A Shot In The Dark 1964 Film Review

 

Films fans you've seen me cover alot of classic films in the past and I will be reviewing alot more classic films in the future. With that being said however there is one franchise that i've never even covered before and for the life of me I have no idea why since the film that i'm going to reviewing for you all today is so freaking funny that's unreal how funny this film is and so join me as I review the 1964 film that is the second film in The Pink Panther film series with the film in question being called simply just "A Shot In The Dark" enjoy.

The plot of this film is Inspector Jacques Clouseau is tasked with finding out who has killed Miguel Ostos who is the chauffeur for billionaire Benjamin Ballon.  In terms of what I personally thought about the plot of this film in all honesty the plot of this film is really freaking good with the story being generally interesting and as well as being entertaining and in my opinion at least very gripping and engaging.

Starring in this film is Peter Sellers as Inspector Jacques Clouseau , Elke Sommer as Maria Gambrelli and George Sanders as Benjamin Ballon. Also starring in this film is Herbert Lom as Charles Dreyfus , Tracy Reed as Dominique Ballon , Graham Stark as Hercule Lajoy , Moira Redmond as Simone , Vanda Godsell as Madame LaFarge , Maurice Kaufmann as Pierre , Ann Lynn as Dudu , David Lodge as Georges , André Maranne as François , Martin Benson as Maurice , Burt Kwouk as Cato and Douglas Wilmer as Henri LaFarge.

In terms of what I personally thought about the acting that's featured / presented to us in this film in all honesty the acting that's featured / presented to us in this film is really good. Which is something that I wasn't really expecting to be the case with this film or with any film in the original The Pink Panther film series since like I said / i've said at the start of this review I haven't seen any of the The Pink Panther films barring the Steve Martin The Pink Panther films that is.

Now then boys and girls when we think of The Pink Panther film series we think of Inspector Jacques Clouseau being the main character in all of the The Pink Panther films. Well believe it or not boys girls but this is the first film in which Inspector Jacques Clouseau is the main focus / main character of the film since even tho Inspector Jacques Clouseau does indeed appear in the previous film he's not the main character / the main focus of the film with that honor going to another character.

Peter Sellers really is the only person who play Inspector Jacques Clouseau since he makes what could have been a rather annoying main character somehow likeable to the point where you are actively routing for the character and  thus wanting the character to succeed. Alot of this does also come from the film's script which was written by Pink Panther creator and director of all of the The Pink Panther Blake Edwards but since alot of the physical comedy that Inspector Jacques Clouseau does was made up on the spot by Peter Sellers alot of credit does have to go to Peter Sellers since he helped shape this character and that is something that could not and more importantly shouldn't be forgotten.

This film is such a film of its time just simply just due to the fact that you see the characters doing things in this film that you just don't see people doing today. Like for example you see the characters smoking indoors alot in this film and you see the characters getting dressed up in a suit and tie to go to a nightclub both of which of things that you just don't see people doing anymore and it was in all honesty weird to see those things in this film.

Now I would very much like to comment on the mystery element of this film but for me at least the main focus of this film wasn't the mystery it was the comedy. Which does make sense since this film is a comedy but at the same time it's also listed as being a mystery film and so i would have liked it if a bit more focus was put on the actual mystery aspect of the film and if more effort was put into making the actual mystery of this film a generally good mystery since half of the fun of watching a mystery film for me is working who committed whatever crime is being solved at that time where as with this film there really wasn't any clues being given as to who the killer was or even to what their motive and so when it is revealed who the killer is it comes out of nowhere and since the fact that it really doesn't make sense who the killer of this film since that goes well with the films tone I still would have liked it the film dropped us some clues or even some hints as to who the killer in this film actually was but that's just me and that's just in my very humble and as well as being in my vert honest opinion anyways.

Now then boys boys girls I cannot actually give you a concrete running time for this film since the copy of the film that I saw ran for one hour and forty two minuets and twenty one seconds and it cut of before we got to the big reveal which meant that I had to use Wikipedia (the source of all information) to find out who the killer was. I will say that this film didn't need to be as long as it was since you very easily (in my opinion at least) could have had this film come it at around one hour and thirty minuets and you'd have to loose nothing of importance to the actual plot of the film or the mystery element of the film. 

Now then boys and girls since this film is a comedy after all that does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual jokes that are featured / presented to us in this film / the actual film itself and if i'm being really freaking honest here boys and girls the comedy in this film is where this film shines the freaking brightest. Since this film is so freaking funny and while not all of the jokes in this film land as well as they should alot of the jokes that are featured / presented to us in this very film are very freaking funny.

Overall in all honesty boys and girls this film really is that freaking good and i'm shocked that it's taken me this long to not only see this film but also review this film as well. Now then boys and girls this film isn't a perfect film by any stretch of the imagination since i've talked about both of the good things and both of the bad things in this film in this very review and as such this film gets a score of a 7.5 out of 10 from me.

As for where I got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls I personally got all of the images from this film that I personally used in this very review from Google Images and nowhere else and since I only went to Google Images for the actual images that I used in this very review. I have no choice but to recommend that you guys use Google Images if you guys and girls want to use any images from this film since alot the image of this film that I personally found where pretty quality and as well as being pretty high definition which was something that I in all honesty wasn't expecting to find from Google Images.