History Film / AShotInTheDark

* 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, except for the blackmailer.]]

* NeverTheObviousSuspect: Exaggerated for laughs. Throughout the movie, Maria Gambrelli is constantly found standing over dead people, with her hand on the murder weapon, she's completely incapable of providing an explanation, and she has a few dark secrets involving the murdered people. The only thing that would make her an even more obvious suspect would be if she broke out into a MotiveRant right then and there. All other policemen believe this to be an open-and-shut case. And to their exasperation, Clouseau ''never'' believes her to be the murderer... [[TheCloudcuckoolanderWasRight and he ends up being right]], ''purely by accident''.

** [[spoiler: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 Clouseau reminds him that they were actually murderous criminals, Dreyfus snaps, "Compared with you, they were all saints!").

** [[spoiler: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 Clouseau points out that they were ''all'' murderous criminals, Dreyfus calls them "saints, compared to you!").

* NeverTheObviousSuspect: Exaggerated for laughs. Throughout the whole movie, Maria Gambrelli is constantly found standing over dead people, with her hand on the murder weapon, she's completely incapable of providing an explanation, and she has a few dark secrets involving the murdered people. The only thing that would make her an even more obvious suspect would be if she broke out into a MotiveRant right then and there. All other policemen believe this to be an open-and-shut case. And to their exasperation, Clouseau ''never'' believes her to be the murderer... [[TheCloudcuckoolanderWasRight and he ends up being right]], ''purely by accident''.

** [[spoiler: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!").

* BeleagueredAssistant: Hercule Lajoy is this to Clouseau. The character didn't appear in subsequent films outside of a brief cameo in ''Trail'', although his actor (Graham Stark) did return [[YouLookFamiliar in other roles]].

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''A Shot in the Dark'' is the second film in ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther'' franchise, released in 1964.

Loosely [[TheFilmOfThePlay adapted from]] the 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, Creator/JulieHarris, 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''.

Despite being considered as part of ''The Pink Panther'' franchise, it's notably one of two films (the second being 1968's ''Inspector Clouseau'') and 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]].

* ReassignedToAntarctica: At one point, Dreyfus tries to get Clouseau kicked out of the Inspectorate and transferred to Records. Specifically, ''the records department of the police department on the Caribbean island of Martinique.'' Oh, and he can say goodbye to his pension if he doesn't show.

* ReassignedToAntarctica: At one point, Dreyfus tries to get Clouseau kicked out of the Inspectorate and transferred to Records. Specifically, the records department of the police department on the Caribbean island of Martinique.

* RightForTheWrongReasons: Clouseau refuses to believe that Maria did any of the killings, and is right. But he doesn't have any proof of this, just thinks the obviously (at first glance) guilty woman is innocent because she's pretty.

* CassandraTruth: Clouseau is the only person on the force convinced that Maria Gambrelli is ''not'' the murderer, and spends the entire time trying to prove it.

* AsideGlance: Clouseau gives the camera a hapless stare when his final attempt at unmasking the murderer dissolves into a verbal melee between all the suspects.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Francois, who is a minor character, assigns Clouseau to the case before knowing who lived at the address that was given in the murder report. Clouseau's incompetence gets him continuously removed from the case for bungling it by Dreyfuss, only to be put back on due to Ballon's connections. This results in Clouseau constantly letting Maria out of jail and getting more people killed which drives Dreyfuss murderously insane until he's eventually locked up in a sanitarium. In other words, Francios assigning Clouseau to the case kicked off the series as it would become known.

* GeorgeJetsonJobSecurity: Dreyfus keeps trying to get Clouseau kicked off the case so they can formally charge the maid and get it over with, but Ballon (who wants an idiot on the case to botch the investigation) keeps using his wealth and connections to force Dreyfus to put him back on it.

* EverybodyDidIt: The summation gathering at the end results in all the suspects accusing each other of murder. Turns out almost everyone was a murderer... or a blackmailer.

* EstablishingCharacterMoment: Dreyfus' aide regretfully informs him that the investigation has been assigned to Clouseau, Dreyfus is [[OhCrap absolutely appalled]] at that happening, and Clouseau arrives at the Ballon estate and immediately tumbles into a pond the moment he steps out of his car.

Loosely adapted from the 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, Creator/JulieHarris, 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''.

* KarmaHoudini: Dreyfus (accidentally) kills four innocent bystanders in an attempt to kill Clouseau, yet no one calls him on it. He ''is'' taken away at the end, presumably to face punishment, but this is completely forgotten about in the sequels.

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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, Commissioner 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.

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, Creator/JulieHarris, 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''.