User Reviews

This film was based upon the highly regarded "Peter Gunn" television series that ran from 1958 to 61. Running for five seasons to the unforgettable title theme and background music of early Henry Mancini, the show set a standard for script writing that proved, beyond doubt, television writing need not be the 'medium of 'hacks': even within the limits of a thirty minute format interrupted by commercials. This big screen treatment starring, once again, Craig Stevens as the suave, indomitable Gunn, failed at the box office, more a casualty of the changing times than the writing and acting-both of which were superb. Unfortunately this cinematic outing in color dimmed slightly in comparison to the television series that was shot, quite effectively, in a film noir format reminiscent of detective films of the 40's. Regardless, the crisp story line and plot is intriguing from beginning to end, with the intentional humor never once tripping over the drama (credit writer William Peter Blatey). I must admit, however, I truly missed two key characters from the original series played by Herschel Bernardi and Lola Albright: their replacements were nowhere near as effective. Nevertheless, the performance of Craig Stevens must be credited for recapturing the intellectually glib character of the title character,Peter Gunn: the thinking man's 'gumshoe'. This film deserves to be seen by all those who love a really good detective story.

This film was inevitable as the late '60s -- following Paul Newman's hit "Harper" (1966) -- reinvented the '40s-'50s private eye yarn by adding more sex and violence. GUNN fits somewhere in the middle of this trend -- not as classy as "Harper" and "Deadlier Than the Male", not as cynical and gritty as Sinatra's "Tony Rome" films (1967-68). Craig Stevens, with his wry humor and effortless charm, rises above the material, much like James Garner in "Marlowe" (1969) -- a highly recommended film in this genre.

Old school "Peter Gunn" fans will lament the absence of Lola Albright and Hershell Bernardi (a cranky Ed Asner fills in), but this should be seen on its own terms as a stand-alone film. The opening credits, with psychedelic graphics and jazzed up theme music, suggest a 007 spy film influence, but the story is a standard whodunit with gangsters and frequent murders. Some of these killings (like the diver with the spear gun) and plot turns don't make much sense or are needlessly complicated, but the fast pacing and supporting cast distracts one from worrying about the details. The sex appeal quotient is ramped up considerably by gorgeous Sherry Jackson (sadly, stunning Carol Wayne only has a cameo at the end). Jackson even did a Playboy pictorial to promote the film. And, for an added plot twist, writer-director Blake Edwards indulges in his strange obsession with gender bending (Victor Victoria, Switch, et al,).

All in all, this is a slick, breezy, enjoyable detective yarn that moves along with strategically placed scenes of action, humor, and eye candy. It is very much a product of the late '60s. (Will someone please release this, along with "P.J." and "Rogue's Gallery", on disc already?) In the next decade this genre would get darker and more complex with The Long Goodbye (1973), Chinatown (1974), and Night Moves (1975).

While I'm a really big fan of the original series, "Gunn" is a disappointment. Style and memorable characters was the series strong suit, and you have one real standout here. J. Pat O'Mally is perfect as Peter Gunn's chief informant. However, even the usually banal plotting of Peter Gunn is surpassed by this weak script, which leaves too much background of the villain off-camera. It's left to Peter Gunn to explain much of the plot in the closing scenes. While beautiful and even more spectacularly put together than the original Edie (Lola Albright), Laura Devon is too young and has to little to do to make the needed impression as Gunn's main squeeze. Ed Asner suffers in comparison to Hershel Bernardi, as Lt. Jacoby, and his relationship with Gunn is far more antagonistic than that portrayed in the series. The harsh photography is not kind to Craig Stevens. Further, Sherry Jackson's character is poorly written and provides a demeaning stereotype as a "mystery woman," whose real identity should be no mystery to fans of bad mysteries. Further, Jackson's fate is ludicrous in retrospect, given her actions during the climax. Still, bad "Peter Gunn" is better than no "Peter Gunn" at all, and it is a shame this movie failed at the box office.

A later Peter Gunn remake with Peter Strauss only reminds us how great Craig Stevens was in the role. Too bad Blake Edwards was unable to try again while Stevens was still young enough to play the part.

It's also a shame the 1967 PLAYBOY pictorial didn't include any revealing shots of Devon or of Carol Wayne, who has a cameo. Jackson is really good eye candy, but Wayne and Devon would have made a sublime pictorial.

Watch "Gunn" for the music and the memories, as that's about all you get.

