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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.

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.

After years of trying to see the original release version of the film, I finally acquired an uncut copy from a collector and must say I was puzzled with the outcome. There was the original, infamous subway scene intact, as well as the gay-bar beating. There are some really gritty location shooting in NYC, but its mixed with the most banal, studio bound bland scenes. If you can image a film that intercut the "French Connection" with an episode of "The Rockford Files" then you would get a good idea of how this film plays out. Not bad, but a disappointment. Don't even bother watching it if its the TV version, which cut out most of the gritty scenes.

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.

This film begins with an extremely rich and ruthless businessman by the name of "William Orbison" (Raymond Burr) hiring an unidentified assassin to kill someone. The specific name of the target isn't given and the scene then shifts to a private detective named "P. J. Detweiler" (George Peppard) engaging in an unethical business enterprise in order to pay off some serious debts that he owes. One thing leads to another and soon P.J. is hired to be a bodyguard for an attractive prostitute by the name of "Maureen Preble" (Gayle Hunnicutt) who has become convinced that somebody is out to kill her. It is only later revealed that Maureen has only one client and that man just happens to be William Orbison and it's this relationship that imperils Maureen's life-at least, that is what P.J. is led to believe. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a nice little mystery film for the most part with some decent acting and several twists and turns along the way. One particular flaw, however, is the film goes to great strides to appear sexy and sophisticated but there are no scenes of an amorous nature to be found anywhere. That said, from what I understand there were several scenes deemed too explicit at the time of production which were subsequently edited out to satisfy certain film standards in effect back then. Not only does that explanation makes sense but it also sheds some light on why some parts of the film ended somewhat abruptly and seemed rather bland and incomplete. In any case, even without these scenes the movie itself was still enjoyable enough for the most part and I have rated it accordingly. Slightly above average.