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Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer, Herbert Lom, George Sanders, Graham Stark ... see more see more... , Tracy Reed , Andre Maranne , Douglas Wilmer , Vanda Godsell , Maurice Kaufmann , Ann Lynn , David Lodge , Moira Redmond , Martin Benson , Burt Kwouk , Reginald Beckwith , John Herrington , Jack Melford , Bryan Forbes , Tutte Lemkow , Howard Greene , Victor Baring , Victor Beaumont , Andre Charisse

A murder has been committed at the palatial Parisian residence of Benjamin Ballon (George Sanders). All the evidence points to sexy, wide-eyed housemaid Maria Gambrelli (Elke Sommer). Police inspector... read more read more... Dreyfuss (Herbert Lom) is prepared to make an arrest -- and then the gloriously, monumentally inept Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) arrives on the scene. Clouseau may have difficulty getting through the day without falling into ponds, knocking people cold with opened doors, and pocketing flaming cigarette lighters, but his instincts are right on target when he decides that Mme. Gambrelli is being framed by someone else in the Ballon household. Even as the murder victims pile up, Clouseau is determined to prove Mme. Gambrelli's innocence. As he cuts a bumbling, destructive swath through Paris, Clouseau drives Dreyfuss literally insane. This fact leads to the literally explosive climax, and to the ultimate vindication of Mme. Gambrelli. While we first met Inspector Clouseau in The Pink Panther, Shot in the Dark is the film that truly established the Clouseau mythos: the festive clumsiness, the convoluted dialogue ("You shot him in a rit of fealous jage!"), the Fractured French ("A beump on zee head!"), the twitching lunacy of poor Inspector Dreyfuss, the unexpected "judo lessons" of Clouseau's houseboy Kato (Burt Kwouk), and of course the hilariously macabre jokes involving dead or seriously injured bystanders. You'd never know it, but A Shot in the Dark was inspired by a standard three-act stage comedy by Harry Kurnitz, which in turn was adapted from the French play L'Idiote by Marcel Achard. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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PG, 1 hr. 41 min.

Directed by: Blake Edwards

Release Date: June 23, 1964

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DVD Release Date: August 15, 2001

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Elke Sommer as Maria Gambrelli Herbert Lom as Chief Inspector Dreyfus Peter Sellers as Inspector Jacques Clouseau a shot in the dark Graham Stark George Sanders as Benjamin Ballon Tracy Reed as Dominique Ballon Moira Redmond as Simone Vanda Godsell as Madame LaFarge Maurice Kaufmann as Pierre Burt Kwouk as Kato A Shot in the Dark
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Flixster Reviews (811)

  • fb619846742
    April 9, 2012
    fb619846742
    A clever, well-made, funny entry into the 'Pink Panther' series, with the bumbling Inspector Clouseau (the legendary Peter Sellers) being called to investigate a murder in Paris, and how he continually finds ways to screw up the case. While occasionally too silly and stupid, this... read more movie for the most part is a hilarious blast, with a Sellers-esque turn that is crowd-pleasing and irrefutably hysterical. It is not as good as 'Pink Panther', but director Blake Edwards finds ways to keep it interesting, especially when the pace threatens to drag down the movie to a screeching halt. If you like an old-school, clean style of humor, look no further than this movie.
  • FilmFanatik
    May 14, 2011
    FilmFanatik
    My favorite of The Pink Panther series, as well as one of the funniest films ever made. This is the quintessential Clouseau film. The comedy is sharp and the outrageousness is, well, outrageous. There are also some fabulous set pieces and great improvisation from not just Sell... read moreers, but others as well. It all makes for a classic piece of comedic cinema.
  • mumby1988
    March 21, 2011
    mumby1988
    When stripped of their reputation, the Pink Panther series are a complete rollercoaster, ranging from the early brilliance of Peter Sellers to the cash-cow efforts in the 1980s and 1990s which brought lawsuits, controversy and further embarrassment to anyone close to Roberto Beni... read moregni. A Shot in the Dark, often held up as the best instalment, has dated as badly as the rest in certain aspects, but still has plenty to offer as a piece of light-hearted entertainment.

    Like The Pink Panther before it, A Shot in the Dark was not originally designed as a vehicle for either Peter Sellers or Inspector Clouseau. The film started out in life as the French play L'Idiote, which had been translated into English by Harry Kurnitz. Blake Edwards bought the rights and worked on a screenplay with William Peter Blatty, the man who would later create The Exorcist. After Sellers stole his every scene while filming The Pink Panther, Edwards and Blatty retuned this script for Sellers should the film be a success.

    But it wasn't just the emphasis on Clouseau that changed. Before shooting his part in The Pink Panther, Sellers had completed filming for Dr. Strangelove, developing a strong rapport with Stanley Kubrick who in turn allowed him to freely improvise. Any new director coming along would have struggled to replicate such a bond, made doubly hard by the relatively small role accorded to Clouseau. But by the time A Shot in the Dark began shooting, Sellers had an Oscar nomination under his belt, making working with him all the more impossible.

