Comedy sequels are notoriously difficult to execute, but 1964’sA Shot in the Darkprovides the perfect blueprint for how to get them right. After 1963’sThe Pink Panther,Blake Edwards teamed up with Peter Sellers once more for another hilarious Inspector Clouseau film. The result produced one ofPeter Sellers' best movies.
A Shot in the Darkis one of very few prominent examples of a comedy sequel that’s even funnier than the original movie. This is a shock, because fans of comedy movies will know that sequels usually offer diminishing returns. Even a good comedy sequel rarely matches or surpasses the first movie, butA Shot in the Darkblazes its own trail.
A Shot In The Dark Is An Incredible Sequel To The Pink Panther
1963’sThe Pink Pantherintroduced the character of Inspector Clouseau, but he isn’t the only star. Sellers shares top billing with David Niven, who stars as the debonair jewel thief known as “The Phantom.” Their game of cat-and-mouse subverts every trope of the heist genre, as the Phantom is plagued by a bumbling, tactless oaf.
A Shot in the Darkworks so well because it shifts focus away from Niven’s jewel thief, leaving Inspector Clouseau as the star of the show. In a case that’s completely unrelated to the first movie, Clouseau wades into a murder mystery at a luxurious French mansion in the countryside, where every inhabitant and member of staff is a suspect.
A Shot in the Darkinitially looks like a classic murder mystery in the style of Agatha Christie, but Clouseau’s unorthodox style means that the case shoots off into several bizarre tangents. He almost forgets all about the first murder as the bodies start to pile up, and he becomes just as fixated on romance as his duties.
Peter Sellers delivers an outstanding comedic performance inA Shot in the Dark,emphasizing Inspector Clouseau’s inept nature even more so than he does inThe Pink Panther.He’s a master in the art of physical comedy, both in terms of careless or clumsy mishaps and minute facial expressions. Clouseau often maintains a deadpan facade even when everything goes horribly wrong.
Sellers also has plenty of great line deliveries inA Shot in the Dark.As a detective, Clouseau often likes to assert himself and maintain an authoritative presence, or at least he attempts to. His speech about “the facts” is a highlight of the film, as it reveals how little he actually knows and the ludicrous thought processes that got him to that point.
Cato and Dreyfus are both introduced inA Shot in the Dark,which rounds out the iconic trio that characterizes thePink Pantherfranchise. Not only doesA Shot in the Darkwork well as a sequel with a fresh setting and story, but it helped launch the franchise’s future.
Unfortunately, The Pink Panther Franchise Peaked With A Shot In The Dark
AlthoughA Shot in the Darkis a brilliant sequel, the same can’t be said for some of the later efforts from thePink Pantherfranchise. There are still some gems worth watching, but overall, the franchise dragged on for far too long, only getting worse and worse as it went.
The franchise didn’t maintain its momentum afterA Shot in the Dark,partly because Peter Sellers was so reluctant to return to the same role again. The next sequel came out in 1968, but replacing Sellers with Alan Arkin was a woeful misstep, and it was met with a slew of negative reviews.
89%
78%
7.0
A Shot in the Dark (1964)
94%
87%
7.3
0%
21%
4.7
86%
82%
72%
83%
7.1
Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)
84%
70%
6.6
Trail of the Pink Panther (1982)
23%
32%
4.8
Curse of the Pink Panther (1983)
29%
4.3
Son of the Pink Panther (1993)
6%
18%
3.9
51%
5.7
13%
42%
5.6
The franchise’s second heyday came in the mid-1970s, when Sellers returned as Clouseau. 1975’sThe Return of the Pink Pantheris another enjoyable dose of comedic mayhem, even if it does retread familiar territory from the first two movies. The following year producedThe Pink Panther Strikes Again,which pokes fun atJames Bondmovies.
These two movies are the last true hits from thePink Pantherfranchise. What followed was a series of duds, especially after Sellers passed away and the franchise tried in vain to persist without him.Rock-bottom was struck in 1993 withSon of the Pink Panther,which holds a miserable 6% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Steve Martin’s full franchise reboot wasn’t particularly successful, and it now seems as though the franchise is dead and buried, withA Shot in the Darkstill the funniest movie of them all. There were reports thatEddie Murphy was creating his ownPink Pantherrebootin 2023, but these seem to have died down.
Why Quality Comedy Sequels Are So Hard To Pull Of
The struggles of thePink Pantherfranchise aren’t the only example ofcomedy sequels failing to live up to the hype. It’s far too common in Hollywood for successful comedies to be followed by unimaginative follow-ups, likeZoolander 2, Evan AlmightyandAirplane II: The Sequel.
Comedy movies are often about specific situations, so it’s impossible to recreate the same unpredictable narrative for a second time.The Hangoveris a great example, because the first movie is about a once-in-a-lifetime night of debauchery, so the sequels essentially had to rehash the exact same idea with slightly different circumstances.
Thebest comedy franchiseswork with less specific concepts.The Naked GunandAustin Powerscould come up with any number of interesting stories because they’re spoofing other genres. This also explains why thePink Pantherfranchise found some success after its first movie. The character is what’s interesting; not just the situation.
A Shot in the Darkshows how to pull off a great comedy sequel, but it doesn’t apply to any comedy movie. It isn’t always so easy to create a completely new story featuring the same characters. The truth is that not all comedy movies lend themselves to the sequel treatment, and these follow-up movies are doomed from the start.
