SanEat A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

IncaWelCar In truth, any opportunity to see the film on the big screen is welcome.

Kinley This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

classicsoncall If you enjoy movie parody, this send-up of Bogart classics will be right up your alley. The nods to "Casablanca" and "The Maltese Falcon" are plainly obvious, with more than a passing reference in the latter part of the picture to "The Big Sleep". You could tell the principal players were having a hoot of a time filming this; just watch Louise Fletcher as she caresses Peter Falk's shoulder in that scene where he tells her he has a bottle of champagne he bought for the honeymoon that never was. When he mentions that the bread and cheese got hard as a rock, she starts to crack up before gaining composure again.With the usual gang of idiots like Madeline Kahn and Dom DeLuise on hand, one might think this was a Mel Brooks production, but this one comes courtesy of Neil Simon and director Robert Moore. It's almost impossible to pick out a favorite funny moment because there are so many quips and sight gags it's hard to keep up. Every time Lou Peckinpaugh (Peter Falk) opens a nightstand or desk drawer he's pulling out a ready made drink, doing so with the greatest equanimity. Each of the female leads was a blast and a half, pulling off their impersonations perfectly, with both Eileen Brennan and Ann-Margret sending up Bogey's main squeeze, Lauren Bacall.While it's fun to play the match game with the characters here with those in Bogart's actual films, I guess my favorite would have been Madeline Kahn doing the Mary Astor thing from "The Maltese Falcon" with all the phony aliases. Scatman Crothers is also in fine form as piano player Tinker, reprising the Dooley Wilson role as Sam in "Casablanca". I would never have guessed that 'Jeepers, Creepers' was on Lou's forbidden song list the same way 'As Time Goes By' was for Rick Blaine. Not enough romance in it I guess.A couple years after this film came out, Robert Sacchi did a similar turn in "The Man With Bogart's Face", another parody heavy on the Casablanca and Maltese Falcon references. The one thing he did that Peter Falk didn't even try was Bogey's familiar facial grimace in a tense situation, although by the time that picture was finished he might have overdone it. So if it comes to making a recommendation between the two flicks, I'd have to paraphrase Rick Blaine from "Casablanca" or Marlene DuChard (Louise Fletcher) in this one - "Of all the cheap gin joints and film noir knock-offs in this world, I pick this one".

D_Burke 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.

jeremy3 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'.

ozthegreatat42330 Following closely on the heels of the hilarious "Murder By Death" and using a few of the same actors, is Neil Simon's classic spoof and tribute to the film noir detective pictures of Humphrey Bogart. With the comedy talents of Peter Falk, Madeline Kahn, James Coco, Paul Williams and many more the combined spoof of "Casablanca," "The Maltese Falcon" and "San Francisco" are a true screen gem. As always, the film features the witty dialog of Neil Simon, who captures the flavor and pokes gentle fun at those films. There are also several running gags throughout the film such as the miserliness of Falk's character, from which the movie gets its title. Falk perfectly deflates the characters played by Bogie in the afore mentioned films, while Madeline Kahn is over the top as the mysterious women with a different name each time he sees her. Louise Fletcher films in perfectly as the heroine from Casablanca, while Fernando Lamas is her resistance fighter husband. And John Houseman shines as the double of the Sidney Greenstreet Character. Finally there is Niccol Williamson as the Nazi colonel from Casablanca. If you love good comedy, or enjoyed those Bogart movies, this is the perfect film for you