The French Connection

The French Connection is a fictional criminal organization in Blake Edward's Pink Panther movies.

Revenge of The Pink Panther
The French Connection was first led by Philippe Douvier, a respected millionaire business man, but secretly the leader of the French Connection, is facing a falling out with their New York Mafia drug trading partne Julio Scallini because Scallini believes Douvier to not be capable of properly conducting business. To demonstrate otherwise, Douvier's aide Guy Algo suggests to have Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau killed in order for the mafia to prove their worth.

Douvier attempts to kill Clouseau with a mob, assistance from the Chinese martial artist called Mr. Chong, and by luring him into a trap. However, Clouseau's car and clothes are stolen at gunpoint by a transvestite criminal named Claude Rousseau. Rousseau drives into the trap and is killed by the mob. Subsequently the majority of people believe Clouseau to be dead and, as a result of this assumption, Clouseau's mad boss, ex-Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus, is deemed sane and is to be released from the Mental Asylum to try to crack the case (despite the fact that Dreyfus was apparently killed in The Pink Panther Strikes Again), while Douvier's plans continue.

Shortly after his wife threatens him with a divorce, Douvier, needing her respectability and her silence pertaining to his crimes, tells his secretary/paramour Simone LeGree (Dyan Cannon) that their courtship must end. Simone tried to get Douvier to get rid of his wife, but if anything were to happen to her, then her lawyer will hand the evidence against Douvier to the police. Simone then demanded that Douvier get rid of the attorney, but Douvier refused since he couldn't afford the scandal. Angry, Simone storms out of Douvier's office. Because she was quite intimately involved in his business, Douvier gives orders for Algo to have Simone killed at a nightclub called Le Club Phut (a play on the word "clubfoot") and to make it look like an accident. However, Simone was accidentally saved by Clouseau who then tells him of Douvier's plans to meet with Scallini in Hong Kong.

Clouseau, Cato, and Simone travel from to Hong Kong and tail Douvier, unaware that Dreyfus has also arrived. Clouseau impersonates Scallini, while Simone distracts the real Scallini so that Clouseau can stop Douvier. He succeeds, but the plan goes awry when Clouseau's disguise is exposed. A car chase begins, terminating in a crash at the Hong Kong docks. Here, Dreyfus recognizes Clouseau, loses his mind again and tries to kill Clouseau, chasing him into a firework warehouse. Inside, Dreyfus inadvertently sets the stored fireworks alight, and the resulting explosions sow chaos between all the participants, which eventually leads to the arrests of Douvier and Scallini. Clouseau is awarded for their arrest by the French president.

Trial of The Pink Panther
Following Douvier's arrest, the French Connection gets taken over by Bruno Langlois. When Clouseau goes missing on a flight to Lugash, business starts to get better for the mafia. However, Langlois wants reporter Marie Jouvet to stop investigating into Clouseau going missing. He abducts her and threatens her. Marie tries to complain about this to Dreyfus, but Dreyfus refuses to listen to her. Bruno is later seen watching Marie Jouvet on television with his girlfriend.

Curse of The Pink Panther
Chief Inspector Jacques Clouseau, hailed as France's greatest detective, has disappeared and no trace can be found of him. Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) is under pressure to set up a thorough inquiry (Operation Paragon). Since Clouseau's clumsiness drove him to a series of nervous breakdowns, Dreyfus in particular is desperate not to see or hear from him ever again. He is told to use the Interpol computer, a fictional Huxley 600 named "Huxley" to find the world's greatest detective, but instead sabotages the machine to select the worst. This turns out to be New York City Police Department Sergeant Clifton Sleigh. Sleigh, who is descended from a long line of cops, sees this as an opportunity to prove his worth but his bumbling begins to drive Dreyfus crazy.

Bruno goes after Sleigh and tries to have him killed many times since he doesn't want Clouseau to be found. Langois, along with his henchmen (including Mr. Chong from Revenge of the Pink Panther), have a final showdown with Sleigh, although a mysterious young woman (smitten with Sleigh) comes to his rescue and manages to defeat Langlois. Sleigh also saves the mysterious woman from Mr. Chong. When Sleigh wrongly concludes that Clouseau is dead much to Dreyfus' delight, business starts to get better for the French Connection with Clouseau out of the way.