• Directed by: Blake Edwards
• Written by: William Peter Blatty & Blake Edwards
• Release Date: June 23, 1964
• 102 Minutes

"Maria Gambrelli"

     The behind the scenes of A Shot in the Dark may be just as mad cap as the film itself. Initially intended to be a straight forward adaptation of the English version of a play (by Harry Kurnitz) of the French play L’Idiote by Marcel Anchard with Peter Sellers attached even prior to the release of The Pink Panther, he found himself unhappy with the original script. Enter his Pink Panther director Blake Edwards. Kind of. Not Really. Edwards declined working on it at first until it seems like he was continually pestered until giving in under the agreement that he was allowed to make changes (ie: toss in the character of Inspector Clouseau from The Pink Panther as the new lead) and work in a very similar style that Sellers and him had done during the filming of the previous film (ie: improvising comic scenes at a whim).
     Because of the whole tossing a pre-established character into a finished script, the “standalone sequel” came out a handful of months after The Pink Panther had hit theaters. Because of the whole improvising comic scenes at a whim like the previous film, things didn’t go quite as smoothly as before in that Edwards & Sellers slightly (ie: really) did not get along during production, to the point of there being vows of never working together again.

     With what sounds like a whirlwind level of pedal-to-the-metal production mixed with a hint of severe tension, A Shot in the Dark falls into that category of films where it is quite a shock that, not only is it a good film, it is one of the funniest films of all time. Whereas Clouseau was intended to be a supporting character in the original film and here was pushed to the forefront, one would assume it becomes a case of “too much, too soon”, or just over-doing it in general. But it never does. Looking back at this film in particular and comparing it to how people perceive the character of Clouseau and the remakes from the 00’s, it’s easy to see the secret to it all that Sellers (and Edwards) bring that has seemingly gotten sideswiped over time: subtlety.

     Yeah, the character with the newly introduced over-the-top French accent is subtle. In all seriousness, it’s funny how the name Clouseau and the remakes seem to have really pushed the character way more over the top, though that probably is more of a product of the sequels that came later on. A Shot in the Dark, though, balances the character and his actions so perfectly well. Clouseau isn’t a bumbling, stumbling, jacka** so much as a naïve, well-meaning, clumsy person. He’s someone who trips on the living room rug before fully getting to it. The majority of his actions here are wonderfully choreographed to be, you know, understandably ‘real’. His conversation with George Sanders character Ballon whilst playing pool is the perfect example. He can’t get a cue out of the holders. He gets tangled and stuck in it. He stands too close to the wall while going for a shot, punching a hole in the wall. He stands too close to Sanders while Sanders is taking a shot and gets hit in the chest. He tries to avoid one problem and creates another one by accidentally tearing the table up. It’s a perfect example of not just how Clouseau is used here, but how a character such as this should be used in general. The comedy comes from not over-blown, extremely over-exaggerated set pieces, so much as normal things going wrong in a very normal way, but consistently.

     There are a lot of fantastic comic things happening here. Herbert Lom and his Dreyfuss character first arrives here, tumbling head over heels into a mental breakdown any time he hears about Clouseau doing…. anything. Graham Stark as Hercule and Burt Kwouk as Kato are here as smaller supporting pieces for Sellers, but each of them have great moments with him coming out of the film. There’s an entire bit in a nudist camp that is gold. The movie doesn’t just have hilarious physical comedy but some lines that I quote a lot with some friends (including a great line involving murder and the aforementioned nudist camp). Not to mention it also has what I consider one of the top 3 best fourth wall breaks ever.

    It's difficult to dive too deep into a comedy because you don’t want to start giving away jokes and bits, but I hope that anyone who ends up watching this enjoys it as much as I do. It has really become a great comfort film over the years, and a part of me wishes that Edwards and Sellers simply kept dropping Clouseau into comedy-murder-mysteries that had nothing to do with him to begin with.