Product Details

• Actors: Peter Falk, Ann-Margret, Eileen Brennan, Sid Caesar, Stockard Channing
• Directors: Robert Moore
• Writers: Neil Simon
• Producers: Margaret Booth, Michael Friedman, Ray Stark
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Language: English, German
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• VHS Release Date: June 23, 1994
• Run Time: 92 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0800101057
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #172,899 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Most fans of everything-but-the-kitchen-sink comedies like The Naked Gun and Hot Shots probably think the genre started with Airplane!, but Neil Simon's The Cheap Detective came two years earlier. It's a camp parody of Humphrey Bogart's 1940s detective flicks (particularly The Maltese Falcon and The Big Sleep), with a big dose of Casablanca thrown in for good measure. There's no point in describing the plot--it's little more than a series of cameos by just about every actor working in the 1970s, including Ann-Margaret, Eileen Brennan, Stockard Channing, James Coco, Scatman Crothers, Dom DeLuise, John Houseman, Marsha Mason, and Nicol Williamson. Peter Falk plays the detective and does a fine Bogey impression. Unfortunately, it's not Neil Simon's best work--he's better at character comedy such as The Odd Couple and The Goodbye Girl than this kind of slapstick--but there are a few good lines and the cast gives it their best. Louise Fletcher, not usually known for comedy, does a sharp satire of Ingrid Bergman in Casablanca, and Madeline Kahn never fails to entertain in a variety of disguises. --Bret Fetzer

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So Put It Out In WIDESCREEN, Already!!!, February 14, 2006

By 

Edmond Gauthier (California) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cheap Detective (DVD)

Cheap Detective? Cheapo version is more like it - this flick has been sadly butchered into a small standard frame format, which marks the real "murder" here. So the studio (and/or the DVD maker) is the REAL "killer" this time.

It features a HUGE cast, which is all the more reason that this comedic gem must be released in its full Panavision glory. Until that time, this 5 star film only gets 3 lousy stars, and the DVD makers get ZERO of my money.

(Unlike the GREAT version of the similar modern comedy classic Murder By Death, which is on DVD in beautiful widescreen and which I strongly urge eveyone to buy.)

I therefore advise all fans of Falk, Sellers and company to BOYCOTT this pan-and-scan travesty, until the proper widescreen version is finally put out!

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb satire, January 1, 2003

By 

T. James "terrica37" (Fremont, California United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cheap Detective (DVD)

An hilarious spoof of classic Bogart films. Falk fills the Bogie role, Fernando Lamas, Madeline Kahn and Eileen Brennan are excellent.If you appreciate Casablanca,The Maltese Falcon,and The Big Sleep,you will certainly enjoy not only the acting,but the stage settings as well. Outstanding

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious Spoof of "Casablanca" and Bogey!, November 3, 2000

By 

Reginald D. Garrard "the G-man" (Camilla, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Cheap Detective [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Like Mel Brooks' "Young Frankenstein," "The Cheap Detective" is a lovingly hilarious homage to the great classics of the 30's and 40's. Falk, Fletcher, Kahn, Williams, Channing, and Brennan are outstanding.

Houseman's and DeLuise's dead-on impersonations of legends Sidney Greenstreet and Peter Lorre are brilliant!

And one can only marvel at Ann-Margret's "baubles!"