In A Shot in the Dark (1964), Peter Sellers returned as Inspector Clouseau, now investigating a murder at a country house where everyone seems to have a motive and a secret. Directed by Blake Edwards, the film gives Clouseau more room than The Pink Panther had, and Sellers fills it with a performance that is at once bumbling and oddly brilliant.
The comedy here is physical as well as verbal: Clouseau destroys a room simply by entering it, yet he also notices the clue that others miss. Sellers plays the contradiction straight, which is why the character endures. A Shot in the Dark confirmed that Clouseau was not a one-film accident, but a creation Sellers could return to, each time finding a new way for dignity and disaster to share the same suit.