Film Review

A Shot in the Dark (The Pink Panther)

Clouseau: “Those were innocent bystanders. The murderer was after me. Fortunately, he missed.”

Dreyfus: “Fortunately is *not* the word!”

A Shot in the Dark, Blake Edward’s second instalment in the comedy series The Pink Panther filmed back in 1964. Peter Sellers took on the role of the idiotic yet determined, Inspector Jacques Clouseau. Peter’s performance in the first film The Pink Panther (1963) had given Blake the idea of making another Pink Panther film with more screen time to Peter as people wanted more from him in the first film which in my opinion made one of the best comedy series of all time.

The American director Blake Edwards, who directed the 1961’s romantic comedy Breakfast at Tiffany’s which gave him the idea to both write and direct the first Pink Panther film. The first film made had made an astonishing $10.9 million in the box office (roughly £8,135,569) whereas the second film made significantly more at $12,368,234.

The entire film series had taken a span over thirty years with only nine hilarious films filled with slapstick comedy with most them having Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) in the spotlight.

The Plot (some of it)

Inspector Clouseau is requested to the county home of millionaire Benjamin Ballon (George Sanders) to inspect the crime scene and find out who murdered Ballon’s chauffeur, Miguel Ostos. The chauffeur was committing an affair with a maid who works in Ballon’s mansion, Maria Gambrelli (Elke Sommer), and attacked her after she dumped him. Miguel was then shot and Maria was found with a smoking firearm in her hand but she claims she has no memory nor knowledge of how it got there. All the clues add up to Maria as the murderer, but Clouseau is convinced of her innocence because he has developed an immediate attraction to her. Realizing Clouseau has been inadvertently assigned to a high-profile case, Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) has dismissed Clouseau from investigating on the case any further and has taken matters into his own hands.

Conclusion

In my opinion, this is one of the best comedies ever to hit the big screen and it always will be because it is hilarious and I have watched it more than ten times. It has a good story, amazing actors, fantastic jazz and of course I cannot leave out the gag that always makes me howl with laughter “You need a license for that?”

Haldane McHugh