The first PINK PANTHER film was good, but uneven. The second is great. It’s one of the most consistently funny films I’ve ever seen. And that is mainly due to the pitch perfect performance from Peter Sellers (BEING THERE) as the determined, but dimwitted detective Jacques Clouseau.
The first film lost focus because it dealt with the David Niven character too much when Sellers was stealing the show. A SHOT IN THE DARK puts Sellers’ Clouseau smack in the center where he belongs. The film starts with an elaborate sequence where various people in a mansion sneak off in the middle of the night to different rooms to have affairs. The sequence ends with a murder. The crime seems pretty much cut and dry with the maid Maria Gambrelli (Elke Sommer, 1979’s THE PRISONER OF ZENDA) discovered with the gun in her hand over the dead body. But with bumbling Clouseau on the case nothing is as easy as it should be. All of this happens to the dismay of police chief Charles Dreyfus (Herbert Lom, SAPRTACUS).
The plot of the film really exists to highlight the Clouseau character. The comedy is a mix of slapstick, wit and Sellers’ perfect timing. Often it’s not his falling down that gets the biggest laugh, but his reaction afterward. In addition, Lom, George Sanders (ALL ABOUT EVE) as millionaire Benjamin Ballon, Graham Stark as fellow detective Hercule Lajoy and Burt Kwouk as martial arts assassin Kato (Burt Kwouk, EMPIRE OF THE SUN) just get laughs with their reactions to Clouseau. I was lukewarm about the PINK PANTHER series after watching the first film, but after seeing this one I want to see more of them. But only if Peter Sellers is in it.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
