History Film / AShotInTheDark

Despite being considered as part of ''The Pink Panther'' franchise, it's notably the only film amongst the entries directed by Blake Edwards and starring Peter Sellers to not have "The Pink Panther" in the title, and to lack The Pink Panther character and theme. Not that it stops the former from [[WolverinePublicity appearing on covers of the film's home releases]].

Despite being considered as part of ''The Pink Panther'' franchise, it's notably the only film amongst the entries directed by Blake Edwards and starring Peter Sellers to not have "The Pink Panther" in the title, and to lack The Pink Panther character and theme. Not that it stops the former from [[WolverinePublicity appearing on covers of the film's home release]].

Despite being considered as part of ''The Pink Panther'' franchise, it's notably the only one amongst the entries directed by Blake Edwards and starring Peter Sellers to not have "The Pink Panther" in the title, and to lack The Pink Panther character and theme. Not that it stops the former from [[WolverinePublicity appearing on covers of the film's home release]].

Despite being considered as part of ''The Pink Panther'' franchise, it's notably the only one amongst the entries directed by Blake Edwards and starring Peter Sellers to not have "The Pink Panther" in the title, and also the only one to lack The Pink Panther character. Not that it stops him from [[WolverinePublicity appearing on covers of the film's home release]].

Despite being considered as part of ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' franchise, due to its nature as a standalone film, it's notably the only film amongst the entries directed by Blake Edwards and starring Peter Sellers to not have "The Pink Panther" in the title, and to lack The Pink Panther character. Not that it stops him from [[WolverinePublicity appearing on covers of the film's home release]].

* OddballInTheSeries: This is the only film in ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' series to not be have ''The Pink Panther'' in the title, nor the Pink Panther diamond, or the character. This is largely because it was intended to be a standalone film as opposed to a sequel to ''Film/ThePinkPanther1963'' like the later films, only getting retroactively added to the franchise later on. Its also the [[DarkerAndEdgier darkest and most violent out of the films]].

* OddballInTheSeries: This is the only film in the Franchise/PinkPanther series to not be have ''The Pink Panther'' in the title, nor the Pink Panther diamond, or the character. This is largely because it was intended to be a standalone film as opposed to a sequel like the later films, only getting retroactively added to the franchise later on. Its also the [[DarkerAndEdgier darkest out of the films]].

Loosely adapted from a 1961 Broadway play of the same name, which was itself based on a French play called ''L'Idiote (The Idiot)'' and featured a cast including Creator/WilliamShatner, Julie Harris, and Creator/WalterMatthau (who won a Tony Award for his performance). Director Creator/BlakeEdwards wrote the screenplay adaptation with William Peter Blatty, who later went on to write ''Literature/TheExorcist''.

** Dreyfus puts a bomb on Clouseau's car on the final act, hoping it will kill him -- and it goes off on the summation, with every single murderer inside it (who had gotten in it trying to get away from Clouseau). He has one second of showing an "OhCrap" reaction before starting to yell at Clouseau about how several innocent people are dead because of him (and when Jacques points out that they were ''all'' murderous criminals, Dreyfus calls them "saints, compared to you!").

** Another example appears later when Clouseau gets ambushed by what appears to be a chinese assassin. As it turns out this is his manservant [[BattleButler Cato]]. These fights quickly became a [[OncePerEpisode mainstay of the series.]]

* NonProtagonistResolver: [[spoiler:Clouseau's bumbling attempt to reveal who is the killer(s) makes all of the murderers (and one blackmailer) expose each other out of spite, but he doesn't arrests them and he still has no evidence. The whole lot of them jump into Clouseau's car to skedaddle away from this annoyance, and [[ExternalCombustion subsequently get killed by the bomb Dreyfus placed in said car]] in his own completely independent attempts at taking out Clouseau.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: Maria was having an affair with the married victim, which is why she's the primary suspect. [[spoiler: Also, everyone else in the house was also having an affair with everyone else in the house.]] Dreyfus' first scene also reveals that he's cheating on his wife as well.

-->--'''Chief Inspector Dreyfus'''

Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Creator/PeterSellers), now single, is summoned to the estate of the aristocratic Benjamin Ballon (Creator/GeorgeSanders) to investigate the murder of Ballon's chauffeur. Clouseau's judgment is immediately clouded by his infatuation with the prime suspect, the maid Maria Gambrelli (Creator/ElkeSommer), even as more murders pile up around her. His bungling drives his boss, Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Creator/HerbertLom), to homicidal madness. In the meantime, we also meet Cato Fong (Burt Kwouk), Clouseau's Chinese manservant, who -- on Clouseau's orders -- keeps springing surprise martial arts attacks on him.

