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To me, this movie is perfection.

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Excellent but underrated film

Most reviews and the summary here list two films - but THE BIG SLEEP also gets a turn-over in this one. So add that fact to your list. I like this one, far better than the previous MURDER BY DEATH which Peter Sellers hated BTW. The HUGE cast is flawless and they play it all straight. Plus as a cinema buff, watch the photography. THE MALTESE FALCON scenes are cut straight, to the point, quickly and sometimes do not match. The CASABLANCA scenes (like the movie) are smooth flowing, the camera moving around the club. This is a film made by people who love old movies. Falk was at home in this role too. Some jokes by Simon are writ-large and others just subtle - such as when Falk just takes a Martini out of his desk drawer (it was there all the time for a rainy day) and gives it to Alma Chalmers, Denise Manderly, NO-CARMEN MONTENEGRO. Not a great comedy but one to curl up with and smile and remember too that there are not waters in CASABLANCA. ("I was misinformed"). Oh, and take the Martini out of the cupboard - chill it and enjoy.

I stumbled across this film just as it was starting. The discovery was quite a surprise to me. Although I know many films of the crime genre I had never heard of The Cheap Detective. I decided to give the movie a try.The film is a Neil Simon play adapted for the big screen. This means that one gets very little physical action. One gets characters moving from room to room spouting dialog at each other. This works OK to a point but it holds back the film from becoming more than a 2 to 3 star movie. Turner Classic movies has it as 2 star; I think 3 star is probably better but it probably settle between the 2 ratings.The set up section was a bit slow and had me wondering if I would stay through to the end. I know many of the films being parodied and I know how hard it is to pull in all the various elements to make a humorous parody so I can cut the production some slack there. So...while a send up of Casablanca's Ricks is necessary it doesn't mean that it came off that well.The film gets better once we get out of Rick's. The pacing and the dialog come together better once we get to what I think Simon had more in mind which is a Sam Spade\Philip Marlowe send up of the Cheap Detective's relationship with his women. But...the scenes have to be set up somehow.I read from some the reviews that they can't understand Peter Falk's dialog. I had no issues with his speech. In fact the film is carried by Falk's acting ability. He pulls off the Cheap Detective role well because it is not far from Columbo for him to play.It certainly helps to know the source material. The cameos and supporting roles add a charm 35 years later playing the game of "oh...that is so-and-so" as they appear on screen. But if one doesn't know that John Houseman is doing a send up of Sydney Greenstreet's Kasper Gutman then one completely misses out on what is actually going on.The problem is that there is no real purpose to the story. There is no point. It doesn't have that "edge" that Mel Brook's most successful films\stories had. If you didn't see where this was going you must be young.That said...I didn't mind watching The Cheap Detective. Will I buy it and add to the movie collection? Probably not. Do I consider it better, same or worse than Murder By Death? Well...it is different because The Cheap Detective only has one lead character to lampoon versus creating the MBD ensemble. I personally like CD over MBD but only because I am more over a ladies man for a movie and CD has more cheesecake in it. That's hardly saying one is better; I think they are basically the same product just done a little bit different.It certainly is a lot better...though....than the sophomoric material that passes for comedy in today's world.

I was drawn to this movie because the TV guide listed Peter Falk and Ann-Margret as the stars. My only disappointment was that Ann-Margret's character didn't make an appearance until well past the half-way point in the movie, but at her mid- to late-30s she is in superb form.I like this movie greatly, but for a reason most would not guess. It is the cast, with Falk, Ann-Margret, Eileen Brennan, Sid Ceasar, Stockard Channing, Dom DeLuise, John Houseman, Madeline Kahn, Fernando Lamas, Marsha Mason, Phil Silvers, Abe Vigoda, Paul Williams, James Cromwell, Scatman Crothers, David Ogden Stiers, Vic Tayback, and Louise Fletcher, just a couple of years after her memorable role as Nurse Ratched in "One Flew Over". All names I enjoyed on TV and in the movies during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. It was a blast down memory lane seeing all of them in this movie.Peter Falk is Private Eye Lou Peckinpaugh, who gets investigated early for the murder of his partner. Of course he is not guilty and the thread of a story is to find out who did it, and also to recover some very large diamonds that went missing some years earlier. And to end up on a foggy night at the wharf, where someone with papers will be boarding a ship.Set in 1940s San Francisco, the absurd titles introducing the story makes the point that San Francisco is 7000 miles from Casablanca. But that is meaningful in that much of the story is a sort of parody of the movie, "Casablanca" where Rick plays an American helping his former lover and her husband get papers to leave. In this movie many of the scenes take place in a piano bar, very much like the one Rick owned in Casablanca, even with a black piano player. As the detective, Lou speaks in a style and cadence that sound very much like Bogart in his various detective roles. At other times he sounds just like Columbo, the character of Falk's TV series.The actual story is secondary, the fun here is the snappy and absurdly funny dialog. It makes me wonder if the "Scary Movie" series of flicks was inspired by this one, "The Cheap Detective."

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