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Critics Consensus: No consensus yet.
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Critic Consensus: No consensus yet.
All Critics (14) | Top Critics (1) | Fresh (6) | Rotten (8) | DVD (1)
If you loved The Maltese Falcon and can recite all the best lines from Casablanca by heart, you'll hate The Cheap Detective, which is basically just the year's classiest and most expensive rip-off.
Disappointing thin comedy.
Better received in 1978 than now when it seems too contrived.
Very funny send-up of the hard-boiled detective genre.
Not even in the same galaxy as Neil Simon's best work, but fans of the genre will appreciate the gags.
You don't have to be familiar with Casablanca or The Maltese Falcon to appreciate the humor but it helps. Writer Neil Simon has thoroughly spoofed both classics.
The Maltese Falcon and Casablanca are where this spoof/send-up begins, turning out little better than a lame Saturday Night Live skit (only running longer), but enjoyable for the charisma of its cast, obviously enjoying a chance at these familiar characters. Falk made a career out of playing a poor man's Bogie, and there's not enough Ann-Margret.
Super Reviewer
Peter Falk's typecasting as a noir detective was never more prominent than in the genre spoof The Cheap Detective. Borrowing heavily from the Humphrey Bogart classics of the past, the film also pays enormous homage to the genre itself while managing to be a great, smart comedy on its own. With a cast that includes Ann-Margaret, Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, Sid Cesar, Dom DeLuise, Louise Fletcher, Paul Williams and Stockard Channing, the movie is so wonderfully colorful in its casting, depsite not being a particularly strong film. It is enjoyable and fun, but lacks the qualities of a perfected comedy classic.
Yet another detective spoof movie from the 70s?! Yep. Again, we have a fantastic all star cast, and a very funny story. I really liked this movie, even if it isn't very different from other movies like it.
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