Category Archives: 1964

A Shot in the Dark (1964)

From KANOPY:

Peter Sellers returns as the hapless Inspector Clouseau in this hysterical comedy which introduces Herbert Lom as the long-suffering Dreyfus, and Burt Kwouk as Cato. Mistakenly assigned to a high-profile case, Clouseau finds himself falling for the prime suspect — a beautiful maid named Maria (Elke Sommer), whose talent for being in the wrong place at the wrong time rivals Clouseau’s. But as the body count grows higher, Clouseau must find the real culprit quickly, or his career will be finit!

From Kanopy you can stream this 1 hour 42 minute old classic British comedy.

Recently, I reviewed a 2006 remake of this film called “The Pink Panther” starring Steve Martin.  In comparing the new version with the old 1964 version starring Peter Sellers,  my personal belly laugh count was a bit higher with the newer version.

Try both,  the plots of each film differ from one another.

A Fistful of Dollars (1964)

From NetFlix:

The first film in director Sergio Leone and star Clint Eastwood’s “Man with No Name” trilogy finds a world-weary gunman in a town torn apart by warring gangs. He agrees to work for both sides, ultimately pitting the two factions against each other. Marianne Koch and Gian Maria Volontè co-star in this groundbreaking Western, inspired by filmmaker Akira Kurosawa’s classic Yojimbo and featuring a famous score by Ennio Morricone.

47 years ago, when Clint Eastwood was 34 years old, this historical spaghetti western made quite a splash. And to think that today Clint Eastwood is still going strong as an actor and director.

When the film begins, the lines delivered by the Mexican bell-ringer are very stilted and I was tempted to stop watching. But there is still something very watchable in this film. Could it be the violence ? At one point Clint gets beaten to a pulp by those nasty villains who laugh menacingly while they do it. Probably the fun of the film is watching both the American and Mexican gangs being wiped out slowly but surely. That Clint sure knows a lot of neat tricks!

Sex is not an issue and is, in fact, very chaste and traditional. Our Clint will surely help a beautiful damsel in distress and at the mercy of that villainous Ramón.

Call it a film history lesson or whatever, but I had fun watching!