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CLOSE on the heels of "The Pink Panther," which introduced Peter Sellers in the role of a bumbling Parisian detective, Inspector Jacques Clouseau, there comes another go-round with this explosively comical sleuth that makes his previous exposure seem like a warm-up for an out-of-town show. The title of this new adventure is "A Shot in the Dark," and it opened yesterday at the Astor and the Trans-Lux East.
It's an utterly wacky entertainment, and if the title sounds familiar it's because it was plucked from the Broadway stage play, which was adapted from a French play by Marcel Achard. But, believe me, the title and the issue of a maid in a French family accused of murdering her Spanish lover are the only tangible ties to its nominal source.
For this is but vaguely the story of the naughty but nifty maid and of her whimsical attachment to her urbane employer. It is essentially the story—or let's just call it the vehicle—of the sleuth who is sent to find out who murdered that fellow lying dead on the floor.
With an output of comic invention that goes far beyond the matter of the style of the comparatively sophisticated trifle that was played here on the stage three years ago, Blake Edwards and William Peter Blatty have fashioned an out-and-out farce that puts no tax at all on the mentality but just plunges from gag to gag. And they have got Mr. Sellers to plunge with it in the joyously free and facile way that he has so carefully developed as his own special comedy technique.
No sooner does his stalwart-faced detective arrive on the murder scene, a handsome home in Paris, all set to nab the murderer in a moment, than he stumbles into a fountain and gets himself thoroughly drenched. And that's how he stays throughout the picture — figuratively, at least — all wet, while he fumbles and stumbles to unravel a progressively more remote mystery.
But the mystery doesn't matter. It is how Inspector Clouseau tackles it — and especilly how he tackles Elke Sommer as the fantastically toothsome maid. Right off, he assumes she didn't do it. She's too pretty and comforting. His suspicions turn naturally to George Sanders, the wealthy owner of the place. In a hilarious billiards game with him, he gets all tangled up in cues and clues. Only all of the latter are as aimless as the warped cue with which he tries to play.
And while the detective is blundering all over the place — bumping into furniture, snagging crucial areas of his clothes, falling out of windows, pursuing Miss Sommer to a nudist camp v his nervous superior, Commissioner Dreyfus, played by Herbert Lom, is frantically trying to remove him — by murder, if need be — need the case. A series of near-miss encounters with a would-be killer in a succession of nightclubs to which the inspector and the maid go provides some of the liveliest action and some of the wildest humor in the show.
It is mad, but the wonderful dexterity and the air of perpetually buttressed dignity with which Mr. Sellers plays his role make what could quickly be monotonous enjoyable to the end. And the running gags are excellent, particularly one involving frequent bouts with an Oriental houseboy who is learning karate from him.
Miss Sommer is not only lovely. She also makes a bright comedy foil. And Mr. Sanders, Mr. Lom and many others are apt and adroit in their roles, under Mr. Edwards's direction. The whole thing is colorful, gay — and Henry Mancini's music is as sassy and frivolous as the film.
A SHOT IN THE DARK, screenplay by Blake Edwards and William Peter Blatty, based on the plays by Harry Kurnitz and Marcel Achard; produced and directed by Mr. Edwards. A Mirisch-Geoffrey production released through United Artists. At the Astor Theatre, Broadway and 45th Street, and the Trans-Lux East Theater, Third Avenue and 58th Street. Running time: 101 minutes.
Inspector Jacques Clouseau . . . . . Peter Sellers
Maria Gambrelli . . . . . Elke Sommer
Benjamin Ballon . . . . . George Sanders
Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus . . . . . Herbert Lom
Dominque Ballon . . . . . Tracy Reed
Hercule Lajoy . . . . . Graham Stark
Francois . . . . . Andre Maranne
Henri Lafarge . . . . . Douglas Wilmer
Madame Lafarge . . . . . Vanda Godsell
Pierre . . . . . Maurice Kaufman
Georges . . . . . David Lodge
Maurice . . . . . Martin Benson
Camp Director . . . . . Reginald Beckwith


BOSLEY CROWTHER New York Times 24 June 1964

Gossip Girl star Blake Lively in the Bleecker Street Ralph Lauren store (with Ralph's son David) during Fashion's Night Out -- a city-wide Fashion Week event sponsored by some 800 stores.