June 23, 1978–
The follow-up to the comedy Murder By Death, The Cheap Detective, directed by Robert Moore, written by Neil Simon, and starring Madeline Kahn, Louise Fletcher, Ann-Margret, Eileen Brennan, Stockard Channing, Marsha Mason, Sid Caesar, John Houseman, Dom DeLuise, Abe Vigoda, James Coco, Phil Silvers, Fernando Lamas, Nicol Williamson, Scatman Crothers, Vic Tayback and Paul Williams, opened on this date.
The movie was titled The Cheap Detective, according to screenwriter Neil Simon, “because the detective in those old films never got paid! Who paid Humphrey Bogart for finding all those crooks in The Maltese Falcon? He arrested Mary Astor and sent her and everyone else to jail. Who paid him? The character is always involved in danger not for the bucks but because it’s his lifestyle.“
The Haus of Dcaligari 