Movie Review: A Shot in the Dark (1964)

Stars: 1 out of 5

Pros: A few amusing parts

Cons: Everything else

The Bottom Line: 

Tries to be funny

The mystery?  It makes no sense

Film misses all marks




Even a Nudist Colony and a Sex Scene Can't Save This Movie

Okay, so I wasn't a fan of the original Pink Panther.  What am I doing watching the first sequel?  I thought maybe I was missing something, so I'd give A Shot in the Dark, the only film in the series not to involve the Pink Panther diamond, a try.  Fortunately, I was able to see it on Turner Classic Movies.  Unfortunately, I still wasted my time on this unfunny dud.

One of the servants has been murdered at the home of Benjamin Ballon (George Sanders).  The finger of suspicion points clearly as Maria (Elke Sommer).  After all, this beautiful servant was found in a locked room with the body.  Any police officer would arrest her and move on to their next case.

Unfortunately, Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) has caught this high profile case, and he doesn't believe Maria is guilty for one moment.  His reasoning?  She's hot!  His idea of solving the case involves releasing her from prison and then following her to see who tries to hurt her.  Unfortunately, every time she gets out of jail, a new murder takes place with her being the only logical suspect.  Is Clouseau correct or is he enabling a murderer?

This movie tries to blend mystery with comedy.  It fails on both levels.

Okay, so I was probably expecting too much of it on the mystery side of things.  After all, I do love the genre and have my expectations every time I sit down to enjoy one.  More than really being a mystery, this was a series of events that involved murder.  There are virtually no clues and no real attempt to figure things out based on them.  Even the ending is so abrupt and confusing, I had to watch it a couple times to truly figure out what was happening.

As a comedy, the best I can give this one is amusing.  Some of the pratfalls made me almost smile.  Most of them were so painfully obvious from the moment the scene started I wasn't laughing.  I do enjoy slapstick, but it has to take me by surprise to truly make me laugh.  Slapstick jokes that are set up too far in advance just don't work.  Furthermore, they weren't consistent enough to feel like a real part of the movie.  Instead, they felt like they were forced in to make this a comedy.

I will give the actors this, they truly do try.  The acting accomplishes what it needs to with the script it has.  I'm not saying any of the performances are brilliant, but they also never took me out of the film.  They are in keeping with the tone that the script was trying to convey.

Then there was the content.  I was actually shocked at what they got away with in this 1964 film.  One of the murders takes place at a nudist colony, and Clouseau is there searching for Maria before the body is found.  Yes, all the important parts are covered, and how Clouseau goes about it does provide one of the few amusing spots, but it wasn't funny enough to justify the scene.  It felt like they were trying for daring and clever, and it didn't really hit that.

Then there's the sex scene.  It's played for laughs as other things are going on around the couple.  Again, we don't see anything that would get it higher than a PG rating.  But the scene quickly turns uncomfortable and stupid because of what they try to do with it.  I certainly wouldn't want my kids watching either of these scenes.

A Shot in the Dark tries too hard to be funny and clever.  And whenever you've got someone saying, "Look at how funny I am," they never are.  There's no reason to waste any time on this poor movie.