A Shot in the Dark (1964)

A Shot in the Dark is a 1964 comedy film directed by Blake Edwards and is the second installment in The Pink Panther series. Peter Sellers is featured again as Inspector Jacques Clouseau of the French Sûreté.

Clouseau's bungling personality is unchanged, but it was in this film that Sellers began to give him the idiosyncratically exaggerated French accent that was to become a hallmark of the character. The film also introduces Herbert Lom as his long-suffering boss, Commissioner Dreyfus, and Burt Kwouk as his stalwart servant Cato, both of whom would become series regulars. Elke Sommer plays Maria Gambrelli. Gambrelli would return in Son of the Pink Panther, this time played by Claudia Cardinale, who played Princess Dala in The Pink Panther. Graham Stark reprised his Hercule Lajoy role in Trail of the Pink Panther. Kato was named after The Green Hornet character. For legal reasons, the spelling was later changed from "Kato" to "Cato."

The film was not originally written to include Clouseau, but was an adaptation of a stage play by Harry Kurnitz adapted from the French play L'Idiote by Marcel Achard. The film was released only a few months after the first Clouseau film, The Pink Panther.

Synopsis

Inspector Clouseau is called to the country home of Paris plutocrat Benjamin Ballon to investigate the murder of his Spanish chauffeur Miguel. The chauffeur was having an affair with the maid, Maria Gambrelli, who claims that he often beat her. Although all the evidence points to Gambrelli as the killer, Clouseau refuses to admit her guilt after he develops an instant attraction to her.

Actors