A Shot in the Dark

Rating:
Summary: Classy & Classic
Review: Comedy in the face of seriousness is the genius of Peter Sellers and Blake Edwards. The European culture as the backdrop to the film adds an even greater juxtaposition to sophistication of this classic film. Anyone who grew up with these films would definitely remember how the exposure laid the groundwork for other great films at the time, e.g. What's New Pussycat? And it also gave us the lucious, rhythmic, and well defined sounds of Henry Mancini, the classy sound of the 60's. This is for collectors....Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: The Funniest Pink Panther
Review: Generally regarded as the best in the Pink Panther series, A Shot in the Dark is a non-stop showcase of Peter Sellers' (purposely) ridiculous French accent and hilarious sight gags, and was directed by the talented Blake Edwards. If you like it, the next best Pink Panther, which is even sillier, is the fourth (or possibly fifth?) --- The Pink Panther Strikes Again.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I am a big Peter Sellers fan and a LOVED the first Pink Panther movie. Based on all the 5 star reviews on amazon, I couldn't wait to see this one. I was VERY disappointed. I barely chuckled. The one funny moment is the sight-gag with the curved billiard cue. Everything that was brilliant about the first Pink Panther movie is lacking here. The timing is off, the humor lacks any subtlety, the jokes go on way too long and are far too predictable. Unfortunately, the studio figured out that the first movie is the only good one, so they only sell it as a part of the set. What a pity.

Rating:
Summary: good, but not as slap stick as the others.
Review: I am not sure why the other reviews refer to this as non-stop slap stick. It has some funny parts, but i would suggest you buy it with the expectation that it is a good movie and not for the slap stick humor.

Rating:
Summary: Pretty funny, though I'm still not a big Clouseau fan
Review: I gotta be honest: before watching this movie, I had seen clips of this and one or two other Inspector Clouseau movies on TV, and I've never really found him all that funny. I'd usually wince more often than I'd laugh at his idiotic physical behavior. Now that I've watched A SHOT IN THE DARK, though, I see a perspective of his classic comedy character that I didn't see in those short clips. I still can't say I'm a big fan of Clouseau, but, at the very least, A SHOT IN THE DARK made me laugh pretty heartily at times---more than I expected.

I dunno...I've just never truly responded to these films' brand of slapstick. Those constant falls and accidents of Clouseau's always seem to irritate me more than amuse me. I know Clouseau is stupid, but did he really need to be THIS stupid? That last sequence at the Ballon household, for instance, seems to go on forever because this cop carelessly keeps stepping on people's toes and falling down from couches and doors, etc etc. It's not funny; it's simply repetitive, and it annoyingly slows down the film at certain points.

Fortunately, Inspector Clouseau's idiocy isn't totally physical. There are, for instance, a few funny jokes involving Clouseau and his assistant Hercule. Clouseau recites all the facts of a case ("Facts, Hercule, facts!...Without them the science of criminal investigation is nothing more than a guessing game"), asks Hercule what he makes of the facts, and when Hercule responds with the most obvious conclusion to be drawn from them, Clouseau cries out "You idiot! Only an amateur detective would say something like that!" Amusing indeed. That's the kind of satirical humor I responded to most in A SHOT IN THE DARK, and there's enough of it that saves this movie from simply being asinine.

That, and some genuinely funny sequences: Clouseau's scenes with Cato, his inadvertently going undercover in a nudist colony, and the sequences involving the unlucky assassin. There is a brilliantly filmed sequence in the prologue, leading up to the movie's first murder; and the animated credits (without a pink panther in sight) is always fun to look at. Herbert Lom is also pretty funny as the increasingly crazy Inspector Dreyfus, who is slowly going mad b/c of the mess Clouseau is making of the Ballon case. As for Peter Sellers, he's admittedly very good in the role of the bumbling inspector, but his full comic brilliance can be glimpsed elsewhere (Kubrick's DR. STRANGELOVE, for example).

All the good elements help make A SHOT IN THE DARK a fairly entertaining, pretty funny time. To me, though, it is not the comedy classic everyone says it is. If you want to see truly funny exploits of an utterly incompetent cop, see Leslie Nielsen in the NAKED GUN movies. You'll laugh a lot longer and harder at Lt. Frank Drebin's brand of comic stupidity than you will at the occasionally irritating Inspector Clouseau here.

Rating:
Summary: Very Entertaining
Review: I have seen this movie many times but my husband had not. He purchased the DVD for my birthday and we watched it together. He really laughed out loud several times. I love this movie and I recommend it if you like silly slapstick-type comedy.

Rating:
Summary: The BEST of the Pink Panther Series!
Review: I love the Pink Panther series, yet somehow I didn't see this particular title until recently, and with good reason; technically, it's not a Pink Panther movie... Which basically means it doesn't have the Pink Panther cartoons or theme music in the titles. Everything else is here: Peter Sellers, Blake Edwards, Herbert Lom, Henry Mancini's music (but not the Pink Panther Theme), etc.

Don't miss this one. It's truly the best in the series.

Rating:
Summary: A COmedy Classic
Review: I recentaly watched "shot in the dark" It is probably one of the funniest movies I have ever seen Yet it is not as funny as the "revenge of the pink panther"

Rating:
Summary: Inspector Clouseau Arrives
Review: Ignore the cuckold of "The Pink Panther", Inspector Clouseau truly blossoms in this film. Though there is ostensibly a murder to be solved here, it is subordinate to the mayhem, slapstick and general chaos that seems to follow Clouseau. This character ranks as one the greatest comic creations in film history. As a bonus, Inspector Dreyfus(Herbert Lom), Clouseau's long-suffering superior and Cato (Burt Kwouk), Clouseau's manservant are introduced here. There is one amusing set-piece after another in this film. My personal favorites are Clouseau's interrogation of Elke Sommer and Clouseau trying to navigate his way through a nudist colony. If you want to introduce someone to great screen comedy this is as good a starting point as any.

Rating:
Summary: Closeau on the loose
Review: In many ways "A Shot in the Dark" is the best of the Inspector Closeau films, while being the only one that doesn't have a Pink Panther reference in its title. Sellers is in top form, but Herbert Lom as his boss nearly steals the film. And what's truly strange is, it's based upon a play that had nothing to do with Closeau.