A Shot in the Dark

A fast paced comedy/mystery less about who-dun-it than how many corpses can they fit in the movie?! The Inspector Clousseau character returns and Sellars is to be credited with creating a characterization that seems just believable enough to be ridiculous.

Some very funny moments of physical and verbal humor. Sommer is mostly window dressing in this role, forced to play straight-gal to Sellars' sometimes manic "clumsiness". Lom makes his first series appearance (with hilarious facial tics) as the head cop. The best film in the series.

Very memorable opening sequence set to Mancini's excellent theme song is one of the film's many highlights.

The popularity of Peter Sellers's Inspector Clousseau from the The Pink Panther it warranted the bumbling French detective getting center stage in what turned out to be a series of films. For the rest of his life Sellers was assured of movie profits by just making another Clousseau film.

A Shot In the Dark also introduced two new characters to the series, Clousseau's supervisor Chief Inspector Dreyfus played by Herbert Lom and his houseboy/karate teacher Kato who was played by Bert Kwouk. Dreyfus became almost as popular as Clousseau himself. Herbert Lom's career had been spent playing mostly villains and pretty serious and deadly ones at that.

Inspector Clousseau can best be described as a human train wreck. The slightest motion on his part is a recipe for disaster. Best to be about ten feet from him at any given time and even that won't always work. His klutziness drives Lom to the brink of insanity here and in future films, he crossed over the line.

But he's got instincts which is why I'm sure he remains an inspector of the Surete. He draws a case involving a murder at wealthy baron George Sanders's house and it seems kind of open and shut that the maid, Elke Sommer did it. But Sellers listens to his hormones talking and refuses to make the arrest. And as more dead bodies keep piling up around Sommer, the more Sellers listens to that voice south of the Equator.

With Clousseau, Peter Sellers joins the ranks of such great cinema clowns as Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel. Sit back and don't eat while watching A Shot In The Dark, you won't be able to hold it down.

The germination of the "Pink Panther" series of comedic mystery films is a complicated one. The first film in the series, "The Pink Panther", was actually the second one to be filmed! This film, "A Shot in the Dark", was originally intended to be the adaptation of a stage play, but director Edwards and actor Sellers refit the main character to accommodate the persona of Inspector Clouseu, which they were developing for "The Pink Panther". However, when the film was completed, it wasn't released and was deemed unfunny. Then when "The Pink Panther" was a hit, the studio released "A Shot in the Dark" as a sequel and a series was born. This explains why elements from the first film are absent from the second (Mrs. Clouseu anyone?) and why the second (actually first!) set the tone for the following films more than the first (actually the second! Confused yet?) Here, Sellers is front and center as the hapless and ever-clumsy Inspector. Freed from sharing screen time with a higher billed co-star (David Niven in the previous film) and without a particularly coherent plot to follow, he is allowed to engage in pratfall after pratfall and scenario after goofy scenario. Today's audiences may not completely go for the subtle, meticulously timed method of comedy shown here with emphasis on set up and repetitiveness, but patient and observant audience members should still find the film funny. By now, so much of the material has been cribbed or expanded upon, some of the edge is lost, but enough of the humor and situational gags are amusing enough to make the film worthwhile. Sellers insists upon the innocence of curvy stunner Sommer, a maid who has been found in a locked room with a dead body and a smoking gun in her hand. Time after time, he lets her out of prison and the body count increases. His thorough incompetence drives his superior (Lom) to insanity. Sommer's employer Sanders, a man of great wealth and taste, is also appalled by the bumbling Sellers, never more so than when he manages to practically trash a billiard room during a friendly game. One famous sequence has Sellers tracking Sommer down in a nudist colony. The modest Inspector navigates the idyllic hideaway using any available object to cover himself as the campers frolic behind shrubs and other props. Reed glams it up, but gets little to do as Sanders' bitchy wife. Another memorable sequence has Sellers and Sommer on a date with victim after victim falling prey to an assassin that's after Sellers. It's all a farcical enterprise that one must be in the mood for to fully enjoy. Otherwise, it becomes a little tiresome, but fans of physical comedy ought to lap it up. The remaining sequels were all sort of hybrids of "The Pink Panther" mixed with "A Shot in the Dark" and had fair success until the death of Sellers made it difficult to continue (but continue they did, using outtakes and other footage of the man! Anything to make a buck!) Henry Mancini provided some nice music, notably over the animated title sequence.

When a murder occurs in the house of millionaire Benjamin Ballon, Inspector Clouseau is put on the case. When he makes a real pigs ear of it, Commissioner Dreyfus takes him off the case until political pressure forces him to put him back on it. The maid, Maria Gambrelli was found in a locked room with a gun in her hands and a body at her feet - all the clues appear to point to her, but Clouseau is too taken by her beauty to believe it could be her. He pursues a more complex theory, much to the chagrin of Dreyfus - but could his bumbling have brought him onto the right track.

In terms of cinema, 1964 was one of the best years of Peter Seller's career; not only did he make his best film with several great performances (Dr Strangelove) but he also made the best of the Pink Panther films with this entry. The two films are quite different - Strangelove is very much an all round performance(s) whereas Shot In The Dark displays his physical comedy to great effect. The basic plot is a murder mystery but it doesn't really matter who did what to whom as the focus of the film is the bumbling investigation of Clouseau. This is as funny as the character got and the material is pretty good. It depends a great deal on your personal taste as to how much you are laughing at this film. I found it funny but not as funny as I had hoped I would. The reason for this was that the film relied very heavily on Clouseau. The problem with this is that the comedy around Clouseau usually requires a small build up and hence a lag before the laugh - hence the laughs are spaced rather than consistent.

Of course, basing the film around Sellers is not a bad thing in itself, it's just the material that needed to be sharper and funnier. Although I like Sellers better in other things (namely Strangelove and The Goons) but he is the only man who could do this role and he does it very well indeed. Sommer is actually pretty good and manages to add to the laughs. Sanders is a nice addition even if he plays it straight most of the way; Lom on the other hand is increasingly funny as he breaks down - he is better here than in other films. Kwouk is given a small role but he shows that he has a flair for comedy (a flair that he has continued to show recently including his series with Harry Hill).

Overall, those hoping for a rip-roaring spoof may well be a little disappointed as it is not a laugh a second, even if it is still funny. The plot doesn't really matter and the material could have been sharper and more consistent, but it still stands out as the best of the Pink Panther films. All in all, 1964 and these two films is as good proof of Sellers' abilities as you could ask for and he carries this film here.

The first sequel to "The Pink Panther" and still arguably the finest film of the entire series, "A Shot in the Dark" is a funny and very intelligent piece of entertainment. Peter Sellers returns once again as a bumbling French detective who this time unwittingly stumbles upon a group of murders that keep piling up right under his nose. Could love interest Elke Sommers be the culprit? Well it appears so, but Sellers is not buying it just because he has the hots for her. George Sanders is among the cast of several other possible suspects and of course we also have the first appearance of Sellers' superior (Herbert Lom). Co-written by William Peter Blatty (of "The Exorcist" fame!) and Blake Edwards (who also directed), "A Shot in the Dark" remains one of the better comedies from any cinematic era. 4 stars out of 5.