The Peeping Detective

Thoroughly and almost affably unambitious, THE PEEPING DETECTIVE (I have it under decent authority the film may have been called "Snatch Shot" originally, but still have not confirmed 100%) is a low-stakes but proficiently executed storefront grinder. It'll hardly set the world on fire, but you could do a lot worse.

Adam Ward stars (if one can "star" in these things) as a down-on-his-luck private dick on the cusp of losing his business and office. Attempting to calm his nerves via a morning quickie with secretary Sandy Carey, he's interrupted by the arrival of first one and then another customer in rapid succession. Both want Ward to gather evidence their spouse is cheating, and, atypical for the genre, Ward immediately guesses the twist: the two are married and each angling to gain advantage in their divorce proceedings.

Knowing a good thing when he sees it, Ward takes both their cases and, after finally getting The Carey Treatment, sets out of photograph both partners in flagrante with his infrared camera. This leads to some extended couplings featuring the husband, who is indeed sleeping with another lady, and his wife, who's shacking up with her attorney (Ric Lutze)! Ward gets the necessary pics and returns to the office, but what happens when all parties converge by accident the following day?

This is hardly great shakes, but the film is at least competently constructed and takes some care with its story even while being clearly dashed off in a single day. Shockingly, it takes almost 15 minutes for the movie to get to its first sex scene, teasing the audience with flashes of Carey undressing but taking a surprising amount of time to get to business. Porno patrons must have wanted to riot! Following this extended set-up, the film smartly opts not to bite off more than it can chew, cleanly sticking to its simple and well-delimited premise. The result is paint-by-numbers porn that admittedly bogs down during its sex scenes, but at least stays on target and gets over the finish line smoothly, even leaving room for a few flourishes like pratfalls from Ward during his spy missions and high-key drawing room farce as Ward and Carey attempt to hide (or hide others) in the office darkroom.

Perhaps all this is damning with faint praise, as the film's little to write home about, but it has just enough competence that it emerges as diverting while still providing "program picture" porn. One other point of (minor) interest: in contrast to a lot of cheap early XXX, this was clearly shot on a soundstage with a professional jib, which allows for some unusually active camerawork and, in particular, myriad distinctive moments of the camera smoothly raising and lowering during the action. Other films I've seen with this visual tic, such as SEX SPA (aka "How to Lose Weight"), all seem to be credited to James R. Haskin, so it's quite possible he's the mad auteur behind this as well. If so, congrats are due for establishing an efficient and effective assembly-line model, perfect for cranking out quickies like this that hardly break new ground, but are nevertheless laudable for their efficient consistency.