The Private Eyes (1980 film)
The Private Eyes | |
---|---|
Directed by | Lang Elliott |
Written by | Tim Conway John Myhers |
Produced by | Wanda Dell Lang Elliott |
Starring | Tim Conway Don Knotts Trisha Noble |
Cinematography | Jacques Haitkin |
Edited by | Patrick M. Crawford Fabien D. Tordjmann |
Music by | Peter Matz |
Production companies | Tri Star Pictures The Private Eyes Partners Limited |
Distributed by | New World Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 91 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $2.3 million[1] |
Box office | $18,942,320 (U.S.)[2] or $8.1 million[3] |
The Private Eyes is a 1980 American
.The film was directed by Lang Elliott and was the final pairing of Conway and Knotts, not counting their cameos as two California Highway Patrol officers in the 1984 film Cannonball Run II.
Plot
The film opens early in the twentieth century, at an English
As the two investigate the murder, each of the staff, which includes a
A boa constrictor then frightens them into a trash compactor, where they survive being compressed into a bale of garbage. Once out of the garbage, they find the heiress taking the Morley money and preparing to leave the mansion. She then confesses to having killed the Morleys for their money as she has a gambling habit. Planning to kill the detectives and escape the mansion, she falls backward into a flower bed while retreating, where she is grabbed by the shadowy figure, who has been hiding in the dirt. The shadow scares her to the point that she faints, at which time the shadow takes off his cape, revealing himself to be Lord Morley.
Morley had escaped the car crash and gathered the staff to gain their help in a plan to get the heiress to confess to the murder of his wife and the attempt on his own life. Morley remained "dead" (in hiding) as part of the plan, writing the letter to Scotland Yard in order to request Winship and Tart as investigators, presumably because of their incompetence. As Morley explains what he did, the members of the staff appear, having faked their own deaths as part of the plan. The heiress is arrested and Winship and Tart are thanked with a gift of a very rare sarcophagus, which is placed in their car.
As Winship and Tart drive away, they argue over the existence of creatures known as "wookalars", said to be manlike creatures with superhuman strength and a pig-like face. The film ends with their car careening down the road as they scream in terror, due to the sudden appearance of a wookalar from the sarcophagus.
Main cast
- Don Knotts as Inspector Winship
- Tim Conway as Dr. Tart
- Trisha Noble as Mistress Phyllis Morley
- John Fujioka as Mr. Uwatsum
- Bernard Fox as Justin
- Grace Zabriskie as Nanny
- Stan Ross as Tibet
- Irwin Keyes as Jock
- Suzy Mandel as Hilda
Background
The two comedic actors Conway and Knotts achieved success onscreen when they appeared in several family-friendly feature films for
Reception
The Private Eyes earned $12 million in rentals during its initial release, and became the highest-grossing film made at New World Pictures under Roger Corman.[2][1]
References
- ^ a b Koetting, Christopher T. (2009), Mind Warp!: The Fantastic True Story of Roger Corman's New World Pictures, Hemlock Books, pp. 172, 188–190
- ^ a b "Advertisement". Variety. March 11, 1981. p. 21.
- ^ Donahue, Suzanne Mary (1987). American film distribution : the changing marketplace. UMI Research Press. p. 292. Please note figures are for rentals in US and Canada
- ^ a b Tillisch, Rob (29 June 2005). "The Prize Fighter (1979)". KOPictureShow.com. Retrieved 17 August 2015.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
External links
- The Private Eyes at IMDb
- The Private Eyes at the TCM Movie Database
- The Private Eyes at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Private Eyes at AllMovie