History Film / ThePrivateEyes

!Tropes Associated with the Movie

* VitriolicBestBuds: Winship and Tart. As infuriating as Tart is to work with, Winship expresses his personal appreciation for him as a partner and a friend [[spoiler: when he is tricked into thinking Tart has been murdered.]]

->'''Inspector Winship''': You better turn it off, it's almost three o'clock. *BANG*

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: The Time Gun (a pistol that ''fires itself'' every hour on the hour) is a negligent discharge incident waiting to happen (You better turn it off, it's almost three o'clock *BANG*).

* [[spoiler: InheritanceMurder]]: [[spoiler: Phyllis Morley, which is honestly the most reasonable explanation, seeing how she is the sole heir to the Morley fortune.]] As it turns out... [[spoiler: Phyllis was a [[TheGamblingAddict gambling addict]] who needed more money, and killed her own parents to inherit the fortune.]]

* IAteWhat: Winship's reaction upon being informed that the "beverage" he just drank was ink from India made out of buzzard pus.

''The Private Eyes'' is a 1980 comedy mystery film set in the early twentieth century. Tim Conway and Creator/DonKnotts star as two bumbling American detectives, Inspector Winship (Knotts) and Dr. Tart (Conway), who are assigned to solve the mysterious murder of a Lord and Lady Morley. The two encounter the heiress (Trisha Noble) and a questionable staff.

* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler: The Shadow, whom we are led to believe is the actual killer. This is first hinted when Winship is strapped to an execution device, only to be rescued by the Shadow. Turns out this was because Lord Morley was the Shadow the entire time and it was all a plan to trick Phyllis into thinking it was safe for her to come out of hiding.]]

-->If Jock could talk, he'd give you a clue.//
But now that he's dead, what can you do? //
He deserved what he got. I don't regret it a bit.//
By the way, you're standing in bull ca-ca.

-->If Jock could talk, he'd give you a clue.\\
But now that he's dead, what can you do? \\
He deserved what he got. I don't regret it a bit.\\

* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: The notes left by the killer at the murder scenes contain poems which all end like this, except the one left with Hilda (and it's possible that Tart didn't finish reading that one, since we only hear two lines of it).

* BrainFood: The Wookalar; A weird were-boar creature that Tart mentions a few times (to the annoyance of Winship), has a thing for sucking people's brains out through their nose.

This was final pairing for Conway and Knotts and was filmed at Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina.

* CloudCuckooLander: Nearly every single character in the film qualifies as this to varying degrees. The only characters who don’t qualify are Winship, Phyllis and Lord and Lady Morley.
* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Lord Morley and the staff.. After surviving Phyllis’s attempted murder, Lord Morley summoned the staff and devised a plan of phony killings to trick Phyllis into a confession.]]

* SubvertedRhymeEveryOccasion: The notes left by the killer at the murder scenes contain poems which all end like this, except the one left with Hilda (,and it's possible that Tart didn't finish reading that one, since we only hear two lines of it).

* BerserkButton: Saying the word, “Murder” in front of Justin and you see just how crazy he really is.

* AxCrazy: Justin, the butler, is clearly unstable, being accused of killing his wife and her thirty lovers. Lord Morley, however, convinced the authorities that it was an act of “justifiable insanity”.

* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler: Phyllis Morely. At first, she seems forlorn over her parents deaths, but is in fact the actual killer.]]

* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler: Lord Morley and the staff.. After surviving Phyllis’s attempted murder, Lord Morley summoned the staff and devised a plan of phoney killings to trick Phyllis into a confession.]]

* [[spoiler: InheritanceMurder]]: [[spoiler: Phyllis Morely, which is honestly the most reasonable explanation, seeing how she is the sole heir to the Morely fortune.]] As it turns out... [[spoiler: Phyllis was a [[TheGamblingAddict gambling addict]] who needed more money, and killed her own parents to inherit the fortune.]]

* MsFanservice: Mistress Phyllis Morley. She even has a seen of her changing out of a bathrobe while the two detectives fight over who gets to peep on her.

* NationalStereotypes: Mr. Uwatsum. He’s a japanese samurai who happens to serve as the chef at Morley Manner. He also tends to bow excessively when apologizing and assumes a fighting stance when threatened.

* TheUnintelligible: Joque, the Groom, is a hunchback who is impossible to understand due to the fact his tongue was cut out for trying to steal a ruby from a woman’s navel.

* AffectionateParody: Of Sherlock Holmes.

* NationalStereotype: Mr. Uwatsum. He’s a japanese samurai who happens to serve as the chef at Morley Manner. He also tends to bow excessively when apologizing and assumes a fighting stance when threatened.