* OrgyOfEvidence: Parodied. Maria Gambrelli, the poor woman framed for the various murders that happen throughout the film, has all kinds of evidence against her, from motive for all of them up to actually being caught standing over every single dead body, holding the murder weapon and being unable to explain what happened. Jacques Clouseau, out of a combination of sheer stupidity and sexual attraction to Gambrelli, continuously refuses to accept that she is the murderer and continues to investigate, eventually making all of the other murderers too nervous [[spoiler:and making them get in Clouseau's car to drive away from him -- a car [[ExternalCombustion that has been wired to explode]] by a crazy [[DaChief Chief Inspector Dreyfus]], [[NonProtagonistResolver which kills them all]] and leads to Maria's (off-screen) vindication.]]

* SanitySlippage: Poor, poor Chief Inspector Dreyfus.

* HandOfDeath: Several botched attempts to kill Clouseau.

* OhCrap: Dreyfus, when he's told that Clouseau has been assigned to the case.

* TimeBomb: Dreyfus sends Clouseau a clock that is really a bomb set to go off at three. When it goes off, however, [[NonFatalExplosion nobody is killed or injured]].

Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Creator/PeterSellers), now single, is summoned to the estate of the aristocratic Benjamin Ballon (Creator/GeorgeSanders) to investigate the murder of Ballon's chauffeur. Clouseau's judgment is immediately clouded by his infatuation with the prime suspect, the maid Maria Gambrelli (Elke Sommer), even as more murders pile up around her. His bungling drives his boss, Chief Inspector Charles Dreyfus (Creator/HerbertLom), to homicidal madness. In the meantime, we also meet Cato Fong (Burt Kwouk), Clouseau's Chinese manservant, who -- on Clouseau's orders -- keeps springing surprise martial arts attacks on him.

* TheOner: TheTeaser before the credits features one that lasts about four minutes.

* SummationGathering: Subverted; Clouseau has no idea who the killer is, and is just hoping they'll expose themselves by panicking. Further parodied when he loses his train of thought during the summation and has to ask the butler what he was talking about. And then dissolves into outright chaos as [[spoiler: everyone starts incriminating each other and revealing that they ''all'' committed one murder each.]]

* YourCheatingHeart: Maria was having an affair with the married victim, which is why she's the primary suspect. [[spoiler: Also, everyone else in the house was also having an affair with everyone else in the house.]]

* TheOner: The pre-credits {{Teaser}} sequence features one that lasts about four minutes.

* SmokingHotSex: DiscussedTrope.

* TooDumbToFool: Clouseau refuses to believe that Maria Gambrelli is the murderer, despite her turning up at every murder scene with the weapon and a motive for murder, out of sheer stupidity and love-struck foolishness. He is eventually proven right.

* RecycledSoundtrack: The opening theme during the credits would be reused in ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'' cartoon "Dial 'P' For Pink, where a burglar tries to break into the Pink Panther's safe, which he uses as a house. A remixed version became the opening and closing theme of ''WesternAnimation/TheInspector''.

** Dreyfus puts a bomb on Clouseau's car on the final act, hoping it will kill him -- and it goes off on the summation, with every single murderer inside it (who had gotten in it trying to get away from Clouseau). He has one second of showing an "OhCrap" reaction before starting to yell at Clouseau about how several people are dead because of him (and when Jacques points out that they were ''all'' murderous criminals, Dreyfus calls them "saints, compared to you!").

* SummationGathering: Subverted; Clouseau has no idea who the killer is, and is just hoping they'll expose themselves by panicking. Further parodied when he loses his train of thought during the summation and has to ask the butler what he was talking about.

* YourCheatingHeart: Maria was having an affair with the married victim, which is why she's the primary suspect.

* RunningGag: Clouseau getting arrested while undercover and hauled off in the police van.

* TheOner: The pre-credits {{Teaser}} sequence features one lasting more than four minutes.

* TheOner: The pre-credits {{Teaser}} sequence.

* TheOner: The four-minute prologue sequence is done in one continuous shot.