A Shot in the Dark
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Blake Edwards
Produced by	Blake Edwards
Written by	Harry Kurnitz
Screenplay by	Blake Edwards William Peter Blatty
Based on	L'Idiote by Marcel Achard
Starring	Peter Sellers Elke Sommer George Sanders Herbert Lom
Music by	Henry Mancini
Cinematography	Christopher G. Challis
Editing by	Bert Bates Ralph Winters
Studio	The Mirisch Corporation
Distributed by	United Artists
Release date(s)	June 23, 1964
Running time	102 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Box office	$12,368,234[1]

A Shot in the Dark is a 1964 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and is the second installment in The Pink Panther series. Peter Sellers is featured again as Inspector Jacques Clouseau of the French Sûreté.

Clouseau's bungling personality is unchanged, but it was in this film that Sellers began to give him the idiosyncratically exaggerated French accent that was to become a hallmark of the character. The film also introduces Herbert Lom as his boss, Commissioner Dreyfus, and Burt Kwouk as his long-suffering servant, Cato, who would both become series regulars. Elke Sommer plays Maria Gambrelli.

The film was not originally written to include Clouseau, but was an adaptation of a stage play by Harry Kurnitz adapted from the French play L'Idiote by Marcel Achard.^[2] As Blake Edwards and future The Exorcist creator William Peter Blatty began work on the script, they decided the story would be a good vehicle for the Clouseau character, and rewrote the script around the new premise. The film was released only a few months after the first Clouseau film, The Pink Panther.

Plot [edit]

Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is called to the country home of a Paris plutocrat, Benjamin Ballon (George Sanders), to investigate the murder of his Spanish chauffeur, Miguel. The chauffeur was having an affair with the maid, Maria Gambrelli (Elke Sommer), who claims that he often beat her. Although all the evidence points to Gambrelli as the killer, Clouseau stubbornly refuses to admit that she is guilty, having fallen madly in love with her. For the real culprits to keep the truth hidden from Clouseau's boss, Commissioner Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom), they must commit more murders. With the murders of Georges (David Lodge) the gardener, Dudu (Ann Lynn) the maid, and Henri LaFarge (Douglas Wilmer) the head butler, Maria is arrested, and each time Clouseau sets her free. Clouseau is always at the wrong place at the right time and manages to get himself arrested by uniformed police four times in quick succession (first for selling balloons without a license, then for selling paintings without a license, then for hunting without a license, and finally with Maria Gambrelli for public nudity, after they flee from a nudist community without their clothes).

As Clouseau continues to bungle the case, Commissioner Dreyfus becomes increasingly agitated, resulting in his accidentally cutting off his thumb and stabbing himself with a letter-opener. An anonymous figure begins stalking Clouseau, trying to kill him, but accidentally kills a doorman instead, as well as two café customers and a Cossack dancer. Clouseau gathers all the suspects together, and it comes out that Ballon, his wife Dominique, Madame LaFarge, Pierre the driver, and Simone the maid are guilty of murder: each of them having killed one of the earlier murder victims, with Maurice the manservant as a blackmailer, and Maria, who is innocent of any crime. The guilty attempt to escape in Clouseau's car, which is blown up, and the anonymous bomber is revealed to be Commissioner Dreyfus, who has been driven mad by Clouseau's blunders, and, in trying to kill him, has accidentally killed the actual murderers. The film ends when Clouseau and Maria begin kissing, and then out of nowhere, Kato (Burt Kwouk) is running out of the entrance and pushes both Clouseau and Maria into the fountain, in which the three fall in, then the two begin fighting Kato as the film ends.

Cast [edit]

• Peter Sellers as Jacques Clouseau
• Elke Sommer as Maria Gambrelli
• George Sanders as Benjamin Ballon
• Herbert Lom as Charles Dreyfus
• Tracy Reed as Dominique Ballon
• Graham Stark as Hercule LaJoy
• Moira Redmond as Simone
• Vanda Godsell as Madame LaFarge
• Maurice Kaufmann as Pierre
• Ann Lynn as Dudu
• David Lodge as Georges
• André Maranne as François
• Martin Benson as Maurice
• Burt Kwouk as Kato (spelled "Cato" in subsequent films of the series)
• Reginald Beckwith as Receptionist
• Douglas Wilmer as Henri LaFarge
• Bryan Forbes (credited Turk Thrust) as Camp Attendant

Production [edit]

The relationship between Edwards and Sellers deteriorated to such a point that at the conclusion of the film they vowed never to work together again. They eventually reconciled to collaborate successfully four years later on The Party, and on three more "Pink Panther" films in the 1970s.

As with most of the other Clouseau films, A Shot in the Dark featured an animated opening credits sequence produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises. This film and Inspector Clouseau are the only Clouseau films not to feature the Pink Panther character in the opening titles. Henry Mancini's theme for this film serves as opening theme and incidental music in "The Inspector" cartoon shorts made by DePatie-Freleng.

Fran Jeffries sang the song "Shadows of Paris" (lyrics by Robert Wells. She also sang the song called "Meglio Stasera (It Had Better Be Tonight)" while she danced provocatively around a fireplace in the film The Pink Panther.^[3]

Reception [edit]

The film was well received by critics. As of September 2012, it has 93% favourable reviews on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes out of 29 reviews counted. The average rating given by critics is 8 out of 10.^[4]

Awards and honors [edit]

American Film Institute recognition

• 2000: AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs - #48

References [edit]

External links [edit]

• A Shot in the Dark at the Internet Movie Database
• A Shot in the Dark at the TCM Movie Database
• A Shot in the Dark at AllRovi
• A Shot in the Dark at the Internet Broadway Database
• A Shot in the Dark at Rotten Tomatoes