A Shot In The Dark (1964)

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A Shot in The Dark (1964)

6/10

Starring

Peter Sellers

Elke Sommer

George Sanders

Herbert Lom

Directed by Blake Edwards

A shot in the dark is the second movie in the Pink Panther series, following the adventures… well the cases that Inspector Jacques Clouseau of the French Sûreté is involved in. Inspector Jacques Clouseau was but a supporting actor in the first Pink Panther movie, but he gained a lot of appeal from his acting that the rest of the films in the Pink Panther series became more about him.

This film is not as funny as you would hope, here the clumsiness of Inspector Jacques Clouseau is annoying and the role of Chief Inspector Dreyfus (as Inspector Clouseau’s boss) in the entire movie became more of an annoyance than it was meant to be appealing. I guess the problem I have with this movie will be its lack of a good plot, the screenplay could have been better but the acting was top notch, all the sited problems were probably be as a result of Blake and Peter trying to develop the Clouseau character so we do have to cut them some slack.

The movie was first written not to star Peter Sellers, but it was later changed to center around him and it is in this movie that we first get the taste of Clouseau’s exaggerated French accent, which later became the trademark of the character.

Directed by Breakfast at Tiffany's director Blake Edwards who also directed the first Pink Panther movie, Edwards also produced and wrote the screenplay for this sequel. The first scene in the movie is more of a classic to me, as we get to see a confusing patrol of individuals all after their own gain then a murder happens and all hell breaks loose because we have no idea who the murderer was. The movie plot builds from this scene as Inspector Clouseau was mistakenly assigned to the case, a mistake Chief Inspector Dreyfus wanted to correct by killing Clouseau.

The movie does possess a lot of sexual references which may not be suitable for children, as the movie itself is centred on sex and adultery.

There was a reboot of the Pink Panther series, done later in 2006 and a follow up in 2008 the new releases stared Steve Marten as Inspector Clouseau and it was not well received by fans of the old classic.

It is the only Clouseau’s film not to feature the animated Pink Panther in its opening credit, but like other Clouseau’s movies it did have an introductory animation scene.

A shot in the dark somehow is not a movie I will recommend to other as it does drag and gets boring after a while, but there are funny moments.