A real romp for Falk playing a wacky Bogart-like gumshoe running around San Francisco and parodying many a Bogie film. Simon's slapstick comedy is a cut below his MURDER BY DEATH but is nevertheless consistently funny--and often hilarious. Falk's character lurches and scrambles through the
plots of number of movies--THE MALTESE FALCON and CASABLANCA, to name two--with Mason doing a jiggling imitation of his dead partner's wife (she carries his ashes in a jar constantly being spilled, in a reprise of the role of Gladys George). Kahn is a jut-jawed imitation of Astor, Houseman a
blimpish Greenstreet (in a role originally intended for comedian-impressionist George Ki...
Released:
1978
Rated:
PG
Length:
92 mins