    This conflict between Sellers and Edwards might explain the grimmer nature of the finished product. Where The Pink Panther revolved around a jewellery heist, fancy dress and drunken seduction, A Shot in the Dark is a murder mystery with multiple casualties, most of them unintentional. Where there are direct crossovers, such as Clouseau messing with a globe, the punch lines are much harsher - instead of putting his hand on and falling down, his fingers are painfully trapped. And then there is the addition of Commissioner Dreyfus, whose very physical presence brings a sense of danger and threat.

    As with all the subsequent Pink Panther films, A Shot in the Dark rises and falls on the comic timing of Sellers, who was in his prime as a comedian. Because the French accent is less exaggerated, it allows him to play everything straight without making it look like he is trying to do just that. Edwards' love of silent cinema shines through in both his approach to jokes and his characterisation of the leading man: Clouseau is so clearly and sympathetically drawn than we care about him and root for him even when his circumstances become outlandishly overblown.

    The supporting performances around Sellers are also pretty agreeable. Herbert Lom is terrific as Dreyfus, creating one of the best comedy psychos in cinema. Drawing on his performance in Hammer's The Phantom of the Opera, he descends into operatic levels of madness as the nervous tic slowly consumes his face. George Sanders is his usual caddish self, and his scenes with Sellers are enough to make any Goon Show fan-boy go weak at the knees (Sanders was the inspiration behind Hercules Grytpype-Thyne, the show's main villain voiced by Sellers). And there is an enjoyable cameo by Turk Thrust a.k.a. Bryan Forbes, director of The Stepford Wives and Whistle Down The Wind.

    By having such warm and enjoyable characters, the film manages to pull quite a sneaky trick on us. Underneath all the japes involving Clouseau and his infatuation with Maria Gambrelli, there is a pretty complex murder mystery involving multiple adulteries, back-stabbing and blackmail, with an 'everyone-in-on-it' solution similar to Murder on the Orient Express. In certain scenes, Blatty's script takes the opportunity to send up several Agatha Christie conventions - for instance, Clouseau assembles all the suspects together in one room, only to make a fool of himself and cause considerable damage in the process.

    The central thrust of both the original play and the film is based around the idea of the holy fool: the one person who seems to have no bearing on reality, ignoring the 'facts' to support his own conclusions, turns out to have been right all along. Regardless of the nature of the pre-Clouseau script, the jury is still out on whether this approach was the right one. On the one hand, the idea of Clouseau rigorously pursuing his theory with the aim of pulling Maria does have great comic potential, most of which is realised. On the other hand, one can't help but thinking that we have been deprived of a great comedy in place of a much lighter good one: after we have seen what Sellers is capable of, we wish that there was more material on which he could riff.

    Then we come to the actual comedy of A Shot in the Dark. For the most part it's still funny, particularly when Sellers is allowed off the leash to partake in all-out slapstick. The running jokes about him going undercover and then being arrested are funny, as is the sequence of him breaking down a door, charging through an opera recital and falling out of a fourth-floor window into a river. In the final sequence at Sanders' house, Sellers is on top form, stumbling seamlessly from joke to joke while somehow retaining his dignity.

    In other aspects, however, the film had not stood up to the test of time. Even if we buy into the central romance and accept that the film will have a bawdy edge to it, the amount of bawdiness eventually becomes tiresome. The scenes in the nudist colony are only fleetingly funny and drift dangerously close to the Carry On series, which was reaching its peak at around the same time. Many jokes which are not built around slapstick feel telegraphed, like they are being shouted at their audience. The second that the camera cuts between Sellers and a bird in a tree, the outcome is so predictable that they needn't have bothered with the punch line.

    In its middle section, during the various attempts on Clouseau's life, the film also begins to get repetitive. The actual montage of the deaths is well-constructed, if we can forgive the lingering on dancers' derrieres and the general tackiness of after-dinner entertainment. And the idea of assassins accidentally killing bystanders in their hunt for Clouseau hints at the most elaborate sequences in The Pink Panther Strikes Again, in which a league of assassins hired by Dreyfus end up doing each other in. But from a narrative point of view, this part of the film is found wanting and feels a little stagey.

    All in all, A Shot in the Dark remains a pretty good comedy and the most consistent in tone of the Pink Panther series. It is not without its flaws, which have become more marked with the passage of time, and some viewers will feel cheated at being given a frothy, bawdy romp at the expense of something more complex and interesting. But for every second that Sellers is on screen, it never fails to be entertaining, and there are enough laugh-out-loud moments for us to mostly overlook all the little niggles.
  • TomBowler
    September 3, 2010
    TomBowler
    One of Clouseau's greatest outings. Full review later.
  • kenstachnik
    July 7, 2009
    kenstachnik
    I feel like I need to see this in a theater with an audience to appreciate it.
  • sanjurosamurai
    March 30, 2009
    sanjurosamurai
    a hilarious who done it featuring the bumbling but effective inspector clouseau. the second film in the lengthy panther series, at least as good as the first and possibly better. solid slapstick comedy.
  • sononothing
    February 2, 2009
    sononothing
    Shot in the Dark is the sequel to 1963's Pink Panther and in some ways is superior to that original film. Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is back, this time investigating a murder where the beautiful Maria (Elke Sommer) is the main suspect. As the film continues and the body c... read moreount rises Clouseau's persistent claim that Maria is innocent drives his boss, Insp. Dreyfuss (Herbert Lom) insane.

