The Cheap Detective

1978
PG
1h 32m

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

YOUR RATING

Play trailer3:02

2 Videos

31 Photos

Bumbling Detective Parody Comedy Crime Mystery Romance Thriller

San Francisco, 1940, detectives, dames, documents, Nazis, and a treasure.San Francisco, 1940, detectives, dames, documents, Nazis, and a treasure.San Francisco, 1940, detectives, dames, documents, Nazis, and a treasure.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

6.4/10

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 1 nomination total

Trivia
The movie was titled "The Cheap Detective", according to screenwriter Neil Simon, "because the detective in those old films never got paid! Who paid Humphrey Bogart for finding all those crooks in The Maltese Falcon (1941)? He arrested Mary Astor and sent her and everyone else to jail. Who paid him? The character is always involved in danger not for the bucks but because it's his lifestyle."

Goofs
Approximately 45 minutes in, Lou meets with the Madeline Kahn character in his office. A male member of the crew is visible, seated on a couch. He is in a pink shirt, wearing eyeglasses and appears to be reading a script. He is only visible for about a second, as the camera pans across the room. From contemporary photos it looks very much like Neil Simon himself.

Quotes
Jezebel Dezire: Won't you join me in a little drinkie? What's your pleasure?
Lou Peckinpaugh: Uh, what you got there looks good.
Jezebel Dezire: I know... but I thought you'd like a little drink first.

Crazy credits
Opening credits prologue: In 1939, the ominous grey clouds of war broke loose over Western Europe and rained down havoc and destruction . . . followed by humidity and gradual clearing.

In the Philippines, a small band of native guerrillas prepared secretly for the inevitable conflict that would soon engulf the East . . . This has nothing to do with our story.

Our story is about crime. Not the bad crime we face each day on our streets . . . but the good crime we came to know and love in a time when the world was innocent ... when murder wasn't something you were ashamed of ... when a bullet hole wasn't something disgusting . . . and when a man could betray a woman without feeling guilty. Our story starts in a fictitious city called San Francisco ... seven thousand miles away from Casablanca.

Connections
Featured in The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson: Ann-Margret/Robert Mitchum/Tom Dreesen/Joseph Sorrentino (1978)

Soundtracks
La Vie en Rose
Music by Louiguy
Lyrics by Édith Piaf
Performed by Eileen Brennan and others at Nix Place

User reviews93

Review

Featured review

7/10

Does not quite find the mark

Looking for (but not quite finding) the footsteps of "Murder by Death."

While I love this movie and watch it quite often, it is a rather cheesy knock-off of "Murder by Death." This time spoofing "The Maltese Falcon" and "Casablanca," Neil Simon's hit or miss style misses this time, but only by a small margin.

This movie is not hilarious, nor exceptionally intelligent comedy, but it is still very entertaining. I honestly found "Murder by Death" to be a much more enjoyable experience.

That having been said, this star-studded cast puts forth at least a valid attempt to pull off this sometimes haphazardly written screen play, and hits at least 2 out of 5 punch lines with some effect.

If you are a fan of the Bogie movies which it satirizes, this is definitely a must-see. It is you, for which this movie was written in the first place.

It rates a 6.5/10 from...

the Fiend :.