Post by Clouseau on Jun 4, 2006 18:44:06 GMT
A Shot in the Dark (1964)
It's Sellers the Sleuth... and there's nothing he won't do to track down a body -- dead or alive!
Plot Notes – although ASITD was released only three months after TPP63, it was actually the first film completed for the series (not begun, but completed), which raises – among other things – some interesting continuity questions, but that aside, ASITD must go down as one of the best films – if not the best – of the Pink Panther franchise… not only does this film introduce us to such long-running characters as Dreyfus and Kato, but it also provides us with some of the funniest moments, including Clouseau’s bumbled attempt at playing billiards, and a short stint at a nudist colony… add to that a total of 14 murders committed by (at my count) a total of 5 different killers, and things really get interesting! they certainly broke the mold with this one!
Cast Notes:
- Peter Sellers – definitely at the top of his game as Inspector Clouseau this time around, Sellers owns the screen in every scene he has… the character was fresh and new, but even then, you can see the potential for the direction of the character… he was impressive and memorable enough, too, that filmmakers wanted him to reprise the role four years later, and even when he refused and the resulting film starring Alan Arkin flopped, they still asked him to come back and reprise the role years later, in 1975, thus reinvigorating the series! that, in itself, should be a huge credit to the excellence of this performance!
- Elke Sommer –Maria Gambrelli was supposed to be so beautiful that Clouseau would fall blindly in love with her, refusing to believe any of the daunting evidence that she was guilty of multiple murders… the lovely Elke Sommer made that role perfectly believable, IMO… she never over-played her character… i think everything she did in this film was perfect… or if she did do something wrong, i’m sure she only did it to protect another actor and take the attention off their own mistakes…
- Herbert Lom – as Chief Inspector Dreyfus, Lom plays “crazy” better than most anyone i can think of, and his decent into madness is done rather convincingly… it’s no wonder Lom was asked to reprise Dreyfus so many times, allowing him to appear in a total of seven Pink Panther films over the years…
- Burt Kwouk – Kwouk had a memorable performance as Kato in this film… the first time you see him sneaking up on Clouseau is fantastic, because you have no idea who he is, and up until the phone rings, you get a sense of real danger, which doesn’t happen often in the PP series… also, like Herbert Lom, i was glad to see that Kwouk was asked to reprise his role in future Panther films… there’s nothing like the first time, though, for me!
- André Maranne – often overlooked, Maranne, as Francois, must have at least made an impression on filmmakers, who asked him to return in five more Panther films, but in this particular outing, his performance was rather unremarkable, IMO… sure, he broke the news to Dreyfus that Clouseau had been assigned to the Ballon case, but he was never a pivotal character, that i could tell… if they were gonna bring back a minor Sûreté staff member, I’d have much preferred if they’d kept Hercule (Graham Stark)… still, there’s nothing terrible about Maranne’s performance, so i can’t rightly complain, i don’t guess…
Music – Henry Mancini, like so many others involved with this film, is at the top of his game here… the score to the film seems to fit perfectly… my favorite example is the first scene in which we meet Kato… the music is an enormous selling point for that scene, IMO… the title theme for this film is also excellent, as it sets the mood for the whole film… Fran Jeffries’ song is also perfectly used over the opening scene of the film (in stark contrast to the way they used her song in TPP63)… my only regret about the music with this film is that they never touched the now-traditional Pink Panther theme song… the inclusion of that track would have made this the strongest soundtrack of the entire series, i think… as it is, though, the film really didn’t need it… the music used was extraordinary, and serves, once again, as a reminder of the genius of Henry Mancini!