A Shot in the Dark

1941
A
57m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

Ricardo Cortez, William Lundigan, Regis Toomey, and Nan Wynn in A Shot in the Dark (1941)

Homicide detective Bill Ryder reluctantly teams up with wise-cracking newshound Peter Kennedy to solve a pair of murders.Homicide detective Bill Ryder reluctantly teams up with wise-cracking newshound Peter Kennedy to solve a pair of murders.Homicide detective Bill Ryder reluctantly teams up with wise-cracking newshound Peter Kennedy to solve a pair of murders.

Director
- William C. McGann
Writers
- M. Coates Webster
- Frederick Nebel
Stars

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.7/10

231

YOUR RATING

Director
- William C. McGann
Writers
- M. Coates Webster
- Frederick Nebel
Stars

8User reviews

See production info at IMDbPro

User reviews8

Featured review

5/10

Not Peter Sellers

No, this is not the Peter Sellers movie of the 60s. it is a short and fast moving mystery/comedy that might have originated as a project planned for James Cagney and Pat O'Brien.

A Shot In The Dark gas reporter William Lundigan witness the murder of a man about to purchase nightclub owner Ricardo Cortez's business interests. The assigned detective is Regis Toomey, Lundigan's rival for singer Nan Wynn who works for Cortez.

Lundigan and Toomey act like juveniles around Wynn lucky they had time to solve the murder. She gets to sing some popular standards and for once not as Rita Hayworth's or someone else's dubbed voices.

Both the guys get a good comeuppance from Wynn in the end. Considering the times the film came out in, a proper one too.

bkoganbing
Jun 28, 2020
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Storyline

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Trivia
The opening building shot (model) is the frequently-used one that goes as far back as Female (1933) with Ruth Chatterton, though it likely predates even that film.

Goofs
When Lieutenant Ryder goes to Phil Richards' apartment and Phil introduces him to his fiancée, she is holding a cigarette and pointing it up with the palm out. But on the next cut, she now has the cigarette pointing toward the Lieutenant. Then on the following cuts after that, she goes back and forth between the two holding positions.

Crazy credits
In the opening credits, the leads are optically billed not by their names or even their characters' names, but by their characters' professions (e.g., "Newspaperman," "Night Club Owner"), though the actors are listed in the prior title cards.

Connections
Featured in The Doldrum: A Shot in the Dark (1954)

Soundtracks
I'm Just Wild About Harry
(1921)
Written by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake
Sung by Nan Wynn with revised lyrics (lyricist unknown) at the nightclub