A Shot in the Dark

A Shot in the Dark (1964)

Runtime: 102 minutes

Directed by: Blake Edwards

Starring: Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer, George Sanders (again), Herbert Lom & the other series regulars, Tracy Reed

From: United Artists

I had a pretty crummy day yesterday so viewing another comedy was in order. The mere mention of my viewing of The Pink Panther the Tuesday night on a messageboard sparked more conversation than I was expecting AND people wanted me to at least see Return… don’t expect me to see all the ones up to the morbid 80’s efforts all in a row, but at least the new few reviews will be the franchise in order. The details as to why yesterday was not good: not important and nothing major. Never did I have one eye twitch uncontrollably...

It wasn’t the plan to see several George Sanders films in the span of a week-it’s just happenstance. He played a millionaire named Ballon-is that what the Ballon d’Or is named after?-who has a murder happen on his estate, and Elke Sommer was literally caught with the smoking gun. Despite all the evidence pointing towards her, Inspector Clouseau has his instinct tell him that she’s innocent… much to the consternation of his increasingly frazzled boss, Dreyfus.

It was nice to have the introduction of Herbert Lom as Dreyfus, Andre Maranne as his assistant Francois, and Burt Kwouk as Clouseau’s Chinese manservant Cato. Even I knew before seeing The Pink Panther that those characters became the bedrock of the franchise. The film was quite humorous from the first scene as not only was there the expected pratfalls from Clouseau in a variety of locations (including a nudist’s colony!) and Dreyfus’s increasing psychosis, there are various running gags, some funnier than others. Hilarious to me was that the concluding setpiece obviously ripped off all the endings to The Thin Man movies… they all concluded with all the suspects in a room and the lead reveals all the details then who was the villain(s). A Shot in the Dark spoofed that quite well.

Like with The Pink Panther, the Henry Mancini score was an utter delight. For a French farce play that was retooled for the screen so Clouseau would be the lead, the movie was a farce that was especially needed on a bad day as the laughs were necessary for my sanity.