Half-baked gumshoe plot

 PEEPER (1975)

Reviewed by Jerry Saravia

Michael Caine has always had the uncanny ability to make us notice him, his every move, his every gesture. Caine makes the most of it in "Peeper" and for the first forty minutes or so, he's got us glued to the screen wondering what playful excursion he will be embroiled in next. "Peeper" unfortunately loses ground and can only keep its flimsy plot aloft for long.

Caine exudes the mannerisms of a private detective way in over his head as Leslie Tucker. His name comes with some derisive laughter and, naturally being a noir story to some degree, he is the narrator and since that it is Michael Caine with his dry delivery, this works for a while. An irascible client (Michael Constantine) wants Tucker to find his long-lost daughter who may been adopted and could be the potential heir to a fortune. Enter the less than pleasant Prendergast family, who have a wealth of riches, and there are two key sisters in the family who might fit the bill of the adopted daughter. Kitty Winn is one daughter and there is the resplendent glow of Natalie Wood (all apologies to Winn, an exemplary actress in her own right, but Wood steals the movie from her). There is also the kooky Uncle Prendergast (Thayer David), a grumpy old man who seems to hate everything and everyone, including Tucker. Oh, lest we forget there are two goons after Tucker and Natalie Wood, both well-played with pizzazz by the reliable Timothy Carey and Don Calfa.  

"Peeper" has a smooth handling of itself at first, poking fun at the noir trappings of a silly plot and investigation but it ultimately doesn't lead to much. But that is only part of the problem: as good as Caine is as a bumbling detective, we only believe it for so long. The screenplay doesn't give him or the plot any real spin or find any real twists. The finale aboard a cruise ship is so flat and poorly edited that it is difficult to figure out what happened to the two goons who have been hounding Tucker throughout the movie. There is a vicious, snarling dog at one point threatening Tucker and his ability to outsmart the dog lacks basic comic timing. The scenes do not gel or provide much payoff. Only Caine gives it his all because the guy is that damn good an actor. It also needed a damn good screenplay. 

Footnote: Why start the film with a Bogart impersonator and not end it that way as well?