Review of A Shot in the Dark (1964) by Daniel D — 26 Dec 2013

Old review I wrote in a film class, heh.

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Blake Edwards? ?Shot in the Dark? is a hilarious slap-stick comedy about an incompetent French police inspector named Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers). Clouseau is assigned to a murder case at the home of Monsieur Ballon, played satisfactorily by George Sanders. The murder is of Ballon?s Spanish driver, and at first it seems that the maid Maria Gambrelli (Elke Sommer) is the murderer. Clouseau thinks differently however, and throughout the movie tries to prove it by getting Maria to divulge who the real killer is. In order to do this, and because he has a crush on her, he follows her around and meets with her from time. Meanwhile, Clouseau?s boss Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) becomes extremely annoyed by Clouseau?s dealings with Maria. He hates Clouseau and what Clouseau is doing, but Clouseau is the one that must solve the case, whether he should or not.

The great performance by Peter Sellers in the movie is what makes it so fun to watch. He speaks with an overly excessive French accent that makes the word ?monkey? sound like ?minkey.? The accent serves to mock the French accent, and it makes his character all the more funny. He also is prone to breaking things, falling over, and generally causing havoc purely by accident. One example of this is when he goes to Ballon?s house to question him about the murder. Ballon insists they play pool during the discussion to relax the tone. Clouseau complies, and goes to get a pool stick. He ends up getting a bridge, and is dumbfounded when he realizes he can?t hit the ball with it. Ballon tells him this and he goes to get a regular stick, but he can?t get one without first breaking a stick on the rack. Ballon offers him his favorite stick, a bent stick that he claims is good for curved shots. Clouseau shoots with the stick curving upwards, and ends up hitting the ball off the table. He then realizes that he could better hit the ball with a downward curve, but that ends up puncturing the cloth on the table. Finally, when he tries to put his stick back on the rack he becomes tangled in the sticks and falls over the rack. He gets up, claims that the designer of the rack should get his head examined, and walks into the wall next to the door, claiming that the architect should do the same. The scene is guaranteed to have anyone laughing uncontrollably. The film is filled to the brim with scenes like this, making it a tiring movie to watch. If laughing burns calories, this movie could very well be included in an exercise routine. It?s the funniest slap-stick comedy since The Marx Brothers, no doubt about it.