Here’s an origin story most people don’t know. A Shot in the Dark wasn’t written as a Pink Panther film at all. It was adapted from a French stage play called L’Idiote by Marcel Achard, and Peter Sellers was attached before The Pink Panther even opened. When Blake Edwards came aboard to direct, he rewrote the script so thoroughly that it bore almost no resemblance to the source material, swapped in Inspector Clouseau as the lead, and introduced the supporting characters who would define the franchise for the next two decades. The result, released the same year as the original, is often considered the best film in the entire series. Kino Lorber’s new 4K UHD makes the case convincingly.

Clouseau (Sellers) is assigned to investigate a murder at the estate of millionaire Benjamin Ballon (George Sanders, Rebecca). The chief suspect is the beautiful maid Maria Gambrelli (Elke Sommer, A Prize of Gold), and Clouseau becomes immediately, hopelessly smitten. Convinced of her innocence despite a mountain of evidence, he releases her from custody repeatedly, and each time another body turns up. His boss, Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom, The Ladykillers), grows increasingly unhinged. Clouseau’s manservant Cato (Burt Kwouk) keeps ambushing him at inopportune moments. The bodies keep piling up. And Clouseau remains cheerfully, stubbornly certain he’s right.

This is the film where the formula clicked into place. Dreyfus, Cato, and François (André Maranne) all make their first appearances here, and each would become a series fixture. Sellers also begins developing the exaggerated French accent that would become Clouseau’s signature. The physical comedy is more confident and sustained than in the original, with a legendary sequence involving a nudist colony that builds to one of the great extended gags in comedy history. Edwards directs with a sure hand, knowing exactly when to let Sellers improvise and when to tighten the screws on the mystery plot.

The relationship between Edwards and Sellers was already crumbling during production, though. Edwards wanted his star to take drastic steps to maintain his appearance while Sellers wanted to explore new acting challenges, not repeat the same role/jokes endlessly. They reportedly vowed never to work together again after filming wrapped, though they’d reconcile four years later for The Party and three more Panther sequels after that. Whatever was happening behind the camera, it doesn’t show on screen. The film crackles with energy. There’s a consensus calling it the best of the Panther sequels, and Channel 4 ranked it the 38th greatest comedy film ever made.

Kino Lorber’s 4K disc features a new HDR/Dolby Vision master from a 4K scan of the 35mm original camera negative, and the upgrade is impressive. The Panavision photography looks sharp and detailed, with strong color reproduction across both the studio interiors and Paris locations. A commentary from Jason Simos of the Peter Sellers Appreciation Society accompanies both discs, and the Blu-ray includes a 23-minute featurette with producer Walter Mirisch on the series’ origins, a Blake Edwards and Julie Andrews appearance on The Dick Cavett Show, and five theatrical trailers.

A Shot in the Dark is the rare sequel that meets the original exactly where it landed and arguably surpasses it. Every bit as fun, every bit as sharp, and now every bit as gorgeous on disc.