Peter Gunn, détective spécial

This 1967 film lacks the luster of the late 50's, early 60's TV show. Replacement of key roles of Edie, Mother and Lt. Jacoby by others takes away from the viewer familiarity with the "Peter Gunn" they loved on the TV show. The story is fine, the women are gorgeous and seeing it in color is also a plus for a feature film. The camera work is good, but lacks the "feel" the black and white show gave us. Peter Gunn didn't lose his charm with age. His attraction by the women in this film is understandable. I could also understand why this film didn't do well at the box office. Peter Gunn is jazz. This film came out at the height of the British Invasion of Rock & Roll. Younger people would relate this film to their parents likes not theirs. Like fine wine, this film looks pretty good now. The jazz is good. If you get the chance watch it. It could have been a "10" but for the reasons I outlined, I'll give it a solid "7"

While I'm a really big fan of the original series, "Gunn" is a disappointment. Style and memorable characters was the series strong suit, and you have one real standout here. J. Pat O'Mally is perfect as Peter Gunn's chief informant. However, even the usually banal plotting of Peter Gunn is surpassed by this weak script, which leaves too much background of the villain off-camera. It's left to Peter Gunn to explain much of the plot in the closing scenes. While beautiful and even more spectacularly put together than the original Edie (Lola Albright), Laura Devon is too young and has to little to do to make the needed impression as Gunn's main squeeze. Ed Asner suffers in comparison to Hershel Bernardi, as Lt. Jacoby, and his relationship with Gunn is far more antagonistic than that portrayed in the series. The harsh photography is not kind to Craig Stevens. Further, Sherry Jackson's character is poorly written and provides a demeaning stereotype as a "mystery woman," whose real identity should be no mystery to fans of bad mysteries. Further, Jackson's fate is ludicrous in retrospect, given her actions during the climax. Still, bad "Peter Gunn" is better than no "Peter Gunn" at all, and it is a shame this movie failed at the box office.

A later Peter Gunn remake with Peter Strauss only reminds us how great Craig Stevens was in the role. Too bad Blake Edwards was unable to try again while Stevens was still young enough to play the part.

It's also a shame the 1967 PLAYBOY pictorial didn't include any revealing shots of Devon or of Carol Wayne, who has a cameo. Jackson is really good eye candy, but Wayne and Devon would have made a sublime pictorial.

Watch "Gunn" for the music and the memories, as that's about all you get.

Blake Edwards in black & white during the early sixties was a class act. But this transfer of his classic TV series to the big screen in Technicolor with a psychedelic titles sequence, nastier violence, sprinkled with words like 'pervert' and 'hooker' and a proliferation of zooms and fussy compositions belongs more with Edwards' cheesier films of the seventies.

In the absence of Lola Albright (considered by the producers too old, although the same year she was a sleek & sexy T.H.R.U.S.H. woman in the 'Man from U.N.C.L.E.' feature 'The Helicopter Spies') the cast largely recruited from television still manages to include a memorable female contingent including Laura Devon, Sherry Jackson, Jean Carson as a waitress and Marion Marshall (billed as 'M.T.Marshall') in her sole late sixties reappearance on the big screen after making an impression in a handful of supporting roles during the fifties. Here she makes an even greater impression as queen bee Daisy Jane. (I'm staggered that so few reviewers have mentioned the extraordinary conclusion.)

This movie is based on the very popular 1960's TV show "Peter Gunn." It was an early Blake Edwards effort that was unfortunately made three or four years too late. The film industry was already following the mood of the viewing public into the era of "relevance." Up against films like "The I.P.C.R.I.S. File" and "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" it seemed lightweight and trivial. Too bad, because this film is clever, witty, well cast, well acted, well directed, well paced, well filmed, well edited and has a superb Henry Mancini score that is as good as movie music gets.

"Gunn" is also a very good detective movie with a plot that is far above the average, as good as any Dashal Hammit story.

"Gunn" is also Blake Edwards dress rehearsal for the "Pink Pnather." Using "TV Actors" and in-your-face Mid-60's Los Angelas waterfront locations, Edwards created a low budget film with a high budget look and feel. If it were released today it would easily rival "Pulp Fiction" and "Get Shorty" for box office and critical honors.

If you want to see where "The Pink Panther" came from, or if you want to see what the early 60's in L.A. really looked like, or if you just want to see one of the best detective movies ever made, then take a look at "Gunn."

A noble effort but a box office clunker. Secret agents were the name of the game in the mid-sixties. Not private eyes on rain slicked streets in black and white. Gunn lacks the film noir cinematography of the original TV show, the great jazz soundtrack, Herschel Bernardi and most of all, Lola Albright as Gunn's love. Singer Edie. Laura Devon is gorgeous as the new Edie but there's no chemistry between Craig Stevens and Devon. The best addition is Sherry Jackson, the underrated, underhired beauty who was mainly a TV actress. Several events are lifted from the series. The bombing of Mother's night club. The racquet ball playing mobster. A man killed by a speargun. See it if you can but if you liked the original you may be let down.