Ein Schuß im Dunkeln

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.

A Shot in the Dark came out the same year as The Pink Panther, the film that introduced the world to the bumbling French detective Inspector Clouseau. In this second installment, a man has been murdered and all the evidence points directly to the beautiful Elke Sommer (including the murder weapon, which she's holding as she stands over the body!). Clouseau, of course, insists she's innocent and that he will prove it! Which just accelerates the process of driving his boss (Herbert Lom) insane. Clouseau, determined that Sommer is innocent, releases her from jail, thinking she'll lead him to the real culprit. Of course, other people die along the way, and each time Sommer's put back into jail, Clouseau doggedly releases her. The best part of the film? A scene in a nudist colony, where the bashful Clouseau must find Sommer and talk to her - when the police arrive to investigate yet another murder, they both leave the colony sans clothing. The sight of them driving through the streets of Paris completely nude (although we don't see anything naughty, of course) is priceless.

If you want to see Pink Panther films, do yourself a favor and begin with this one - it's as flawless as Clouseau is incompetent!

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.

Although "A Shot in the Dark" is really the second film in the Pink Panther series, in many ways it is a beginning, as the first film to showcase Peter Sellers' bumbling Inspector Clouseau as the highlight of the film, overcoming the first film's occasional shortcomings due mainly to devoting too much screen time to David Niven's jewel thief, when what audiences really wanted was more Clouseau. Well here, their wish came true as there are virtually no scenes in the film without Clouseau present, and it is all the better as such. There can be no doubt that Peter Sellers is one of the greatest comedic actors of all time, and he is the primary reason the film is so enjoyable.

Director Blake Edwards is wise enough to latch onto this fact, and indeed, the entire premise of the film is essentially just a series of opportunities for Sellers to make full use of his brilliant physical comedy skills wrapped around a twisty murder mystery, as Clouseau struggles to prove that the prime suspect, the beautiful maid Maria (Elke Sommer) is not guilty, despite an increasing load of evidence proving otherwise. Introduced here are also Pink Panther regular characters Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) and Clouseau's lethal assistant Cato (Burt Kwouk), instructed to attack him when he least expects it to keep his guard up. (said instances including when in the bath, and in bed with Maria)

The storyline is admittably simple, with only a few basic twists to conceal the murderer's identity until the end, and mainly does exist to give Peter Sellers full reign to do what he is so very skilled at doing - evoking laughs out of the most ordinary situations or what would have been deemed immature and juvenile if attempted by another actor. (the primary reason Steve Martin's latest re-hash is almost certain to flop - he can never hope to compare to Sellers in his iconic role) And of course, Henry Mancini's unforgettable jazz theme music is a welcome addition to an already great movie.

It may seem strange that the only film in the series without the words "Pink Panther" should turn out to be the best in the series, but such is the case here. The film may seem somewhat dated, and perhaps not quite as witty as it would have been back in the 1960s, but Sellers' unique comedic talents assure that the entertainment value of the movie remains classic, even 40 years on.

-8/10

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.