Quand l'inspecteur s'emmêle

A Shot In The Dark is the rightful beginning of the Pink Panther series. It’s true that Blake Edwards made The Pink Panther a year before this gem, but there, officially executive idiot Clouseau only played the role of a supporting character, which was one of the few bright sides of an otherwise rather shabby detective conversation film. This film bears all the distinguishing marks on which the series is based. Above all - the colossal exhibition of Peter Sellers, who had one of the most complex comedy performances in history. His Clouseau is built to the last detail (just listen to his stupid "acsant") and it's Sellers' famous acting that makes some scenes absolute classics - I can't help but notice the legendary billiard destruction, in which it truly pays to watch Sellers' movement and facial expressions. Then there is the humor - based on typical grotesque elements (falls, blunders, destruction, etc.), and also on Clouseau's intelligent verbal humor (I suspect everyone and no one at the same time). Then there is the detective plot, which gives way to the above, but still has an original resolution. Everything taken together? Brilliant fun with some unforgettable and unsurpassed ideas (a more original character than Kato is hard to find), the excellent Herbert Lom in the role of the nascent psychotic Dreyfus and a few dead spots that remind me of the dryness of the original Pink Panther. Fortunately, there are very few of them. (14/09/2004)

Finally, Clouseau as the main character and immediately a hint at a complete cult. Although it took two more films for that to happen, all the unforgettable trademarks were already present here. The omnipresent Kato, the exaggerated accent ("yes, mules"), and above all, Dreyfus - originally just a skeptical boss and gradually becoming an increasingly crazy victim of the uncontainable incompetence of his subordinate. (18/01/2007)

Some returns to the past should be avoided, so that one's sweet memories do not turn into dust and ashes. Sometimes the confrontation with reality is truly unpleasantly painful. I had the Pink Panther series fixed as a guarantee of pleasant entertainment and I gave titles that once made Peter Sellers a name in the film world a very high dose of stars. When I returned to this film years later, I have to say that I didn't feel any disappointment or even anger, which some contemporary films can evoke in me, but the feeling of good entertainment was not there. Inspector Clouseau is best characterized by the word 'tediousness'. Clouseau falls off the couch, out of the window, into the pool, and so on, and it could go on for a long time. Most gags, dare I say, the vast majority, are rather simplistic and infantile. The plot is simple, the acting performances nothing extraordinary, and Herbert Lom even overacts in my view. Yes, Sellers does what he is supposed to, but from my current perspective, his filmography was fundamentally different, whether it was Dr. Strangelove or Being There. It is very noticeable that this film was made in a different era, which still had problems with prudery and nudity, and many scenes exploited the lewdness that is understandably absent today. It is interesting that during the scene on the nudist beach, the cameraman and director managed to avoid practically all the sensitive parts of the human body at that time. That is perhaps the funniest thing I find in this film today. Overall impression: 40%. (15/08/2015)

Say "Inspector Clouseau" in front of me and I'm very likely to recall a scene from this very film. The exit from the car into the fountain, the fall from the window, the devastating interrogation of the suspect (devastating for the inspector's suit), several rides in the police car, billiards, a series of attempted murders, the final confrontation between everyone, during which the protagonist just looks helplessly into the camera... Peter Sellers is phenomenal, and you can easily believe his character could bring a tube of pills into a mental institution. (08/11/2014)

When I was eight years old, I used to eat up the escapades of a mustachioed moron man who breaks everything he can and blames it on anyone but himself. Even my parents started calling me Clouseau, the bastards, due to my lack of some basic motor skills and persistent lack of focus. Anyway, with a nostalgic tear in my twenty-three years, I was quite looking forward to the revival of the legend of my use. Of course, no such luck. A Shot in the Dark is still borderline humorous for eight-year-olds. Closeau keeps falling, smashing, ruining, etc. with such vigor that it gets annoying after a short while. The awful Sellers doesn't really add much to it, nor does the supremely routine interior direction. Some moments are funny, not that they aren't (there are about five of them), but overall it's really quite spasmodic rubbish benefiting from the most basic (and therefore most infantile) joke, namely "A man went and stepped in shit". The rating is a testament to the idiotic habit of users to star movies they saw as a kid and remember that it was "pretty funny and my brother and I had a good laugh", and partly the fault of the nerds, of course. (28/12/2010)

It's incredible the scenes and jokes that were managed to be devised in this film. Clouseau, as portrayed by Peter Sellers, fully transforms into his classic character here, and it's him who carries the whole film, although, of course, it wouldn't work without Elke Sommer and Herbert Lom. Great elements that make an excellent whole. (04/11/2016)