A Shot in the Dark (1964 film)

A Shot in the Dark
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Blake Edwards
Screenplay by	Blake Edwards William Peter Blatty
Based on	1960 play L'Idiote by Marcel Achard 1961 play A Shot in the Dark by Harry Kurnitz
Produced by	Blake Edwards
Starring	Peter Sellers Elke Sommer George Sanders Herbert Lom
Cinematography	Christopher Challis
Edited by	Bert Bates Ralph E. Winters
Music by	Henry Mancini
Production companies	The Mirisch Corporation Mirisch Films DePatie-Freleng TVC London (animation)
Distributed by	United Artists
Release dates	June 23, 1964 (1964-06-23) (U.S.) January 28, 1965 (1965-01-28) (UK)[1]
Running time	102 minutes
Countries	United Kingdom United States
Language	English
Box office	$12.3 million[2]

A Shot in the Dark is a 1964 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards in Panavision. Produced as a standalone sequel to The Pink Panther, it is the second installment in the eponymous film series, with Peter Sellers reprising his role as Inspector Jacques Clouseau of the French Sûreté.

Clouseau's blundering personality is unchanged, but it was in this film that Sellers began to give him the idiosyncratically exaggerated French accent that was to later become a hallmark of the character. The film also marks the first appearances of Herbert Lom as his long-suffering boss, Commissioner Dreyfus, as well as André Maranne as Dreyfus's assistant François and Burt Kwouk as Clouseau's stalwart manservant Cato, all three of whom would become series regulars. Elke Sommer portrays the murder suspect, Maria Gambrelli. The character of Gambrelli would return in Son of the Pink Panther (1993), this time played by Claudia Cardinale, who appeared as Princess Dala in The Pink Panther (1963). Graham Stark, who portrays police officer Hercule Lajoy, would reprise this role eighteen years later, in Trail of the Pink Panther (1982).

The film was not originally written to include Clouseau, but was an adaptation of a stage play by Harry Kurnitz adapted from a French play L'Idiote by Marcel Achard.^[3] The film was released only a year after the first Clouseau film, The Pink Panther. It is the first film in the series in which Clouseau could be considered a main character.