A Shot in the Dark (1964 film)

A Shot in the Dark
Theatrical release poster
Directed byBlake Edwards
Screenplay by
Based on
Produced byBlake Edwards
Starring
CinematographyChristopher Challis
Edited by
Music byHenry Mancini
Production
companies
Distributed byUnited 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
LanguageEnglish
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.

  1. ^ "A Shot in the Dark (advert)". Evening Standard. 27 January 1965. p. 15.
  2. ^ Box Office Information for A Shot in the Dark. Box Office Mojo. Retrieved January 31, 2013.
  3. ^ A Shot in the Dark by Marcel Achard and adapted by Harry Kurnitz had a 1961-1962 Broadway run, directed by Harold Clurman. Its cast included Julie Harris, Walter Matthau, and William Shatner.