PETER SELLERS TAKES 'A SHOT IN THE DARK' WITH ELKE SOMMER

Title: A SHOT IN THE DARK Year: 1964 Rating: ***1/2

While Inspector Clouseau was dropped into the romantic-comedy-heist THE PINK PANTHER with Peter Sellers stealing the movie from lead actor David Niven, the sequel...where he's finally the central character... has him crashing what's an otherwise serious stage-adapted murder-mystery/whodunnit...

Yet there's a romantic-comedy element here too, with Sellers helping adorable millionaire's maid, Elke Sommer, seeming guilty beyond belief in the classic noir fashion: not only winding up with a smoking gun and a dead body, but with another dead body and a bloody knife...

Animation from A SHOT IN THE DARK

With plushly-staged interior shots, Blake Edwards doesn't let Sellers completely steal his show, since much of SHOT IN THE DARK... from the elaborate mansion surrounded by expensive cars to lavish/busy nightclubs... involves the kind of creatively-shot sophistication of big-budget 1940's Golden Age Hollywood...

But the first half belongs to Sellers with the signature bumbling pratfalls, quickly followed by embarrassed catlike reactions while driving commissioner/boss Herbert Lom crazy... yet without explaining exactly why Clouseau gets so outrageously under his skin, so quickly: at times feeling like a sequel to a sequel...

Animation from A SHOT IN THE DARK

And, following the iconic yet overlong halfway point at a nudist colony, DARK gets more and more complicated, visually... including a string of dance-act/nightclub murders following Sellers and Sommer around town, taking away from what should have remained the accidental-prone investigative focal point...

As Clouseau eventually gets lost in the mix... but with key scenes involving karate houseboy Burt Kwouk and subtle humor opposite deadpan investigative sidekick Graham Stark, we get the first true Inspector Clouseau picture that's both a continuation and starting point.

Peter Sellers in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Peter Sellers and Graham Stark in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Peter Sellers in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Elke Sommer in A SHOT IN THE DARK

George Sanders and David Lodge in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Peter Sellers and Graham Stark in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Peter Sellers and Graham Stark in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Peter Sellers and George Saunders in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Peter Sellers in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Herbert Lom in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Peter Sellers and Elke Sommer in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Peter Sellers and Elke Sommer in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Peter Sellers and Elke Sommer in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Peter Sellers and Bryan Forbes in A SHOT IN THE DARK

Peter Sellers, Vanda Godsell, Tracy Reed and Maurice Kaufman from A SHOT IN THE DARK

Vanda Godsell from A SHOT IN THE DARK

Animation from A SHOT IN THE DARK

Animation from A SHOT IN THE DARK

Animation from A SHOT IN THE DARK

Animation from A SHOT IN THE DARK

Animation from A SHOT IN THE DARK

Animation from A SHOT IN THE DARK

Animation from A SHOT IN THE DARK

Animation from A SHOT IN THE DARK