Stanley A. Long was both producer and director and he owned the production company and he owned the distribution company as well. Which meant that he made a great deal of money out of these films. And they were very low-budget movies so the box-office receipts were mostly pure profit.
Bob West (Christopher Neil) is a private detective. Or at least he works for a very successful private detective, Judd Blake (Jon Pertwee). Bob West is just his assistant. Judd considers that Bob is just about capable of making the coffee and that’s it (and he’s right). When Judd heads off for a holiday with his gorgeous dolly bird secretary he gives Bob strict instructions not to try to handle any cases on his own.
Needless to say Bob ignores these instructions and when glamorous blonde Laura (Suzy Kendall) asks him to take on a case Bob agrees.
Laura is being blackmailed over some salacious photos, which is a problem because a scandal could cost her her inheritance, and that inheritance is enormous.
Naturally Bob proves to be a totally inept private eye.
The members of the family of Laura’s deceased husband might be behind the blackmail but Bob convinces himself that the culprit is photographer Scott Radley (Robin Stewart).
The case gets complicated by murder and Bob’s crime-solving efforts cause mayhem.
It has been said that the trouble with the British sex comedies of the 70s is that they’re not sexy and they’re not funny. That’s a bit unfair, but it is true in some cases. It’s certainly true here.
The basic premise is fine. One can certainly imagine a private eye getting into situations with the potential for sexiness and humour. But it all falls flat.
This is the least sexy sex comedy in motion picture history. In fact it’s a movie that gives the impression that Long was going out of his way to avoid being sexy. Time and again a situation is set up with overwhelmingly obvious potential for sexy shenanigans and absolutely nothing happens. In the entire movie there are about three very brief very tame nude scenes which occupy in total about 15 seconds of the film’s 96-minute running time.
This is a sex comedy without the sex.
There is some comedy. There are some amusing scenes. There is some amusing dialogue. But nowhere near enough. There’s plenty of frenetic action but comedy requires frenetic action and gags, and the gags are few are far between. There's too much plot and not enough fun.
Of course comedy is very much a matter of personal taste and I have to lay my cards on the table here - I am not a fan of slapstick. And this movies relies heavily on slapstick. I just don’t think that a hero who keeps falling over things is particularly funny. This was apparently deliberate. Stanley Long disliked double entendres and tried to avoid them. Which is a problem, double entendres being pretty much an essential ingredient in a sex comedy. Long loved slapstick. If you share his enthusiasm for slapstick you might enjoy this movie a lot more than I did.
Stanley A. Long was a major player in British sexploitation cinema for two decades. Which makes it intriguing that Adventures of a Private Eye is so incredibly coy.
Christopher Neil handles the lead role extremely well. I like Suzy Kendall as an actress but she was an odd choice as the female lead. She had obviously made it clear that she would not do any nude scenes or sex scenes. Since she’s not given any really funny lines either it was hardly worthwhile casting her.
Sex comedies were being made in lots of different countries at this time, for the same reasons - film industries were going down the gurgler and sex comedies at least had a chance of making money. There were Italian sex comedies, such as The Nurse (1975). Japanese sex comedies, such as Nurse Girl Dorm: Sticky Fingers (1985). And Australian sex comedies, like Alvin Purple (1973). For my money the Italian, Japanese and Australian efforts were a lot sexier and a lot funnier than the British efforts.
I’ve also reviewed Adventures of a Taxi Driver (1976) which I think is a marginally better film. For comparison I’ve also reviewed the first of the Confessions movies, Confessions of a Window Cleaner (1974). And I’ve reviewed Come Play With Me (1977) which is one of few British sex comedies that I’ve really enjoyed (and it really is very very sexy). Interestingly, Stanley A. Long despised that film. Mary Millington's other notable sex comedy, The Playbirds (1978) is also worth seeing.
I have a high tolerance for 70s British sex comedies but Adventures of a Private Eye is a bit disappointing. It’s worth a look if you’re going to buy the boxed set anyway.
All three Adventures movies are included in a Powerhouse Indicator Blu-Ray set. This movie gets a good transfer, and extras include a director’s commentary track and a fine video essay by Simon Sheridan.
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