A Shot in the Dark

Movie review by Charles Cassady Jr., Common Sense Media
A Shot in the Dark Poster Image

Common Sense says

age 11+

Funny Pink Panther sequel. Older tweens+.

PG 1964 103 minutes
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Parents say

age 10+

Based on 2 reviews

Kids say

age 11+

Based on 4 reviews

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A Lot or a Little?

The parents' guide to what's in this movie.

What Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Inspector Clouseau attempts to go to bed with the comely heroine. A possible rape is made light of. There is a comical revelation of multiple adultery in the household where a murder takes place. There are numerous murders, all slapsticky and practically bloodless.

Community Reviews

Jackandeoin
Jackandeoin Adult
February 13, 2019
age 10+

So funny and amazingly written!

Peter Sellers hit it right on the nose on this pink panther movie! Like 100 laughs moderate violence and a lot of the actor we all know and love. Absolutely brilliant! No one can top this amazing feel of A shot in the Dark!

This title has:

Great messages
Too much violence
crankylibrarian
crankylibrarian Adult
January 3, 2014
age 10+

Classic French farce plus inspired physical comedy

The best and funniest of the original Pink Panther series. Steve Martin isn't bad in the remakes, but if you really want to get your brood howling with laughter, show them the Peter Sellers classics. Plenty of sexual innuendo of course, and a dead-on spoof of French sex farces, (note the revolving bedroom doors in the opening scene), not to mention a nudist colony, and frequent references to Elke Sommer's physical assets. Yet there are other cleaner gags: Clouseau's repeated arrests while on stake-out, and the hilarious bit with the parallel bars. Some of the most inspired physical comedy ever. As in all the later Pink Panther's, a word of warning about the bizarre relationship between Clouseau and his "little yellow" Asian "manservant" Cato is in order.

This title has:

Too much sex
Too much drinking/drugs/smoking
See all 2 parent reviews

What's the Story?

Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is called out to a mansion after the nighttime shooting of a chauffeur, which the audience has seen in the pre-credit sequence was a complicated intrigue involved different men skulking around the estate, just avoiding each other. The dead man was the ex-lover (possibly also the rapist) of the mansion's maid Maria (Elke Sommer), who was found holding the gun over his dead body. She claims she didn't kill him and that she can't remember anything about the fatal shot. Clouseau, immediately smitten, defends Maria. Even when other servants turn up slain around her, nothing convinces Clouseau of her guilt. Instead he insists to the increasingly exasperated Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) that Maria is covering up for the real murderer, probably a boyfriend. And the only way for Clouseau to find out the truth is to stay near her. At all times.

Is It Any Good?

Sellers, naturally, is a riot. This was the second Pink Panther feature, and the one that set up all the elements that would become familiar: disaster-causing Inspector Clouseau, his wrathful chief Dreyfus, his attack-ready manservant Cato. Clouseau was just a scene-stealing supporting role in The Pink Panther; here, he's in the limelight. And Clouseau's blinding crush on Maria provides a stronger motivation for the detective's refusal to indict the maid than just sheer arrogance and stupidity.

Nobody watches Inspector Clouseau movies for the plots, although this one is a bit more story-driven and actor-centered than most of them, and its slapstick had not yet reached the epic-scale stunt proportions of the later movies. In fact, A SHOT IN THE DARK is based on stage play about a foolish judge, which was retro-fitted as a vehicle for the bungling detective character. It's not at all stagey, and the cast is a great display of star power. This may be the most exposure young kids get to British actor George Sanders, here playing Maria's aristocratic employer Ballon. A specialist in playing suave English cads and blackmailers, Sanders' distinctive voice and mannerisms were copied in countless cartoons for decades.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the movie's dated and dark-comedy elements. It might be strange for modern audiences to hear rape, marital infidelity, and multiple murder being lighthearted laugh-getters.

Movie Details

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