A Shot in the Dark poster & wallpaper

Elke Sommer, George Sanders, Herbert Lom

As murder follows murder, beautiful Maria is the obvious suspect; bumbling Inspector Clouseau drives his boss mad by seeing her as plainly innocent.

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86% liked it

13,770 ratings

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100% liked it

19 critics

PG, 1 hr. 42 min.

Directed by: Blake Edwards

Release Date: June 23, 1964

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DVD Release Date: August 15, 2001

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Peter Sellers as Inspector Jacques Clouseau a shot in the dark Graham Stark Elke Sommer as Maria Gambrelli George Sanders as Benjamin Ballon Herbert Lom as Chief Inspector Dreyfus Tracy Reed as Dominique Ballon Moira Redmond as Simone Vanda Godsell as Madame LaFarge Maurice Kaufmann as Pierre Burt Kwouk as Kato A Shot in the Dark
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Flixster Reviews (670)

  • kenstachnik
    July 7, 2009
    kenstachnik
    I feel like I need to see this in a theater with an audience to appreciate it.
  • sanjurosamurai
    March 30, 2009
    sanjurosamurai
    a hilarious who done it featuring the bumbling but effective inspector clouseau. the second film in the lengthy panther series, at least as good as the first and possibly better. solid slapstick comedy.
  • sononothing
    February 2, 2009
    sononothing
    Shot in the Dark is the sequel to 1963's Pink Panther and in some ways is superior to that original film. Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is back, this time investigating a murder where the beautiful Maria (Elke Sommer) is the main suspect. As the film continues and the body c...( read more)ount rises Clouseau's persistent claim that Maria is innocent drives his boss, Insp. Dreyfuss (Herbert Lom) insane.

    The thing about Shot in the Dark is that Peter Sellers doesn't have to play second fiddle to David Niven. In the original Panther film Sellers was a bumbling idiot scapegoat, but in this film he's a bumbling idiot but he's funny. Sellers runs with the role and truly defines who Clouseau is. Peter Sellers turns a film that is typical '60's camp and gives us a brilliant performance that highlights the film under the direction of Blake Edwards.

    Yes, the Pink Panther started it all, but Shot in the Dark is the film that cemented the persona of Inspector Clouseau.
  • Deano78
    September 6, 2008
    Deano78
    Another funny slapstick comedy as Inspector Clouseau investigates a murder.
  • FangsFirst
    November 19, 2007
    FangsFirst
    What has happened to comedy?

    In recent years, I've had extreme difficulty with almost any film termed a comedy overall. Certainly, senses of humour are all right, there are great bits within films of other genres, but films labelled comedy over anything else...well, my DVD colle...( read more)ction has a strong skew toward the 80s and 90s overall, but in the comedies it is even stronger--only 37 of the films one site I use for database purposes terms comedies--out of 159 total in my collection--are from 2000 or later.

    I'm notoriously difficult to make laugh, leading some to claim I have no sense of humour--the truth being it's simply harder to surprise me, and I think an element of surprise is necessary for comedy to really work, unless you simply have a brilliant performance and delivery involved. I've seen enough movies that it's easy to predict many things watching a film, which is okay with plots--there is only so much one can do plotwise--but deflates comedy, which is a more immediate and emotional response. Most fall flat, even some that I enjoy otherwise (I liked Napoleon Dynamite all right, for instance, but found little of it to actually be funny) and so many think I don't actually find anything funny.

    My sense of humour, based on the premise of surprise, then falls primarily into two categories, or possibly three--the absurd (thus leading to my appreciation of humour in the vein of the Pythons, or the Kids in the Hall, amongst other things), the dry and witty (such as my recent experience with The Philadelphia Story, though this one is less "funny" and more "bemused enjoyment" or something similarly based around smirking and smiling, rather than chuckling and laughing) or the referential (such as Mystery Science Theater 3000). So, it must be completely nonsensical (naturally making it unpredictable), surprisingly clever, or referencing something unrelated, appealing and unexpected, but logical in retrospect. Probably a fairly strict set of rules, but it's not something one can simply relax; things are funny or they aren't, that's just how it is, it seems.

    So, what does all this have to do with a 43 year old movie about a bumbling French inspector? Plenty! The second film in the series alternately referred to as the Pink Panther and the Inspector Clouseau series, A Shot in the Dark is the film that brought Clouseau to the forefront of the series, making him the star over the previous suspected hit character of the Pink Panther himself (played by David Niven in the first film, and not even appearing in this film). We see the introduction of characters I'm told are later recurring--Kato (later Cato, played here by Burt Kwouk) and Commissioner Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Charles Angelo Kuchacevich ze Schluderpacheru, also known as Herbert Lom, who I recently saw as a sympathetic doctor in, of all things, The Dead Zone).

    Clouseau is unwittingly (ahem!) assigned to a murder case in the home of millionaire Benjamin Ballon (George Sanders), completely ignoring the obvious evidence and facts against maid Maria Gambrelli (Elke Summers) because of an infatuation he immediately finds himself in for her. Commissioner Dreyfus is disturbed to discover this and intends to remove Clouseau from the case, only to be directed by some higher powers that he should re-assign him. Beyond this, the plot matters little--this is all about Peter Sellers as Clouseau, his brilliant timing, delivery and comic sensibilities.

