Film Review--A Shot in the Dark

A Shot in the Dark
directed by Blake Edwards
written by Blake Edwards and William Peter Blatty
based on the play “L’idiot” by Marcel Achard
starring Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer, George Sanders, Herbert Lom, Tracy Reed, Graham Stark, Moira Redmond,

In the second installment in the manic Pink Panther franchise, sex and murder create a mesmeric backdrop against which high lunacy plays itself out.

A lovely maid named Maria Gambrelli (Sommer) is the target of a murder investigation after her boyfriend is shot dead and she is discovered holding the still smoking murder weapon. Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Sellers) is put on the case and it doesn’t take him long to determine that Maria is not guilty of the crime. Most of his analysis has no basis in fact and he is indeed going strictly with both his instinct and his carnal lust for Maria. The film spends a lot of time orchestrating the budding romance between the two as the bumbling and idiotic Inspector continues to work toward solving the case. He has Maria released from prison mostly because he wants to goggle at her while pursuing his strict romantic interests.

Soon, there is a total of four murders and each time Maria is implicated. Each time Clouseau has her released and these actions irritate the Commissioner Charles Dreyfuss (Lom) who routinely ponders the legitimacy of having Clouseau on the case. Clouseau is repeatedly taken off and reinstated as Benjamin Ballon (Sanders), the owner of the home where the murder was committed, manages to have him put back on the case.

The formula is followed rather succinctly in this filming. Clouseau is a clumsy jackass who fails at every attempt to get any closer to the murders. He ruins suits, falls into a fountain, and embarrasses himself at every turn. He even tears poor Maria’s dress during a fumbling attempt at lovemaking. He simply hasn’t a clue yet despite everything he manages to solve the crime which in the end is his only mission. He is known for his acute sensory memory which aids him well during his struggle to formulate a plan. He simply sees and hears things that nobody else does and this ability gives him an edge over the others in his field. He is hired because he is always the best man for the job and clumsiness aside he proves this with his tremendous success rate.

The sight of a naked Clouseau stumbling through a nudist colony is exceedingly funny. Particularly as he insists on covering his naughty bits with an acoustic guitar that makes him conspicuous and even more ridiculous. He manages to get himself arrested on four different occasions for purely absurdist reasons including painting and selling balloons without a license.

In essence Inspector Clouseau in this film is nothing short of a horn dog chasing and capturing tale that he can not afford to lose sight of. Maria for her part is perfectly willing to go along with whatever whim Clouseau introduces into her prim little world.

Elke Sommer is the perfect combination of mischievous little girl and satanic tigress waiting for the right moment to pounce. Sometimes her face is the model of innocence and it betrays the sweltering heat that dwells within her candy breast. She is one of the more succulent damsels to appear in a major film production. It’s a pleasure just watching her move across the screen; she is impossibly elegant and always impressively stylish. It’s charming to imagine her as a mass murderer but of course the film does not afford one such luxuries. It’s no mystery that she is not responsible for the killings but for a brief moment one can entertain the idea and it’s scintillating.

Inspector Clouseau is of course now rightly recognized as one of the seminal characters in cinematic history. His unbalanced antics have charmed film goers in a total of eleven films including the recent remakes. In this film Peter Sellers begins to add to his character’s repertoire a series of bumbled French phrases which would become synonymous with the trip-happy Inspector. The combination of cleverly constructed physical comedy with the French language torture is irresistible especially how Sellers presents it.

Peter Sellers must have found it peculiarly challenging to master the sheer lunacy embodied by his Inspector Clouseau. There are moments where the character is chillingly serious but one knows another accident is just around the corner and that it will be dramatic and over-the-top. There haven’t been too many, if any, bumbling Inspectors in cinema so it’s true when director Blake Edwards states that the character is something of an original. Sellers certainly brings a freshness to the role that is demonstrated most clearly in his boundless energy and ability to redeem himself after so many lousy spills.

Overall, this film furthers the mysterious oddity that is Inspector Clouseau and follows him as he stumbles blindly through a case he knows instinctively he is going to solve. It is demonstrated in this film that Clouseau is simply cursed by a lack of symmetry with physical objects. He’s idiotic in his relationship with things but at his core he’s actually a very capable Inspector. He simply knows things that others fail to see and it is this extraordinary capacity that leads him to his man or woman time and time again. He’s just a bit hapless when it comes to performing fundamental tasks that most people, bereft of the affliction, take for granted. The film features Elke Sommer at her titillating best which is always a cause for celebration. She adds a massive amount of sex appeal that never wanes over the course of the film. The stunts are immaculately performed and elaborately staged. They tend to drive the film forward as they become more necessary as the film progresses. It simply becomes a matter of waiting for the next great fall and occasionally but rarely the tomfoolery supercedes the actual story. Still, it’s a fascinating tale and filled with memorable moments that are as infectious as that little pout Elke Sommer delivers to cement her place as one of the centuries truly great sex kittens.