Will someone please find the Master cut of this great film and make it available to the general public?! I saw Gunn in the early 1970's on Television on two different occasions, on the ABC network in New York City. Of course the film was edited for content and to squeeze in the sponsors commercials, so ABC cut out the good stuff. The opening scenes of the couple sleeping on the yacht,then being sprayed with automatic machine gun fire until dead, set the pace for Henry Mancini's Theme song, Peter Gunn. (Peter Gunn's theme song is Much "Cooler than James Bond's folks).I vaguely remember other bits and pieces of the movie, so I would like to view it again, uncut. Can someone please shed some light on what happened to this Cool movie starring Craig Stevens, one of the coolest detectives ever to track a suspect? This movie should have been on Video ages ago. Now it should be on DVD for the world to see. If anyone knows of a way to get a copy of the film in any format, please e-mail the details. Best regards, JD

This 1967 film lacks the luster of the late 50's, early 60's TV show. Replacement of key roles of Edie, Mother and Lt. Jacoby by others takes away from the viewer familiarity with the "Peter Gunn" they loved on the TV show. The story is fine, the women are gorgeous and seeing it in color is also a plus for a feature film. The camera work is good, but lacks the "feel" the black and white show gave us. Peter Gunn didn't lose his charm with age. His attraction by the women in this film is understandable. I could also understand why this film didn't do well at the box office. Peter Gunn is jazz. This film came out at the height of the British Invasion of Rock & Roll. Younger people would relate this film to their parents likes not theirs. Like fine wine, this film looks pretty good now. The jazz is good. If you get the chance watch it. It could have been a "10" but for the reasons I outlined, I'll give it a solid "7"

Blake Edwards in black & white during the early sixties was a class act. But this transfer of his classic TV series to the big screen in Technicolor with a psychedelic titles sequence, nastier violence, sprinkled with words like 'pervert' and 'hooker' and a proliferation of zooms and fussy compositions belongs more with Edwards' cheesier films of the seventies.

In the absence of Lola Albright (considered by the producers too old, although the same year she was a sleek & sexy T.H.R.U.S.H. woman in the 'Man from U.N.C.L.E.' feature 'The Helicopter Spies') the cast largely recruited from television still manages to include a memorable female contingent including Laura Devon, Sherry Jackson, Jean Carson as a waitress and Marion Marshall (billed as 'M.T.Marshall') in her sole late sixties reappearance on the big screen after making an impression in a handful of supporting roles during the fifties. Here she makes an even greater impression as queen bee Daisy Jane. (I'm staggered that so few reviewers have mentioned the extraordinary conclusion.)

This movie is based on the very popular 1960's TV show "Peter Gunn." It was an early Blake Edwards effort that was unfortunately made three or four years too late. The film industry was already following the mood of the viewing public into the era of "relevance." Up against films like "The I.P.C.R.I.S. File" and "The Spy Who Came In From The Cold" it seemed lightweight and trivial. Too bad, because this film is clever, witty, well cast, well acted, well directed, well paced, well filmed, well edited and has a superb Henry Mancini score that is as good as movie music gets.

"Gunn" is also a very good detective movie with a plot that is far above the average, as good as any Dashal Hammit story.

"Gunn" is also Blake Edwards dress rehearsal for the "Pink Pnather." Using "TV Actors" and in-your-face Mid-60's Los Angelas waterfront locations, Edwards created a low budget film with a high budget look and feel. If it were released today it would easily rival "Pulp Fiction" and "Get Shorty" for box office and critical honors.

If you want to see where "The Pink Panther" came from, or if you want to see what the early 60's in L.A. really looked like, or if you just want to see one of the best detective movies ever made, then take a look at "Gunn."

Craig Stevens is still the suave, unflappable title character and he's still spending his nights at Mother's, so there's a comforting sense of continuity in "Gunn." Granted, the supporting cast is different...but there had been two Mothers already, and frankly I was never a big fan of Lola Albright as Pete's steady flame Edie Hart. The only jarring change for me was Ed Asner as Lt. Jacoby. I like Asner, and he's the right general type for a curmudgeonly character like Jacoby, but I missed Herschel Bernardi's unique screen presence. (Was he uninterested in reprising the role, or was it not offered to him?)

