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Great P.I. Films
Topic Started: May 4 2014, 07:19 AM (769 Views)
Mister Jiggy, Esq.
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Swingin' on the Flippity-Flop
Two greats that I forgot had P.I.s

Out of the Past (1947)
Vertigo (1958)

Some other notables

Cutter's Way (1981)
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)
Gumshoe (1971)
Devil in a Blue Dress (2005)
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Dirt
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After all.....


Maybe

D.O.A. (Rudolph Maté, 1950) - for that "citizen-becomes-private-dick" thing

or

Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution / Alphaville (Jean-Luc Godard, 1965) - because it's a thing
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Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
Continued thanks, all. No time to enter all the latest mentions, but I slapped in the ones that I could, and will hopefully be back as the week unfolds to finish up the rest.

Yancy: Can't believe I forgot The Two Jakes, which I own, for heaven's sake, but ... no, wait, maybe I can.... (Thanks, though. And hey, wasn't Shaft a cop...?)

Vorn: The Husband/Wife duos might be low priority for my gumshoe friend, but I'll keep an eye out for them for me and the missus. Thanks for the tip.

Cont. Op & Jiggy: Yikes! Some big gaps there. Merci.

And a very big thanks to Dirt for doing the formatting work for me. :)

Looking at the list so far I'm a little surprised at the relative sparseness of the '50s and '60s, especially the former. Would've thought the noir-detective riches carried right on through, before maybe dipping a bit in the '60s, making way for the resurgence of the '70s. Does something like The Big Heat fit the bill? Can't remember if that's a P.I. or not.
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YancySkancy
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Dr. Raskolnikov,May 5 2014
11:24 PM
(... And hey, wasn't Shaft a cop...?)


"Who is the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks? Shaft! You're damn right."

Quote:
 
Does something like The Big Heat fit the bill? Can't remember if that's a P.I. or not.


Ford's a police detective in that one.
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Aaron
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Fugee Emeritus
A few more:

Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (1982)
Angel Heart (1987)
Harper (1966)

You're right that the 60s seem devoid of PI characters, but I'm sure there are more out there.
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YancySkancy
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I wonder if to some extent TV co-opted the detective story in the 50s, 60s and 70s. There were a lot of detective shows on the small screen.

On the other hand, the ubiquity of TV westerns didn't exactly slow that genre down in the movie houses (until overexposure set in). Eh, never mind.
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Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
YancySkancy
 

Dr. Raskolnikov
 
(... And hey, wasn't Shaft a cop...?)

"Who is the black private dick that's a sex machine to all the chicks? Shaft! You're damn right."

*Face-palms* Thank you, Yancy. And hey, after adding your last batch, the '60s doesn't seem quite so sparse anymore! (Still surprised by the '50s, though. We've got to be missing some....)

d.: Yancy was all over Harper (1966), I just hadn't added it to the main list yet. Thanks for the others.
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Continental Op
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Posted Image

Twilight (Robert Benton, 1998)

Just watched this tonight…great to see a group of veteran actors (Newman as a "retired" PI) playing their age and without any clever winks to the audience. The story plays out like a Chandler/Big Sleep-esque one…lots of characters that at times create a delightfully muddled plot, but you can bet there are motives based on love, betrayal and money. Solid genre piece.
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YancySkancy
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Continental Op,May 23 2014
01:30 AM
Twilight (Robert Benton, 1998)

I liked this, too. Caught the last screening in its run at the AMC Burbank. I was the only one in the theater.
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Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
Geriatric noir! Excellent!

(A rather unfortunate title, though, in retrospect....)
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Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
Thanks again to everyone for the great detective work. The project hasn't really taken flight, however, since it appears the primary fact of the private investigator lifestyle is a wildly unpredictable schedule with inordinately long hours. We haven't managed to look at a single title, as yet, and I begin to despair of the likelihood of ever doing so.

Still, not a bad repository of titles in the P.I. vein, so perhaps not all entirely in vain either.
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Aaron
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Dr. Raskolnikov,Jun 7 2014
07:57 AM
Still, not a bad repository of titles in the P.I. vein, so perhaps not all entirely in vain either.

Agreed.

Sometimes fiction is a lot more fun than reality. Sorry to hear that the project is stalled, but I enjoyed contributing to and following the list.
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Aaron
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Dr. Raskolnikov,May 4 2014
10:26 AM
The '10s

Inherent Vice (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2014)
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Kevin Harvey
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Another deserter....
Heh, yeah. :)

But seriously, fuck that movie.
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YancySkancy
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Would this one qualify? --

Veronica Mars (Rob Thomas, 2014)
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