    The best part of these films--from what I've seen--is undoubtedly Sellers, but also the editing and direction provided (here, Sellers is again directed by Pink Panther director Blake Edwards) that compliment and enhance these things. Some of the gags were familiar, especially the slapstick variety (there are limits to these things, I think, in terms of possibility and numbers) but what surprised me every time was the way they were carried out. I've seen other bumbling characters knock over displays of numerous parts and attempt to wrangle them back into control, or to get tangled in something which no person in their right mind could possibly get tangled in, and it always comes off as forced, awkward and uncomfortable for the audience, the scene tending to linger longer than it is welcome, and the offending character seeming to be unrealistically stupid in their approach to fixing things.

    This is where Sellers and Edwards showed skill that later films have not--when such scenes occur, they take only as long as the physical action itself dictates, never hovering over them to try and drag out the last few chuckles from an audience that already gets the joke. More importantly, Sellers and the actors around him respond somewhat differently. When Clouseau--inevitably--does something stupid, the characters around him acknowledge but ignore it, never rolling their eyes--as the audience likely would be in later examples of the same thing--unless such an action is dictated by their character. Often they show a stuffed politeness, pretending, through character, not actor, that this is something that could reasonably happen and they are being terribly polite to the silly Inspector. They don't laugh at him, nor do they get exasperated. They offer help, or give him excuses to suggest his behaviour is not out of the ordinary. Sellers, on the other hand, consistently portrays Clouseau as a man not totally unaware of his own buffoonery; he does not realize how stupid he is intellectually, but always notices when he does something silly physically, but doesn't just switch into "physical comedian" mode, rather he stays in character and Clouseau acts like a cat--using body language (and occasionally words) to make clear that he most certainly INTENDED to fall off the couch while speaking. These acts are also absolutely naturalistic from Sellers, who inevitably performs them at the exact right time in the exact right way, with the exact right attitude, so that even if you see the gag coming, it works anyway, because you believe it in the character, not as a deliberate and clumsy set-up. His indignation at other characters for his own faults is also amusingly familiar, as almost everyone has tried to pass off, if they thought they could, some simple accident as the fault of another, further enhancing the character as someone who is believable despite his unreasonable klutziness.

    Lom and Kwouk actually do their part to add more humour in roles other than Clouseau's as well, Dreyfus being driven increasingly insane by his hatred of Clouseau, his eye twitching and his body often betraying his barely contained rage, leading him into awkward positions. Lom is fantastic at maintaining something as silly as an over-emphasized twitching eye and fits of maddened giggling, something that most would stumble their way through and ruin completely. Kato is instructed to keep Clouseau on his feet and in training at the martial arts, and does so at Clouseau's occasional and unexpected expense, his timing and physical control at least up to Lom's level, keeping the suspension intact for these scenes (which I wouldn't want to ruin, of course).

    Shame that they don't come around like this so much anymore, and instead find that bodily functions are the only source of humour left. Those jokes are tired, they can only be done in so many different ways so many different times. Let's get a little more wit and skill back in comedies, eh?
  • clairebear44
    November 9, 2009
    clairebear44
    Peter Sellers. What can one say about him apart from absolute genius. His comedic timing is impeccable and Inspector Clouseau is one of the most fantastic characters to come out of Sellers' repertoir.
  • studmuffin0681
    October 15, 2009
    studmuffin0681
    When a beautiful parlor maid is accused of murdering her lover, the nutty Inspector Clouseau leaps...er, falls...into the fray to save her.

    stars Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Elke Sommer, George Sanders, Tracy Reed, Graham Stark, Moira Redmond, Vanda Godsell, Maurice Kaufman and ...( read more)Ann Lynn.

    directed by Blake Edwards.
  • samanthaseaotter
    July 21, 2009
    samanthaseaotter
    Very, very, very funny. At times more dark comedy than slapstick, this is a fantastic entry in the Pink Panther series.
  • grayavec
    July 21, 2009
    grayavec
    My favorite of all the Pink Panther movies mostly due to it not being one. Peter Sellers gets to stretch his humor muscles more than those that do include the theives. His goofy behavior is made more entertaining with Graham Stark as the straight man and Herbert Lom's twitch.
  • hermannp1
    June 24, 2009
    hermannp1
    This film is an obvious follow-up to the (first) Pink Panther Film. The decision makers were however unsure about naming it number 2 in a Pink Pnther series, as the first Pink Panther had been somewhat weak (despite the numerous big-name actors).
    'A Shot in the Dark' is a big im...( read more)provement in this pseudo series. The big difference being the introduction of Herbert Lom (Chief Inspector Dreyfus) representing the much needed antidote to Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers).
    Worth the rental.

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Critic Reviews

May 3, 2005
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

Perhaps the series' most effervescent entry. full review

View more A Shot in the Dark reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • flixjaitman9
    May 10, 2008
    flixjaitman9
    That was first Clouseau's movie! Same original casting as Pink Panther, plot funny but weaker than Pink's u can c a Pink Panther on poster's background, being this movie considered first of Pink's movie series, very funny at the end while Clouseau enters a nudist beach only wearing a guitar on him! Worth see it!!!
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A Shot in the Dark Trivia

  • What famous blond played the female lead in the film A Shot in the Dark?  Answer »
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