    The thing about Shot in the Dark is that Peter Sellers doesn't have to play second fiddle to David Niven. In the original Panther film Sellers was a bumbling idiot scapegoat, but in this film he's a bumbling idiot but he's funny. Sellers runs with the role and truly defines who Clouseau is. Peter Sellers turns a film that is typical '60's camp and gives us a brilliant performance that highlights the film under the direction of Blake Edwards.

    Yes, the Pink Panther started it all, but Shot in the Dark is the film that cemented the persona of Inspector Clouseau.
  • Deano78
    September 6, 2008
    Deano78
    Another funny slapstick comedy as Inspector Clouseau investigates a murder.
  • garyX
    July 14, 2007
    garyX
    The Clouseau franchise soon became unimaginative and tedious, but the original sequel still had a modicom of wit and charm. It all went downhill after this though...
  • ironclad1609
    April 17, 2007
    ironclad1609
    As a kid the Inspector Clouseau movies were always a huge highlight if one was showing at night. Not having seen one for years and years I was somewhat disappointed after revisiting now. I can still see why the slapstick and silliness of his character entertained me and made ma l... read moreaugh, but somehow the magic is gone.
    Too bad.

View All A Shot in the Dark Reviews

Critic Reviews

Michael E. Grost
January 7, 2011
Michael E. Grost, Classic Film and Television

A great comedy, brilliantly directed by Blake Edwards. Full Review

Charles Cassady
December 14, 2010
Charles Cassady, Common Sense Media

Funny Pink Panther sequel. Older tweens+. Full Review

Fernando F. Croce
April 2, 2010
Fernando F. Croce, CinePassion

Despite the continental suavity, this is a most brutal work, the end of an era as comic classicism is skewered by the jaundiced humor of the new decade Full Review

Nick Schager
May 3, 2005
Nick Schager, Lessons of Darkness

Perhaps the series' most effervescent entry. Full Review

Stefan Birgir Stefansson
April 16, 2005
Stefan Birgir Stefansson, sbs.is

The best of the bunch

Widgett Walls
January 24, 2005
Widgett Walls, Needcoffee.com

The perfectly balanced Clouseau flick. Brilliantly funny.

Jorge Avila Andrade
July 20, 2004
Jorge Avila Andrade, Moviola

'La genialidad de Sellers es, por mucho, más divertida que cualquier propuesta actual.'

Bill Chambers
March 16, 2004
Bill Chambers, Film Freak Central

A few of the set-pieces are tours de force on the part of Sellers Full Review

Jon Niccum
June 13, 2003
Jon Niccum, Lawrence Journal-World

The funniest in the Pink Panther series

John J. Puccio
May 9, 2003
John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis

...generally considered one of the best, if not the best, in the series.

Critic ratings and reviews powered by RottenTomatoes.com

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Facts

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    • Inspector Jacques Clouseau: [Accusing a suspect, millionaire Benjamin Ballon] And I submit, Inspector Ballon, that you arrived home, found Miguel with Maria Gambrelli, and killed him in a rit of fealous jage!
    • Inspector Jacques Clouseau: I believe everything and I believe nothing. I suspect everyone and I suspect no one.
    • Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus: Give me ten men like Clouseau and I could destroy the world.
    • Inspector Jacques Clouseau: Francois, would you call a doctor? I just cut off my thumb.
    • Inspector Jacques Clouseau: Facts, Hercule! Facts! [lists off several facts all pointing to Maria's guilt] Now, from the facts we've seen what is the obvious conclusion?
    • Hercule Lajoy: That Maria Gambrelli killed the gardener.
    • Inspector Jacques Clouseau: You idiot!! She's not guilty!
    • Hercule Lajoy: But what about the facts? They all say she's guilty!
    • Inspector Jacques Clouseau: There's only one answer Hercule. She's protecting someone!
    • Inspector Jacques Clouseau: [lecturing Hercule while gesturing with a stick, he is making a particularly important point and hits Hercule with the stick accidentally breaking it] You fool! You, you've broken my pointing stick!! Now I don't have anything to point with!!
Submit a Fact | View All

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A Shot in the Dark Trivia

  • What famous blond played the female lead in the film A Shot in the Dark?  Answer »
  • In Requiem for a Dream we see a shot of Jennifer Connelly looking at the ocean, In what other film from the late 1990s we see almost the exact same shot?  Answer »
  • The 2002 documentary "A Shot in the Dark" chronicled the search by what actor from a popular HBO series to track down and reconnect with his estranged father?  Answer »
  • In which Peter Sellers movie did film director Bryan Forbes contribute a cameo as a guitar-strumming nudist under the alias 'Turk Thrust'?  Answer »
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