Elliot Freed's Movie of the Week:

The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)

Elliot Says: "Perhaps the least respected of the legendary Inspector Clouseau series (with the exception of the two abominations that came at the end, which were simply excuses to use outtakes after Peter Sellers had died),this is actually the one that has most of the memorable gags: "chimpanzee minkey," "keep up the good work and I will see you are made a bellman," "do you have a rheum?" and generous amounts of slapstick. The film is slowed rather nastily by the "serious" interludes with Christopher Plummer supposedly trying to figure out who stole (again) the Pink Panther diamond so he can clear his name as an honest thief, but the pockets of comedy that Sellers and writer/producer/director Blake Edwards cook up are astonishing. "The Shah of Lugash!" "

It Happened One Knife: A Double Feature Mystery Elliot Freed couldn't be happier: His all-comedy movie theatre, Comedy Tonight, is newly refurbished; things with his ex-wife are looking up; he's even willing to screen his projectionist's film debut. But what really has Elliot walking on air is hosting the legendary duo, Lillis & Townes, at a special showing of their classic comedy Cracked Ice. Nothing can bring Elliot down—not a missing film, a bomb scare, or even a surly teenage girl. But when insinuations arise that one of his boyhood heroes may have been involved in a Hollywood murder decades earlier, Elliot crashes to earth. He sets out to discover the truth—but finds that he may be on the killer's hit list... Read the first chapter of It Happened One Knife

Some Like It Hot-Buttered: A Double Feature Mystery All Elliot Freed wanted to do was to make people die laughing. But he didn't mean it literally. The dead guy in Row S, Seat 18, is no joke. Elliot Freed, recovering writer, socked all his savings-and the alimony from his ex-wife-into the Comedy Tonight movie theater, never suspecting it would become a murder scene. And murder can't be good for ticket sales... Death by popcorn was the cause. Poisoned popcorn. To the chagrin of the police, Elliot takes to his bike to start his own investigation. A growing attraction to a beautiful detective, the discovery of a DVD pirating operation, and one missing employee later, Elliot's still waiting for the punch line. But this one might knock his theater—and Elliot—out for good... Read the first chapter of Some Like It Hot-Buttered Read reviews of Some Like It Hot-Buttered

© 2002-08 by Jeffrey Cohen.