{"id":32730,"date":"2013-12-17T12:22:57","date_gmt":"2013-12-17T19:22:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=32730"},"modified":"2021-01-24T20:53:53","modified_gmt":"2021-01-25T03:53:53","slug":"shot-in-the-dark-a-1964","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=32730","title":{"rendered":"Shot in the Dark, A (1964)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;I suspect everyone!&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Poster-200x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"200\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-47172\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Poster-200x300.jpg 200w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Poster-85x128.jpg 85w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Poster.jpg 666w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 200px) 100vw, 200px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA bumbling detective (Peter Sellers) is assigned to investigate a series of murders in which a beautiful maid (Elke Sommer) is the prime suspect.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p>\n<strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Blake Edwards Films<\/li>\n<li>Comedy<\/li>\n<li>Detectives and Private Eyes<\/li>\n<li>George Sanders Films<\/li>\n<li>Murder Mystery<\/li>\n<li>Peter Sellers<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary\u2019s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nPeary is clearly an enormous fan of this sequel to Blake Edwards&#8217; <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=32736\"><em>The Pink Panther<\/em> (1963)<\/a>, with Peter Sellers returning as the inimitably &#8220;prideful yet stupid, bumbling, and accident-prone Inspector Clouseau&#8221;. He argues that it&#8217;s a &#8220;hilarious&#8230; farce&#8221;, and that while &#8220;the storyline&#8221; (based on a play) &#8220;is fairly conventional&#8221;, &#8220;Sellers makes it unique&#8221;. He writes that &#8220;like Don Adams&#8217;s Maxwell Smart, [Clouseau] never realizes that he&#8217;s anything but a lethal, supercool detective, although everyone else sees that he&#8217;s a fool&#8221;. I&#8217;ll agree with Peary that Sellers is masterful here; one watches his portrayal with admiration and an occasional chuckle. But the film itself &#8212; while certainly watchable &#8212; simply hasn&#8217;t held up all that well. Comedies are notoriously challenging to call out as either successful or not, given how uniquely each viewer will respond to (potentially) humorous material; for my money, the Pink Panther films are semi-decent vehicles for Clouseau&#8217;s pratfalls, but little else. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Peter Sellers as Inspector Clouseau (nominated by Peary as one of the Best Actors of the Year in his <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em>)<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Sellers.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Sellers.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32734\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Sellers.png 853w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Sellers-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Sellers-300x168.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 853px) 100vw, 853px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>The clever opening credits<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Opening-Credits.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Opening-Credits.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"853\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-32733\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Opening-Credits.png 853w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Opening-Credits-128x72.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/11\/Shot-in-the-Dark-Opening-Credits-300x168.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 853px) 100vw, 853px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Henry Mancini&#8217;s score<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nYes, simply to see the best of the popular &#8220;Pink Panther&#8221; series. Nominated by Peary as one of the Best Films of the Year in <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em>, though I don&#8217;t believe it deserves this status. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Historically Relevant<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0058586\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1964\/06\/24\/archives\/screen-reenter-sellers-the-sleuthshot-in-dark-opens-at-two-theaters.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thespinningimage.co.uk\/cultfilms\/displaycultfilm.asp?reviewid=1842&#038;aff=13\">Spinning Image Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/17766\/a-shot-in-the-dark#articles-reviews?articleId=236439\">TCM Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timeout.com\/london\/film\/a-shot-in-the-dark\">Time Out Capsule Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;I suspect everyone!&#8221; Synopsis: A bumbling detective (Peter Sellers) is assigned to investigate a series of murders in which a beautiful maid (Elke Sommer) is the prime suspect. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Blake Edwards Films Comedy Detectives and Private Eyes George Sanders Films Murder Mystery Peter Sellers Response to Peary\u2019s Review: Peary is clearly an enormous fan of this sequel to Blake Edwards&#8217; The Pink Panther (1963), with Peter Sellers returning as the inimitably &#8220;prideful yet stupid, bumbling, and&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=32730\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=32730"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32730\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":65761,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32730\/revisions\/65761"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=32730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=32730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=32730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}