Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

Aubrey Hackett While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Aiden Melton The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Kaelan Mccaffrey Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Scott LeBrun Art Carney is wonderful as an ageing private eye named Ira Wells. He's visited one night by his old ex-partner, Harry Regan (Howard Duff, in a regrettably brief cameo), who has already received a fatal gunshot wound. It turns out that Harry had recently taken the case of a stolen cat (really) owned by flaky hippie-type Margo Sterling (Lily Tomlin). Ira inherits the case, but finds out (naturally) that there's much more going on than just a purloined feline. Margo is no innocent and HAD gotten mixed up with some shady types."The Late Show" is writer / director Robert Bentons' ("Kramer vs. Kramer", "Places in the Heart") witty, appealing modern-noir ode to vintage crime fiction, in the tradition of Hammett and Chandler. His tale is definitely a twisty, complex one, but this can only be a good thing. It keeps viewers on their toes and eager to see how things will develop. Key to its success is its hero character. Ira may be over the hill, but he still has his wits about him. He does take some physical punishment at one point, but is able to give it right back when he gets an opportunity.The main hook in this case is the odd couple pairing of Carney and Tomlin. Her character & performance may affect how some people feel about the film, but there is no denying that she and Carney have some interesting chemistry. Margo is something of a chatterbox, and some people could find her annoying, but Tomlin remains fairly charming in the role. Carney and Tomlin receive excellent support from an entertainingly sleazy Bill Macy, the amusingly intimidating Eugene Roche and John Considine, and a strikingly sexy Joanna Cassidy whose character is nothing but trouble.Very nice L.A. location shooting, and pleasant music by Kenneth Wannberg also help to make this agreeable entertainment that is still somewhat overlooked 41 years later.Eight out of 10.

dougdoepke Inventive blend of humor and gumshoe. Carney's an over-the-hill keyhole peeper, while new-age Tomlin can't settle on any identity. All in all, it's a great send-up of all those tough-guy private dicks of the 1940's. But don't try to follow the murder plot, which has more little twists than a mountain road. Actually, more than a whodunit, the story's about two lonely people managing to overcome personality and generational differences. There's that, plus hints that old Ira's (Carney) ulcers may have failed, but the glands are still working. As the odd couple, Carney and Tomlin shine in low-key fashion, which is as engaging as it is offbeat. There were a lot of these Chandler-Hammett spoofs at the time, (e.g. The Black Bird {1975}), but none are more imaginative than this-- after all, how many tough guys ride buses to work, or are hired to find a missing cat. Then too how many other send-ups can stand on their own apart from the spoofing format. Cleverly, this one can—as a poignant character study that somehow works. Kudoes Robert Benton for coming up with a truly novel approach to familiar subject matter. The result is both amusing and touching.

myspecialparadise First off ... cheap production, lacking any real bite to it, which is usual when it comes to movies that Lily Tomlin takes on. Don't get me wrong ... I love Lily Tomlin, but she just doesn't belong on the big screen, at least that holds true with everything I've seen her in, excepting 9 to 5! The best I've seen her do were Laugh-in and The X-Files. Especially the latter! When she produced comic records ... Ernestine and Edith Ann ... I could not get enough of her. I've never met her, surprisingly ... but I sure would have liked to have, having been a comic myself. I swiped her ... "Hey, lady, lady you!" ... which I added ... "Whose husband are you out with tonight? Your own? How nice of you to give some home-wrecking sleazy bitch the night off!" Anyhoots ... Art Carney ... this was a man with an exceptional gift for making people laugh, and had no business doing dramatic roles. Leave it to the drama queens of Hollywood and do what you were meant to do, is my theory. Sure, Art Carney was a seasoned actor that could handle practically any part thrown at him ... an Oscar Winner ... but his fans weren't looking for Art Carney drama, as it just was not what one thinks of when they think of the name ART CARNEY! Bill Macy ... hmmm ... a so-so actor that reached no heights what-so-ever. I always thought he looked like a shabby wino. He was perfect as Maude's husband ... but that was about it. Sort of like John Amos that quit "Good Times" because he could handle J.J. Walker's popularity on the show. Sorry, John ... you just ain't cute acting enough. American's love odd balls ... not a boring working still that yells a lot! But we were talking about Bill Macy. You can't argue looks, and Bill Macy always looked like somewhat like a sleazy wino.John Considine has always been a pretty poor actor ... nothing scary about the man on screen, and a little too good looking for a thug.The rest of the cast ... poor casting! Although, the landlady was good casting.As for the plot and outcome ... totally obvious, no surprises there. If you are paying more that five dollars for this flick ... your wasting your money.

sol1218 **SPOILERS** Nostalgic 1977 movie that's more like a 1940's film-noir crime suspense/drama with an over the hill private eye Ira Wells, Art Carney, teaming up with a middle-age hippie Margo Sperling, Lily Tomlin, to solve the murder of Ira's long-time friend of over 30 years, and also private detective, Harry Regan, Howard Duff. Harry coming to see Ira at his rooming house one evening collapses and dies right in front of him from a 45 slug in his chest. At Harry's funeral Ira gets to see his friend Charlie, Bill Macy, who has this young woman Margo Sperling with him and want's Ira to find her missing cat Winston. Having no patience to go looking for cats at his age Ira changes his mind when he finds out that Harry was on the case, in finding Winston, at the time of his murder and feels that Harry trying to find Margo's cat may have had something to do with his untimely death. Ira was right dead right. The serious Ira teaming up with spaced-out, on ideas about life not drugs, Margo realizes that Harry's murder was but a small part of a series of crimes, including at least four other killings, involving big time L.A gangster Ron Birdwell, Eugene Roche. Brdwell's wife Laura, Joanna Cassidy, has been missing for some three days and was involved with a Mr. Whiting who together with his wife both ended up dead. It takes a while for Ira to get to the bottom of what's been going on between Birdwell and the Whitings but with the help of screwy pseudo-philosophical Margo, who turns out to be a lot smarter then Ira at first thought, he puts all the pieces together. Ira comes up with not only who killed both the Whitings but who murdered his friend Harry Regan as well and, on top of all that, Ira finds Margo's cat Winston. The cat it turns out has been sitting on the evidence, a .32 pistol, to connect all the killings as well as it being used to blackmail Laura; in keeping her mouth shut about who's responsible for a sting of unconnected and unsolved murders in the L.A area.Art Carney giving the performance of his life as the broken down PI Ira Wells takes it on the chin and in the gut throughout the entire movie from hoodlums like Birdwell and his sadistic bodyguard Lamar, John Considine. Ira also has to puts up with the New Age Guru-like Margo, who he gets to like despite her almost talking him to death. Lily Tomlin is perfect as the over-age hippie Margo Sperling who also begins to take life seriously when she realizes that she and Ira's lives are in danger in an elaborate scheme to distance the Whiting murders away from those responsible for them and make them look like a robbery gone wrong. Ira who really got on the case to find who murdered Harry Regan finding Winston was only secondary for him and gets a lot more then he bargained for including a brutal beating by Lamar ,who he later pays back with interest. In the end he finds not only who killed Harry but a new place to stay, Margo's place, after his landlady kicked him out of her house for giving her more headaches and excitement then his rent could compensate her for: $42,50 a month. Art Carney besides having ulcers problems in the movie as Ira Wells walked with a limp, because of a bum leg, which in real life he really had from being wounded in France, by an exploding German artillery shell in World War Two.