{"id":3945,"date":"2024-09-10T21:53:12","date_gmt":"2024-09-10T21:53:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=3945"},"modified":"2024-10-14T11:59:51","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T15:59:51","slug":"a-shot-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/09\/10\/a-shot-in-the-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"A Shot in the Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A Shot in the Dark<\/strong> (1964)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 United Artists\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 102 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA Rating (comic violence, implied nudity, suggestive content, mature themes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Blake Edwards\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Blake Edwards and William Peter Blatty\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Henry Mancini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Christopher G. Challis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 23, 1964 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer, Herbert Lom, Graham Stark, Burt Kwouk, George Sanders, Tracy Reed, Moira Redmond, Vanda Godsell, Maurice Kaufmann, Ann Lynn, David Lodge, Martin Benson, Reginald Beckwith, Douglas Wilmer, Bryan Forbes (credited as Turk Thrust), Andre Maranne.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $12.3M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0In some ways, A Shot in the Dark<\/strong> is better than its predecessor The Pink Panther. It wasn\u2019t originally written as a sequel to the previous year\u2019s comedy hit; it\u2019s actually adapted (loosely) from Marcel Achard\u2019s stage play L\u2019Idiote<\/em> (The Idiot). Star Peter Sellers was already attached to the project when he asked Edwards to step in and take over as director. He reworked the script, substituting Inspector Jacques Clouseau for the original lead character and choreographing comic scenes highlighting the character\u2019s trademark clumsiness and ineptitude.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A Shot in the Dark<\/strong> marks several firsts for the series. It\u2019s the first time Sellers spoke with Clouseau\u2019s hallmark exaggerated French accent. It introduces audiences to two series regulars; his exasperated boss Commissioner Dreyfus (Lom, The Ladykillers) and faithful manservant Kato (Kwouk, Goldfinger). One of the series\u2019 running gags involves Kato attacking Clouseau by surprise at any given moment. Clouseau instructs him to do so in order to keep his mind sharp for whatever case he\u2019s working on. Basically, A Shot in the Dark<\/strong> sets things up for the subsequent films in the series.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The movie opens with a brilliantly orchestrated sequence showing several characters at a mansion sneaking in and out of bedrooms, through balcony doors, up and down stairs and on the grounds while \u201cShadows of Paris\u201d (sung by Fran Jeffries) plays over the soundtrack. All of the action is seen from the outside, through windows and doors. Then a shot rings out. Somebody\u2019s been murdered. Assigned to the case is Inspector Clouseau. The house belongs to wealthy plutocrat Benjamin Ballon (Sanders, Village of the Damned). The victim is the chauffeur Miguel. The main suspect is the maid, Maria Gambrelli (Sommer, The Oscar), with whom he was having an affair. Instantly attracted to Maria, Clouseau refuses to believe she\u2019s guilty even as the bodies keep piling up. He\u2019s determined to prove her innocence much to the annoyance of Dreyfus, slowly losing his mind over Clouseau\u2019s incompetence.<\/p>\n

\u00a0One major difference between A Shot in the Dark<\/strong> and the other Pink Panther movies is the theme music in the animated opening titles. Henry Mancini composed a new theme and it\u2019s quite good. It\u2019s jazzy and perfectly suited to Clouseau\u2019s character. This is also the only installment featuring Clouseau\u2019s aide-de-camp Hercule Lajoy (Stark, Victor Victoria). That is, unless you count his appearance in the woeful Trail of the Pink Panther.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A Shot in the Dark<\/strong> has many funny scenes including one in which Clouseau inadvertently finds himself in a nudist colony. I also like the running gag involving Clouseau being arrested several times while trying to solve the case. There\u2019s also a great bit with Dreyfus trying unsuccessfully to kill Clouseau, failing each time. It\u2019s like a live-action cartoon. It\u2019s more consistently funny than its predecessor even if a couple of scenes still run long.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Sellers is great as always as is Lom and Kwouk. Sanders does very nicely as the rich guy who might not be telling the truth about a few things.\u00a0 Edwards and co-writer William Peter Blatty (The Exorcist) do a very good job adapting the play to the big screen. It\u2019s a classic drawing-room whodunit murder mystery with a nice comic twist. While mostly effective, Clouseau\u2019s antics become somewhat distracting. It\u2019s not a totally easy fit, but A Shot in the Dark<\/strong> works well enough that I regard it as the best of the Pink Panther movies.\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Shot in the Dark (1964)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 United Artists\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 102 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 No MPAA Rating (comic violence, implied nudity, suggestive content, mature themes)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Blake Edwards\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Blake Edwards and William Peter Blatty\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Henry Mancini\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Christopher G. Challis\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: June 23, 1964 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer, Herbert Lom, Graham Stark, Burt […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4403,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/A-Shot-in-the-Dark-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3945","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3945"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3945\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4404,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3945\/revisions\/4404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4403"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}