the missing-person subterfuge in Curse while avoiding the blatant outrage of recycling old footage under false pretenses. He's shot new footage this time, but that technicality hasn't prevented it from feeling depleted and secondhand. [17 Aug 1983, p.B6]
The New York Times by Janet Maslin
Not unfunny, and not really an offense to the memory of Inspector Clouseau, it's merely a movie with very little reason to exist.
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Rick Groen
All that's missing are the laughs. In their place, we get wall-to-wall predictability. [13 Aug 1983]