Peter Falk, Madeline Kahn & Eileen Brennan in The Cheap Detective (1978)

Obscurity factor: 7

Hot off the success of Murder By Death, Neil Simon and Robert Moore put this little film together. It extrapolates on the Humphrey Bogart style character that Peter Falk played in the film and pairs him with a bevy of saucy ladies from femme fatales to girls Friday. The film is a parody of the best of the genre, including Casablanca, The Maltese Falcon, Chinatown and even A Streetcar Named Desire.

The production values are very high, it's beautifully shot in smoky rooms with dramatic lighting and the costumes and sets are nicely rendered. They provide the setting for some deftly handled, if at times silly comedy. Also look for Ann Margaret, Stockard Channing, Sid Caesar, Marsha Mason, James Coco, Phil Silvers, Fernando Lamas and John Housman.

In the clip above, Eileen Brennan plays a remarkably funny lounge singer, uploaded to YouTube by SueSnell. The film is available on DVD. The poster above is available from MoviePosterShop.com.

Obscurity factor: 7 (available on DVD, has cult following, but isn't as well known as Murder by Death)

Scavenger Hunt (1979)

Obscurity factor: 7

The runaway success of It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World led Hollywood to several copycat ventures. There was a Remington Steele episode, a movie with everyone looking for something under a big "K" somewhere (that's one of those lost films that I remember from my youth but can't find - all those lost films will become a post some day) and this film from 1979. Milton Parker (Vincent Price) has died and left a huge fortune. His will decrees that it will be given in its entirety to the winning team of a scavenger hunt he has set up. The teams include his greedy sister (Cloris Leachman), her son (Richard Masur) and her lawyer (Richard Benjamin), the old man's servants (Roddy McDowell, Clevon Little, James Coco and Stephanie Faracy), his nephews (Dirk Benedict and Willie Aames), his son in law Henry Motley (Tony Randall) and his kids and a cab driver (Richard Mulligan) who helped him out once, who is eventually joined by Scatman Crothers. As the teams head out to pillage San Diego for the items on the list they wreak all sorts of havoc on population and countryside, encountering a slew of familiar faces such as Ruth Gordon, Meatloaf, Arnold Schwarzenegger in cameo roles.

One of my favorite moments features Liz Torres (Julie, the photography studio owner on Phyllis) playing a psychic from which one of the teams needs a crystal ball. Before they can even knock, she opens the door and knows in minute detail what they want and why they want it. It's a brilliantly written little moment. Also look for Robert Morley as the lawyer and executor of the estate.

Though the film has yet to be released on DVD, it can be found on VHS. It's also uploaded to YouTube in its entirety, thanks to dalekenbuck. The poster above is available from MoviePosterShop.com.

Obscurity factor: 7 (available on VHS and YouTube, not on DVD, buried by the sands of time)