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This Private Eye drama, set mostly in New York City in 1968, is an above-average film which is largely (and unfortunately) passed over by both network television and the movie rental industry. The low-key acting by Mr. Peppard is superb; indeed, he is probably at his best in this gritty PI flick which takes one from the dark subway stations of 1968 New York, to the glamour of a Carribean island, and back again. All the while, there is fantastic music, from the opening score to the recurring theme of "P.J." Raymond Burr is interesting and convincing as William Orbison, a rich, arrogant, scheming tycoon who hires P.J. Detweiler (Peppard) to protect his mistress Maureen Preble (Gayle Hunnicutt), but whom we always suspect of having other, darker motives. Coleen Grey, in a somewhat lesser role, is excellent as Orbison's bitter, scornful wife. Overall a very good, well acted drama, with plot twists, catchy music, and of course, a bit of Peppard's trademark dry humour.

If you've only seen PJ on Television, you haven't really seen it. In the late 60s, censorship was temporarily relaxed: Ratings were "G" for Nothing Offensive, and "M" in case there was anything objectionable. With the wisdom of their breed, Studio execs quickly realized they should try to get away with as much as possible, and films like GUNN, DEADLIER THAN THE MALE and NIGHT OF THE FOLLOWING DAY were filled with raunchy (for those days) sex and violence. However, with an eye to TV showing, the studio execs also had alternate scenes shot for these films and the resulting Tv showings were tepid at best. The movie version of PJ has a seamy, tasteless feel totally appropriate to a cheap Private Eye film.

I saw this movie many years ago and it has stuck in my mind. I have always felt that someone made a huge mistake by not having George Peppard reprise this role for a TV series...it was classic George Peppard...definitely at his best. It is my understanding that it has never been released on video, DVD, etc. If someone knows otherwise, I would certainly like to know, too. After all, we don't have George Peppard or Raymond Burr anymore and they were both excellent in this film. The character seemed to be created just for George Peppard and he was certainly up to the challenge. I have seen clips from this movie used in later films (i.e., the scene of the car coming down the mountain with no brakes and him running it along the wall on the right and into garbage cans, etc. on the left). Wish I could see the whole movie again.

The private eye genre had something of a rebirth in the late 1960s, most notably with Paul Newman's excellent "Harper,'' Frank Sinatra's "Tony Rome'' movies and James Garner doing a nice turn as "Marlow.'' But George Peppard merits a tip of the fedora for his work in this forgotten goodie, "P.J.'' Peppard's PJ is hired as a bodyguard for a fat-cat's (played by a menacing Raymond Burr) mistress, unleashing a plot of double-crosses and, eventually murder. Peppard is great as a wisecracking P.J. Detwieler and the above average script is perfectly matches to his rapid-fire, half-bemused delivery. Gayle Hunnicutt is great as the kept woman, the fantastic (and overlooked)Brock Peters turns up in small, but pivotal role and a young, "pre-MacMillan and Wife'' Susan Saint James spews a few deliciously catty lines. And there is a great ending. Sadly, "PJ" can't be found on video or DVD. And I haven't seen it aired on tv since I saw it (and recorded it, luckly) when a Chicago station aired it 1986. Too bad. This little gem deserves to be seen.

My memories of the gritty but not totally successful private eye drama "P. J." are rather hazy and incomplete. As several other writers have mentioned, the movie was heavily edited for television after the movie's original release. Even as an impressionable kid, I wondered why P. J. (George Peppard) was badly beaten up without knowing who did it and what happened to the guy on the subway platform that threatened P. J.'s life? The two sequences, as well as several others edited scenes, made "P. J." on TV a rather bland and disjointed mess.

On a hunch, I was able to finally see an unedited, pan-and-scan version of "P. J." a few days ago. Regrettably, the movie was not as good as I remembered. This is despite good performances by Peppard and Raymond Burr, who probably relished the offer of playing a bad guy after many years as Perry Mason, as well as Gayle Hunnicutt as the femme fatale.

The musical score by Neil Hefti and the New York locations certainly set the mood. (Some of Hefti's interludes sounded a lot like his score from the movie "The Odd Couple". "P. J." was released a few months before "The Odd Couple".)

I don't consider "P. J." a classic because of some misguided creative decisions by the writers and director and production choices in which scenes that were obviously filmed on the Universal back lot took me out of the story on occasion.

However, I believe that movie studios are doing themselves a disservice to the public by not releasing this and other movies to the web or on DVD. There are horrible movies in the past few years that are on the web or released on DVD but a 1968 film that was not necessarily a classic and did not win any awards is shown illegally on a popular web page. To Universal, release the film on a widescreen format and let the public decide if the movie is worthy.

Update: The film was finally released on DVD and Blu-Ray by KL Studio Classics in October 2020.