The Private Eyes (1980)

the audience applauded

Overrated

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Whether your a kid or adult, you'll love this one. Don knotts is classic alone, and even better and funnier when paired with Tim Conway. The gags are very funny, and it's also very clean and family-friendly. Just classic entertainment. I love the environment also, the Biltmore house is an awesome setting for this film. I also think all the other actors did a great job with their roles! Conway and Knotts are just a classic team, like a old version of amy pohler and Tina Fey. I love the twist ending too, as I always do! Laughs at every corner, awesome setting, smart dialogue, and cool effects makes for a great movie night at home one night!

I was just watching a bunch of people talking about the Andy Griffith Show ans the Don Knotts Barney Fife character and immediately, I thought about this film and one scene that still makes me laugh out loud when I think of it. I was never a big fan of the gang from Mayberry (especially Goober who makes my skin crawl, but I digress) but the Don Knotts character I will always fondly remember is the nervous guy on the man in the street interviews with Steve Allen and the one that was such a great match for the hysterically funny Tim Conway.I also love Sherlock Holmes so this made this movie a must see for me. Don Knotts as a "brilliant detective with COnway as his befuddled partner makes it all the more "I have to see this one" kind of movie. I caught it originally on HBO in the days BEFORE cable TV and that one scene where the two send off a carrier pigeon but forget to open the glass door before throwing it in the air makes me laugh even as I'm typing this. And when that unfortunate bird walks in loopy circles, if you don't laugh until your sides hurt or tears run down your face when you see it, you must have no soul so i don't want to know you.I love this movie and have to have that DVD now that I know it's available.

If you haven't seen this flick, it is right up there with Young Frankenstein as the funniest of all time. Written by Tim Conway.Please note that the DVD is indeed edited. Some of the best gags with the pigeons were cut altogether in addition to some other dialouge scenes. These scenes are still available on the old Video Treasures VHS release that is available used.For those curious, the gag with the pigeon painted black/wings is cut, the pigeon catching fire is cut and the "Don't tell her they're canned peas!" scene was also cut. Unbelievable that Conway would let this happen to his only masterpiece....Perhaps maybe we'll get an uncut DVD someday - yeah right - it's amazing this is out on DVD now. Saw this in the theater when I was young and went back the very next day to see it again. After that I waited for 10 years before it came on TV and it still holds up today. RIP Don Knotts, thanks for all of the laughter...

Growing up it was Andy and Three's company and so on that had campy humor. It was the same case that was "funny" for the slap stick type of humor of what was considered funny "in the 70's and 80's" and so on for other TV shows for their time. In my opinion watching this movie reflecting back to the time it was and remembering it as kid to now was just great. The humor that made me smile was nice and made me think back to the days when i watched those shows, as i often do on nick at night, to laugh as I did then and still do even on reruns. Tim Conway and Don Knotts do a great job of muddling thru trying to solve a mystery with a great supporting cast.