A SHOT IN THE DARK (1964) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Blake Edwards
Peter Sellers, Elke Sommer, George Sanders,
Herbert Lom, Burt Kwouk, Tracy Reed,
Andre Maranne, Graham Stark, Turk Thrust
Inspector Jacques Clouseau tries to solve a murder, falling out of windows, walking into walls, battling a rack of belligerent pool cues, and bravely struggling to maintain his composure while skulking through a nudist camp with Elke Sommer. Chief Inspector Dreyfus, meanwhile, stabs himself with a letter opener, amputates his thumb with a miniature guillotine, and kills ten people in a futile attempt to assassinate Clouseau. Nobody mixed slapstick and sadism with more comic glee than Blake Edwards, and nobody ever pronounced words like "moth" and "bump" quite like Inspector Clouseau. The first "Pink Panther" sequel, and one of the best.
Blake Edwards
(1922-2010)
