The Cheap Detective (1978)

Such a frustrating disappointment

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Great Film! Funny and "proper" ... people cared about the way they dressed and talked to their fellow man or woman in the time period of the movie (1940s), they were NOT distracted with modern technology, they were NOT in a hurry like modern people, they had time to "LIVE" in the "MOMENT" and enjoy it, the script or conversation of the film shows this very nicely, the whole atmosphere of the film as created in the studio with all the props and the clothes worn by the actors were a great match for the script and dialog of the movie!-tibor

The idea of "The Cheap Detective" was to be a spoof of the Humphrey Bogart classic movies "Casablanca" (1942) and "The Maltese Falcone" (1941), both of which were arguably Bogart's most famous movies (if, perhaps, you don't count "The African Queen" (1951)). It showed a lot of promise with it being written by the brilliant Neil Simon, who wrote such great plays as "The Odd Couple", "The Sunshine Boys", and "The Goodbye Girl" to name a few. The aforementioned plays also went on to become great movies as well. However, despite the accomplished team behind the also funny "Murder By Death" (1976) (including Simon, director Robert Moore, and some members of the cast), "The Cheap Detective" felt flat and uninspired as a comedy.I could not find any information about how this film did when it was originally released in 1978, although I'm sure "Murder By Death" did better. However, there was another famous big-budget movie with an all star cast that was also released in 1978 which failed miserably. That movie was "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", and I think (although I don't know for sure) that "The Cheap Detective" failed for similar reasons."The Cheap Detective", like "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", had a noticeably large budget, an all-star cast, and all stars working behind the scene too. The problem for me with "The Cheap Detective" was not the writing so much as the delivery of the lines from the main actors. I love Peter Falk, and I think he's usually great in whatever movie he's in, even if it's "Corky Romano" (2001). However, half of the time I couldn't understand what he was saying, almost as if he took it upon himself to impersonate Humphrey Bogart instead of just playing a hard-boiled detective. This spoof movie is very dialogue-heavy, and relies very little on physical gags, and there's nothing wrong with that. After all, recent spoof movies like "Meet The Spartans" and "Disaster Movie" was almost all physical gags, and those movies were just rotten! That being said, if your laughs come solely, or mostly, from dialogue, you have to make sure the audience can actually understand what you're saying.While the rest of the cast was not as difficult to understand, many of the lines failed miserably upon delivery mostly due to poor timing. It's surprising too, because there were comic actors in this movie who are still considered comic legends, such as Sid Caesar, Phil Silvers, Dom DeLuise, and Madeline Kahn. Although these actors shined in other classic comedy films (especially DeLuise and Kahn, who were great in Mel Brooks movies of the time), their attempts at comedy here felt weak.Another big problem with the movie was the supporting women in it; the vixens if you will. With Madeline Kahn, Stockard Channing, and (especially) Ann-Margret being the primary exceptions, the other women in this movie weren't especially attractive. It sounds very pig-headed of me to say this, but attractive women as vixens create a necessary tension which makes more room for comedy in these kinds of situations. It's difficult to explain entirely, but regardless, these other women seemed wooden and delivered their funny lines with even less accurate timing than the comic legends. Eileen Brennan seemed very out of place in this movie, and came out looking like Jessica Rabbit's grandmother. This movie seemed to try to deny her age entirely, and try way too hard to make her a convincing leading lady. Needless to say, she failed.Above all, spoof movie or not, movies work best when a story is being told, and when you care about the characters portrayed. Bogart's movies worked well because of those elements. This movie did not. There was just too much going on, too many cheap gags, and bad timing on the lines. My guess was that Neil Simon was surrounded by a bunch of "yes" men during the writing of this film, as was the rest of the cast. Someone should have been the objective person on the set and said, "This is not really as funny as it should be. Let's try it this way instead". I'd be willing to bet that if Simon and Moore collaborated with Mel Brooks on this film, it would be considered as timeless as "High Anxiety" and "History of the World Part I" is today. I'm not a big Hitchcock fan or history buff personally, but I still found both of those movies very funny and very enjoyable even after multiple viewings. Not this movie, though. I can't quite recommend it.

I remember as a kid when this came out the critics called it a flop. After seeing it so many years later, I think that the critics didn't get it. The humor was very subtle. You can to understand the detective/thriller genres of the 40s, most notably Casablanca. Like in Airplane, the humor comes so fast that you may miss it. Peter Falk is funny, if unusually subdued, in portraying a bumbling detective trying to solve a mystery that is in itself completely silly and inane. I thought the Casablanca parody scenes were hilarious. There were hilarious movies, like when he tells the piano player (Scatman Crothers) "Don't play it, Sam". Or when Louise Fletcher goes into a patriotic rant to which the Nazi officer says that she 'is beautiful and amazing, and yet an absolute bore'. Sid Caesar has a nearly wordless role, yet his goofy and demented look is comic brilliance at it's best. All in all, it is a funny spoof poking fun of the black and white mystery/detective films of the 40s. Perhaps the most funny thing was the beginning credits, that say 'there is a war going on, but this movie is set in San Francisco, thousands of miles from Casablanca, and has nothing to do with the war effort'.

If Humphrey Bogart could have seen The Cheap Detective he'd have loved every minute of it. I counted satirical moments from The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, The Big Sleep and To Have and Have Not as well as other noir classics that Neil Simon cleverly worked into a plot that makes no rational sense, but will keep you glued to the chair with laughter.Bogey would have liked Peter Falk's spot on impersonation of the detective from the wrong side of the tracks. Falk is always a player with one amazing bag of tricks whether he's serious as in Murder, Inc., or funny as in Robin and the Seven Hoods or a bit of both as in The Brink's Job.Not since It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World had so many funny people gathered together for one film. Even normally serious actors like Fernando Lamas and Nicol Williamson seem to be having a ball just hamming it up. My favorite aside from Falk is Eileen Brennan as Betty DeBoop. How can you go wrong with a name like that.You can't describe any kind of plot, the whole thing is so much wonderful nonsense. Just sit back and enjoy.