They All Laughed

Director Peter Bogdanovich started off the 1980s with this trifle: a sweet romantic valentine to a New York City where bumbling detectives fall in love with their targets. This is a Big Apple where country music blares, taxi drivers are gorgeous models, sass permeates, and Ben Gazzara embodies all that is cool. He is the chief hound in the blue-collar Odyssey Detective Agency specializing in observing wives for their suspicious husbands. John Ritter, who became famous three years later with Three's Company, plays the equally daft Charles, a man who literally falls head over heels with cutie-pie Dolores (Dorothy Stratten). Gazzara falls for a socialite played by Audrey Hepburn (in her last starring role). The veteran actors, both seen in The Betsy, are at their movie-star best. The film has a causal style and charm, another change of pace for Bogdanovich who was still trying to find the magic of his first films (including The Last Picture Show and What's Up, Doc?). He fills the screen with gorgeous females including Patti Hanson as an all-knowing cab driver, Colleen Camp as a country singer, and Stratten, the former Playboy Playmate of the Year. However, if there is a big surprise, it's co-writer/producer Blaine Novak as the long-haired, roller-skating detective Arthur, who has a tart remark for everyone and nearly steals every scene.