A Shot in the Dark (1964) * * 1/2

Directed by:  Blake Edwards

Starring:  Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Elke Sommer, George Sanders

Perhaps I'm not overly enthusiastic about A Shot in the Dark because I've already seen every other Pink Panther/Clouseau film and most of the slips, trips, and slapstick seen here are seen in those movies as well.    A Shot in the Dark was the second Pink Panther film with Peter Sellers in the starring role of inept French detective Jacques Clouseau.     Maybe back in 1964, this sort of comedy was fresh.   However, I didn't get around to seeing the film in its entirety until recently and that has skewed my opinion of it somewhat.    

There are some aspects of the Pink Panther series I never grow tired of, such as Cato's unexpected attacks on Clouseau (ordered by Clouseau himself) and Clouseau's boss Drefyus (Lom) reduced to an insane mess of facial tics over Clouseau's antics.    Seeing Dreyfus' eye twitch never fails to draw a laugh.     Clouseau's manservant Cato (Burt Kwouk) may be the only person on Earth with worse karate skills than Clouseau, although Clouseau naturally thinks he is an expert.     In fact, Clouseau continually thinks highly of his own police skills even though the rest of the world knows he is incompetent at best and absolutely bumbling at worst.      Decorum is very likely the only reason more people don't call him a buffoon to his face.

Clouseau is called upon to solve a murder in a mansion owned by the rich and powerful Benjamin Banton (Sanders).    A maid named Maria Gambrelli (Sommer) is the prime suspect, but Clouseau doubts this, mostly because he fell in love with her at first sight.     He swears she is innocent, even though she appears guilty.    She was found holding the murder weapon and has motive, but Clouseau goes out of his way to clear her name.     I'm sure in the police detective handbook this is not part of Clouseau's job description, but when she smiles and bats her eyes at him all police procedure flies out the window.    This enrages Dreyfus further.   He can't help but openly admit his hatred for his underling.

One portion of the movie takes place in a nudist colony.    Clouseau tracks Gambrelli there and is slow to catch on to the nature of the establishment even though the desk clerk is naked.     Despite the setup which should deliver beaucoup laughs, the payoff isn't there.    Most of the scenes here show the modest Clouseau trying to avoid being seen naked.     Two or three people fall into a lake, but once you've seen one person fall into a lake, you've seen them all.

I find I'm not much of a fan of people falling or tripping over things.    It may have been inspired back in the 1920s, but after countless slapstick comedies and Three Stooges episodes, this style of humor has lost its effectiveness.     Sellers does it plenty here, as he does in future Pink Panther comedies, but Sellers and the Clouseau character in general are better served by verbal humor and incidences of Clouseau's obvious slow wit.     In the film, Sellers hadn't fully developed Clouseau's trademark French accent, but it's amusing to hear others try and make sense of his mispronounced words.   

A Shot in the Dark was the genesis of the Clouseau character which has become immortalized.     It was the first true Clouseau film (The Pink Panther had Clouseau as more of a supporting character).     Maybe it doesn't work as well for me because I saw it last instead of first, but I don't know of any time machines to rent, so this effort is somewhat of a "meh" for me.