Product Description

Get ready for a "riotous" (Boxoffice) adventure as Peter Sellers returns as the hapless Inspector Clouseau in his second Pink Panther film. Introducing Herbert Lom as his long-suffering superior Dreyfus and Burt Kwouk as his mysterious manservant and sparring partner Cato, this frenetic comedy is "a series of laughs from beginning to end, with never a lull to catch your breath" (LA Herald-Examiner)! Assigned to a high-profile murder case, Clouseau finds himself falling (literally) for the prime suspect - a beautiful maid named Maria (Elke Sommer), whose talent for being in the wrong place atthe wrong time almost rivals Clouseau's. But as the body count grows higher, and Maria's criminal record grows longer, Clouseau will have to find the real culprit quickly...or his career will be finit!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8831 in DVD
• Brand: TCFHE/MGM
• Released on: 2009-01-27
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, Original recording remastered, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: French, Spanish
• Dubbed in: French, Spanish
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
Blake Edwards's Inspector Clouseau films really took their complete shape with this second movie in the series, which features star Peter Sellers really tweaking that French accent and key supporting players Herbert Lom, Burt Kwouk, and André Maranne (all getting on board for the first time). The story finds Sellers refusing to believe in the guilt of a beautiful woman (Elke Sommer) accused of murder, and there are a number of hilarious sequences, including one in which Clouseau goes "undercover" at a nudist colony. Arguably the best of the films, A Shot in the Dark definitely finds Edwards honing a seamless blend of slapstick, brilliant timing, verbal wit, a great cast, and Sellers's brilliance into a unique experience. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

A Shot in the Dark -- One of the Funniest Films of All Time
Peter Sellers was a comic genius, and nowhere is this more evident than in A Shot in the Dark, the first of the Pink Panther series to exclusively feature Sellers' Inspector Clouseau. It's one case where the sequel is superior to the original! This film can only be described as gaspingly funny. I've seen this move several dozen times, but it still makes me howl with laughter every time I see it. It's amazing to think that Sellers also made The Pink Panther, Dr. Stangelove, and The World of Henry Orient the same year (all titles I would highly recommend as well). The fact that "Shot" is now on DVD in widescreen makes it that much more special. The supporting cast (Elke Sommer, Herbert Lom, George Sanders, and Bert Kwouk, among others) is perfect and provides a perfect ensemble foil to Sellers. The "Camp Sunshine" scene alone makes "Shot" worth seeing. This film is so funny, I can recommend that you purchase it without having seen it first -- it's that good!

"I Seem To Have Stabbed Myself With A Letter Opener."
This is one of the very rare films where the sequel is better than the original. This movie is absolutely a letter perfect comedy: suave yet silly; understated yet over the top; pompous yet reserved. You get the idea. A perfect film. I wouldn't change one thing about this movie, even if I could. Peter Sellers defines the bumbling Clouseau as an individual better here than in the original, and I think the supporting cast is stronger as well. Elke Sommer is perfect as the beautiful, naive murder suspect who Clouseau goes to any ends to defend, while George Sanders is wonderful as the great scoundrel millionaire, Benjamin Ballon. Introduced for the first time in the series are Bert Kwouk as Kato (later spelled 'Cato'), Graham Stark as Clouseau's (extremely) patient assistant, Hercule, and my favorite of all the Panther supporting characters, the great Herbert Lom as Inspector Dreyfus. Watching Lom go through the phases of psychosis in this film is one of the greatest experiences and delights a person can have as a movie viewer. (I particularly like his performance in the closing scene, and when reading the newspaper with trembling hands and twitching eye.)

The plot concerns Clouseau's infatuation with a wrongly accused murder suspect, and the chaos that develops from that unlikely situation. The film is filled with a degree of nuance seldom seen in a comedy, and is probably the best crafted of all the Panther films (although I have to admit that the way over the top "Pink Panther Strikes Again" is my personal favorite.) The physical comedy that Sellers could make totally natural (watch the "spinning globe" scene for an excellent example) is still unrivalled, and the nuanced interplay with other cast members is better than in any other comedy that I can think of (to see what I mean watch the "curved pool cue" scene and the interaction of both Monsieur Ballon and the butler.)

I highly recommend this film. The DVD print is good, though there are few extras (the original trailer is very amusing and a tad on the weird side.) It is slapstick, but it is very refined slapstick done by the master, Peter Sellers. If only they still made movies like this today. I give it five stars only because Amazon won't allow more!

Inspector Clouseau Benchmark
This is by far the wittiest and amusingly the funniest of all the Inspector Clouseau and Pink Panther films. The last time we saw Inspector Clouseau he was on his way to jail as the convicted notorious "The Phantom" jewel thief at the close of THE PINK PANTHER. Happily he is out and reinstated. Besides the perseverance of Peter Sellers as Clouseau this films introduces the regular members of the series that thrived even after the loss of Sellers. Herbert Lom as Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus, Burt Kwouk as Kato, Andre Maranne as François and Graham Stark as Hercule Lajoy all acted as a counterpoint to Sellers' Clouseau which greatly bolstered and defined the various and curious qualities of the Inspector. It's interesting how Blake Edwards returned to the original format of THE PINK PANTHER for the rest of the series yet he retained these regular characters introduced here in A SHOT IN THE DARK. The other great contribution to the series is Henry Mancini's score once again present here and in all Pink Panther films directed by Blake Edwards. This is a great movie.