THE CHEAP DETECTIVE (1978) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Robert Moore
Peter Falk, Ann-Margret, Madeline Kahn, Sid Caesar,
Eileen Brennan, Stockard Channing, John Houseman,
Dom DeLuise, Nicol Williamson, Louise Fletcher,
Fernando Lamas, Marsha Mason, James Coco,
Paul Williams, Phil Silvers, David Ogden Stiers,
Abe Vigoda, Scatman Crothers, James Cromwell
A comic mashup of "The Maltese Falcon" and "Casablanca", with Peter Falk as the Humphrey Bogart surrogate, a hard-boiled private eye named Lou Peckinpaugh. There are dames, of course, and shady characters with names like Pepe Damascus (Dom DeLuise) and Jasper Blubber (John Houseman), and it moves real fast at first, before slowing down. Neil Simon wrote the script as a followup to "Murder By Death". Louise Fletcher's a standout as Ingrid Bergman. Conspicuously missing: a stand-in for Claude Rains.
Louise Fletcher
(1934-2022)
