The Private Eyes

1980

Action / Comedy / Mystery

8
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright83%
IMDb Rating6.5103125

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Plot summary


Uploaded by: FREEMAN

Director

Top cast

Grace Zabriskie Photo
Grace Zabriskie as Nanny
Don Knotts Photo
Don Knotts as Inspector Winship
Bernard Fox Photo
Bernard Fox as Justin
Tim Conway Photo
Tim Conway as Dr. Tart
720p.BLU 1080p.BLU
751.49 MB
1280*714
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
P/S ...
1.43 GB
1920*1072
English 2.0
NR
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
P/S ...

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Ed-Shullivan8 / 10

What a FUN movie to watch!

To get Don Knotts and Tim Conway together in a haunted horror movie spoof was just a great treat to sit back, laugh, and enjoy the memorable interaction between these two kings of slap stick comedy. Both have great timing for slap stick comedy, and you just know that they are going to play off each others stupidity.

No disappointment here, just plenty of laughs and good memories. I can't wait to have grand children and sit them down to be entertained without the use of any computer graphics, violence, or blood and gore.

Don Knotts and Tim Conway remind me a lot of Abbot and Costello in their prime. The Private Eyes is a fun loving movie, with an endless reel of gag after gag, slap stick accident after accident, and you will probably shed a few tears of laughter before the movie ends. A must see for any age if you like two great comedians who make any scene special.

Reviewed by bkoganbing6 / 10

Just like Stan and Ollie

A rather lame plot is made up for in large degree with the comic talents of Don Knotts and Tim Conway as a pair of visiting inept private eyes who get an assignment from Scotland Yard to investigate the drowning death of Lord and Lady Morley.

The Morleys have a house with all kinds of secret passages as they do in all English murder mysteries the better for Knotts and Conway to get lost and make fools of themselves. In fact the fatalities mount among the rather gruesome looking staff the Morleys have as the two detectives try to figure this all out.

Knotts and Conway are a latter day version of Laurel&Hardy with Conway as the Laurel figure, dumb and he knows it with Knotts the Ollie figure, just as dumb but thinks he's a genius. I can see Stan and Ollie doing this one and probably doing it better.

Just about every haunted house gag there ever was is thrown into this film. Knotts and Conway handle them well. For fans of these two indiividually and as a team.

Reviewed by gavin69426 / 10

Very Funny Film, And Clean By Today's Standards

A pair of detectives (Don Knotts and Tim Conway) are assigned the murder investigation of Lord and Lady Morley. The case involves a big dark house, ghosts, and a questionable staff. As the two investigate the murder, each of the staff, which includes a Japanese samurai caricature, a hunchback, a gypsy, and an insane butler have a part to play.

This film is classically funny. Poems that do not rhyme, secret passageways, strange staff... it is Don Knotts meets slapstick meets Scooby-Doo. And it sort of anticipates "Clue" (at least enough that it reminded me of "Clue" and I watched it immediately afterwards).

I must confess that I am not familiar with Tim Conway. I know he did the Dorf movies, but I have not seen them. And I know he co-wrote this script, so I suppose this is really more of a Conway film with Knotts along for the ride. (It definitely does not have the feel of Knotts' other work, with him actually playing the straight guy here.) So, you have that... and Grace Zabriskie in a very early role (who you may know from 80 other movies, but I know from "Twin Peaks").

Also present is the Wookalar, a legendary half-man/half-pig creature that has done many amazing things, but may or may not exist. (I almost wonder if this was part of the inspiration for "South Park" and Al Gore's manbearpig. But that could just be a coincidence.)

If you like good, clean humor and a bit of silliness, "The Private Eyes" is a good place to start. I watched it on VHS, and I am aware that at least one scene (a dinner scene) was cut but appeared on NBC... perhaps it exists on DVD or Blu-Ray as the complete film? If not, it is time for a good edition. This film has flown under the radar for far too long.

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