Watch It: A Shot in the Dark

Today's Queue de Grâce installment, A Shot in the Dark (1964), returns us to Paris, France, this time to solve a murder.*  Again, Geza was working, but the kids and I settled down for a rainy afternoon with Inspector Clouseau, as played by the mad genius chameleon actor: Peter Sellers.

 

*I swear, none of my kids did it. They all have rock solid alibis.

Blake Edwards directed this second film in the Pink Panther series, which will not disappoint fans of Inspector Clouseau and his commisioner-enraging ways. The story begins with a murder in a mansion, and the intrepid Inspector must find the murderer, even if the culprit might be the pretty parlor maid he likes. In execution of his job, Clouseau seemingly does nothing right, bumbling cartoonishly into one awkward situation after another. 

This movie cracked the little kids up with all of the splashy crashy falling, but there are pretty constant adult themes throughout. Cole dished it up for us because he knows we're "European."  It's still quite tame compared with many things kids watch these days, but if you're avoiding all of that as well, consider yourselves warned.

 This movie was extraordinary. It was a funny, grown-up movie. I'm not going to say a lot about it, but if you're trying to keep your children weak, than I think you should watch this by yourself.  This movie is grownup in a French way. 

A bully with a hat shot the sky. And sky was dead. Everybody was naked. They were playing music.




My favorite scenes of a Shot in the Dark are when Kato (played by Burt Kuok) attacked Inspector Clouseau; popping out when the Inspector would least expect it, to help keep his instincts sharp. I loved seeing these two actors together in these moments, imagining the outtakes.

 Something I noticed about this movie: There were a lot of parts that seemed oddly quiet to me and now I know why, it didn't have as much background music as movies nowadays. In current films, the actors have to say their lines with some kind of jauntiness, but back then, the conversation seemed very natural. No so "produced." Also, they end naturally instead of ending with some big flairy catch-phrase. It's kind of like watching a play on TV, only with bigger more realistic-looking sets.

 Good eye, Henry! How astute of you to notice that its style seemed born of the theater. The original screenplay was, in fact, based on an adaptation of a French play, "L'Idiote," by Marcel Archard.



Confession time: Mae didn't really say any of that. I've just been dying to make a joke like that all week. She sort of lost interest in A Shot in the Dark. once the opening credits cartoon ended. I can't blame her, I used to feel the same way about the Pink Panther movies when I was a kid.