A Shot in the Dark: Special Edition

The second movie in the classic Pink Panther series of crime comedies, A Shot in the Dark is a brilliant re-teaming of director/co-writer Blake Edwards and star Peter Sellers — at his hilarious best as the fearlessly dedicated yet haplessly distracted Inspector Clouseau. Accidentally assigned to a high-profile murder case at a wealthy estate, the fuddled French detective immediately falls head over heels — when not falling out of windows and into ponds! — for the prime suspect, beautiful parlor maid Maria Gambrelli (Elke Sommer). There’s no lengths Clouseau won’t go to in championing Maria as innocent, from disobeying his ferociously furious boss Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) to disrobing at a nudist colony. But when more and more murders occur, will the Inspector himself stay alive long enough to solve the baffling case? George Sanders and Tracy Reed co-star along with — marking their series debuts — Pink Panther fan favorites Graham Stark, Andre Maranne, and karate-chopping Burt Kwouk.