Jeff loves detective stories and movies. At the start of this film, he is watching a movie on TV and moving his lips along with dialogue that he knows so well. His mother Gracie and his sister Emily are doing a magic trick, but not particularly well.
Jeff's father, who co-owned a detective agency with his brother Ben, has left, and the family needs money. The decision is made that Jeff will get his father's share of the business, though Jeff is only a teenager and can't really work on cases. He does dress the part--meaning like the 1940s movie detectives--even to do office work. Unfortunately for Carl, there aren't enough detectives to go around, and he gets paired up with Jeff on Jeff's first case.
Jeff's second case involves the beautiful fur saleslady Rita. The scenes with Jeff and Rita together are the best in the movie, especially since they are on the run from bumbling cops most of the time.
Jay Underwood was very appealing, especially when he would narrate the movie in a film noir style, with the old style music, often putting on his hat to do this, and sometimes even taking off the hat when he finished. One time, Carl even handed the hat to Jeff for him to do this.
It was nice to see Arlene Golonka again. She was still attractive and bubbly, and somewhat scatterbrained. And I have to mention Gino Conforti, who worked on the sign on the detective agency's door. He considered himself to be an artist, and he had little patience with anyone who disagreed with or criticized him.
I liked the wild and zany comedy, the silly action scenes, and the older styles of music. One scene even resembled silent movies, with music from that era the only sound. I'm not that familiar with the comic timing in these old movies but I believe that style of comedy was used in the scene.
This was a lot of fun.
