Adventures of a Private Eye

source: Adventures of a Private Eye

Curious to see, if the advertising for the movie, may be too much for imdb. But just to be clear, no pun intended and I did not invent the word that describes detectives ... but also can mean something nasty. Of course I am talking about the detective use of the word ... sure sure and all that. That being said, this has the same main actor than the other adventures movie and he seems as gullible (or even more so), than the one that was a taxt driver. He plays his role nicely and even has a short plumber scene ... which is both hillarious and bad. Especially the puns and the annoying kid. Sorry kiddo, not your fault, it was in the script, I know. There is a story and there are many sex related jokes. But most have to do with the incompetence and our main character trying to get laid every other minute. A lot of nudity ensues, but climax almost never is being reached - no pun intended. More for the laugh muscles than anything else. If you find anything particularly funny that is of course.

A very bizarre farce dealing with the oversexed Christopher Neil who discovers that the best way to find more sex is to pretend that you're a private detective and pop in and out of places, sometimes as an intruder because you never know when you're going to find a lonely housewife. Neil pretends to be the head of an agency when client Suzy Kendall shows up and he ends up in several bizarre situations, ultimately in drag (with a female Liza impersonator no less!) and in a seance with weird Madame Medea (Anna Quayle) and other assorted weirdos. This is indeed too weird to be completely horrible, but it's also too weird to describe. Outside of the Liza shtick, there is a funny incident including a naked man and a mouse trap and a scene on a row boat with Neil making love to Diana Dors as the boat sails down the river and a crew team sails by as the coach (on a bicycle) screams over and over "In, out!" But for the most part, it's rather lame, mostly very unfunny. I have to say that the Liza impersonator is probably the highlight because it's one of the rare times when you see one and it's actually a woman!

Like its sequel, "Adventures of a Plumber's Mate", "Adventures of a Private Eye" is a cut above the average Brit sex comedy from the same era. There's more going on than just the standard "hapless lad has a job that involves meeting lots of frisky housewives with violent husbands", although there's that, too, of course. There's also a sub-film noir plot our inexperienced hero tries to solve, a gothic horror setting in a manor house with a macabre butler, and a séance. More comedic set-ups - and the movie has more than you can count - means more jokes, which also means more likelihood that the jokes might land. Unbelievably, this time, a few actually do, and I found myself chuckling on occasion. For future reference, this is the sex comedy where the other Tom Baker, Jon Pertwee, plays a swinging private eye - though there's certainly nothing about him that would suggest being a babe magnet - who leaves his business in the hands of his young protégé, who ends up taking on one of his cases. He gets a new secretary, and expects a sexy, available "bird" like the one his boss had, but instead gets an odd, ageless woman with round spectacles. There's also a scene where he ends up dressed as a woman - nothing too special about that - but then has to perform on stage with a burlesque dancer. Both the actress who plays the dancer, and the one who plays the odd secretary, are superior to the material, especially the multi-talented dancer. I say check it out.

I actually quite enjoyed this - it was far better than the plumber's mate sequel. Even if you took the naked girls out of it (and that would be a very bad idea), there was a plot and the acting was by and large very good, thanks in part to a plethora of good character actors. Yes, there were silly bits, unrealistic bits, and plot holes, but you know this film wasn't aiming for Oscar nominations. It also had a lot of humour in it - I liked the screaming maid always dropping her tray, the over-dramatic mystic, and the brilliant interchange between a dressed-up Christopher Neil and Basil Emney, who was so funny. It is not intellectually challenging but that is not why you are watching it. It entertained me, and I enjoyed it. Such a low overall IMDB rating is unfair so I'm giving it 8 stars. So there.

British pop singer Christopher Neil stars in this Carry On film Adventures Of A Private Eye. It has the look of a Carry On movie without the cast of Carry On regulars. Cinema fans will also recognize the plot premise from Bob Hope's comedy from the 40s My Favorite Brunette. That's the one where Hope is asked by Alan Ladd to watch his office and take messages. Of course Hope decides he'd rather survey Dorothy Lamour. Neil has the same situation as Jon Pertwee just asks him to mind the store, but Neil wants a chance to soar and Suzy Kendall certainly makes him soar. In fact this film has the look and feel and general raunchiness of a Carry On film. But it would have been so much better with Carry On regulars.

"Adventures of a private eye" is the old version of the several sex-flicks that you can watch nowadays. It brings us the story of a dumbly assistant of a private investigator, that tries to solve a case while his boss is away on vacation. What follows is a lot of chaos and sex sells. While some see this movie very critically, I was all in all relatively entertained by it. Of course some of the jokes and punchlines turn out rather simple and there is no doubt that it was of high interest for the producers to add some nudity, but if you accept this as given, there are actually quite a few funny moments in the film. The story of someone failing his job badly is of course not very creative in itself, but the way this is used to create a plot with some humorous potential is at least solid. This is something to turn our head off and relax. Don't watch it for the plot or any message. Under this condition, you can actually have some fun with it.

All B-Movie boggled eyes are sure to be on glistering Giallo Glamour Girl Suzy Kendall who sizzles sensationally in serial smut-wrangler Stanley A. Long's riotously ribald, stupendously silly, bra-burstingly boorish comedy misadventure 'Adventures of a Private Eye' (1977). Witness the blissfully bawdy, barrel scraping buffoonery of charisma-challenged Christopher Neil's brainlessly bumbling private dick enthusiastic attempts to get to the bottom of things, and frequently getting more than his own knickers in a twist!!! One of muck maestro Stanley Long's frivolously frothy, fitfully filthy film's many highlights is the legitimately fabulous burlesque routine by the distractingly delicious Adrienne Posta, energetically performing her rewardingly 'not-so private', eye-catchingly exotic Liza Minnelli Cabaret routine! The more forgiving fans of prosaic Carry on-style pratfalls, dribble-entendres, juvenile jackanapes, and grubby-fingered, saucy postcard piffle will certainly dig on the asinine antics and retrograde tomfoolery of Christopher Neil's scurrilously salacious sleuth, plus the surprisingly glittering cast is a burnished Brit-cult dream, featuring the estimable acting talents of Jon Pertwee, Harry H Corbett, Diana Dors, Ian Lavender, Anna Quale, Irene Handle, Liz Frazer and William Rushton. 'The 'Adventures of a Private Eye' is an unapologetically lurid, lowbrow B-Movie bacchanal of puerile bottom-pinching perfidy, and, sadly, we shall never see it's inglorious like again!

This is just dreadful for a comedy attempt...the bumbling idiot was pathetic doing his best to create laughs out of terrible situations...if it wasn't for some fairly decent looking women in the cast i likely would have quit viewing after the first five minutes of this disaster...well, i've seen enough to know this is a turkey that should be avoided

Exactly what you'd expect: a passable piece of comedic mystery whose main purpose is a wrap around for its infrequent eroticism involving women who don't skip meals. (nice). I actually really love this fantasy of eccentric British Aristocrats it recreates.