Comedy sequels are notoriously difficult to execute, but 1964’s A SH๏τ in the Dark provides the perfect blueprint for how to get them right. After 1963’s The Pink Panther, Blake Edwards teamed up with Peter Sellers once more for another hilarious Inspector Clouseau film. The result produced one of Peter Sellers’ best movies.

A SH๏τ in the Dark is 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 surpᴀsses the first movie, but A SH๏τ in the Dark blazes its own trail.

A SH๏τ In The Dark Is An Incredible Sequel To The Pink Panther

1963’s The Pink Panther introduced 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 SH๏τ in the Dark works 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 SH๏τ in the Dark initially 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 in A SH๏τ in the Dark, emphasizing Inspector Clouseau’s inept nature even more so than he does in The 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 ᴅᴇᴀᴅpan facade even when everything goes horribly wrong.

Sellers also has plenty of great line deliveries in A SH๏τ in the Dark. As a detective, Clouseau often likes to ᴀssert 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 in A SH๏τ in the Dark, which rounds out the iconic trio that characterizes the Pink Panther franchise. Not only does A SH๏τ in the Dark work 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 SH๏τ In The Dark

Although A SH๏τ in the Dark is a brilliant sequel, the same can’t be said for some of the later efforts from the Pink Panther franchise. 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 after A SH๏τ 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.

The franchise’s second heyday came in the mid-1970s, when Sellers returned as Clouseau. 1975’s The Return of the Pink Panther is another enjoyable dose of comedic mayhem, even if it does retread familiar territory from the first two movies. The following year produced The Pink Panther Strikes Again, which pokes fun at James Bond movies.

These two movies are the last true hits from the Pink Panther franchise. What followed was a series of duds, especially after Sellers pᴀssed away and the franchise tried in vain to persist without him. Rock-bottom was struck in 1993 with Son 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 ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and buried, with A SH๏τ in the Dark still the funniest movie of them all. There were reports that Eddie Murphy was creating his own Pink Panther reboot in 2023, but these seem to have died down.

Why Quality Comedy Sequels Are So Hard To Pull Of

The struggles of the Pink Panther franchise aren’t the only example of comedy 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, like Zoolander 2, Evan Almighty and Airplane 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 Hangover is 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.

The best comedy franchises work with less specific concepts. The Naked Gun and Austin Powers could come up with any number of interesting stories because they’re spoofing other genres. This also explains why the Pink Panther franchise found some success after its first movie. The character is what’s interesting; not just the situation.

A SH๏τ in the Dark shows 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.