There are a few misguided attempts to give Gunn a self-effacing sense of humor, but that was never a part of the original mix and it comes off awkwardly. Other reviewers have noted that the script recycles elements of certain episodes of the TV series, and they're right, but it relies even more heavily on the denouement of Howard Browne's 1949 detective novel "Halo in Brass." I'll offer no spoilers in that regard, but it's obvious that either Blake Edwards or William Peter Blatty was familiar with Browne's book.

Some graphic violence, some kitsch, and a reassuringly levelheaded performance by Stevens. (Gorgeous Sherry Jackson makes the most of a relatively small role; her fans will find this film worth seeking out.) "Gunn" is nothing special, but it's a reasonably entertaining attempt to update a quintessentially '50s character for the Groovy Age.

A noble effort but a box office clunker. Secret agents were the name of the game in the mid-sixties. Not private eyes on rain slicked streets in black and white. Gunn lacks the film noir cinematography of the original TV show, the great jazz soundtrack, Herschel Bernardi and most of all, Lola Albright as Gunn's love. Singer Edie. Laura Devon is gorgeous as the new Edie but there's no chemistry between Craig Stevens and Devon. The best addition is Sherry Jackson, the underrated, underhired beauty who was mainly a TV actress. Several events are lifted from the series. The bombing of Mother's night club. The racquet ball playing mobster. A man killed by a speargun. See it if you can but if you liked the original you may be let down.

A womanizing 1950's playboy in the late-1960's Sexual Revolution is like a millionaire winning the lottery, and in the case of the past-middle-age Craig Stevens returning into his PETER GUNN role for creator/director Blake Edwards' GUNN, it's also like a father romancing his college son's girlfriends...

But no matter what, it's what's expected and... even with original singer Lola Albright's Edie replaced by a far less natural (or attractive) Laura Devon... GUNN makes for a decent Bond Clone despite the TV-series proceeding 007 cinema...

But the popular spy franchise was most likely Edwards' reason to revisit this kind of fun-flowing investigation, now more twisty espionage and in color as opposed to the B&W series' noir... Meanwhile the jazzy nightclub's a slow-groove random backstop instead of an uptempo mainstay...

The action sequences are effective and suspenseful, creatively-shot yet far too sporadic with our resilient, often vulnerable anti-hero aged into a stone-faced Jack Webb monotone and, now backed by a grouchy Ed Asner, he's dealing with the mob who killed his friend, now after him...

But the token hot young girl adds the real heart in quirky and neurotic brunette Sherry Jackson: her zesty presence noticeably ages our hero, yet she could have been the sole GUNN girl who, with only a few scenes, seems far more into the movie than anyone else on board, including old Pete.

Private Eye Peter Gunn (Craig Stevens) investigates the murder of a mafia boss (Lincoln Demyan) and his mistress (Chanin Hale) on board his boat. The boss had once saved Gunn's life so he feels he owes a debt to find who the killer is.

A none too successful attempt by Blake Edwards to revive the 'Peter Gunn' TV series that had ended in 1961 including some of the characters from the show and give it some 60s style, but instead the result looks cheap and tacky giving a sense that the producer and Paramount were not willing to throw much money at it.

"Something about a new grave makes me want to get drunk, run a 4 minute mile and shacking up with a red-head...not necessarily in that order"

I have only seen a few episodes of the old black & white "Peter Gunn" shows starring Craig Stevens. So, my watching and reviewing "Gunn" probably won't mean as much as a review from a die-hard fan of the series. So, while IMDb tells us that none of the original characters are here in this movie, I wouldn't know...aside from Stevens. But I do distinctly remember that the TV show was not nearly as sexy as this film! Here, the women (or shall I say Sam) are almost like those in a Bond film...willing to shed their clothes at a moment's notice. Though, since it was made for TV, you don't see anything...but it still has so much in the way of salacious content that I wonder if it was indeed a made for TV film like IMDb indicates. See this very violent, sexy and bizarre film and you'll see what I mean!!

Overall, I'd recommend this film but realize that it's an aberration--a film that COULDN'T have been like the TV program. The acting is quite good (it's nice to see Ed Asner and Albert Paulsen) and the plot is strange with a really unique twist at the end. Well worth seeing and I might have liked more...

By the way, although I've seen it in about a half dozen films, a spear gun is NOT a very effective weapon outside the water. It's not that accurate and a gun or bow would make a lot more sense. Neat..but illogical.

When crime boss Scarlotti is murdered, private investigator Peter Gunn is distraught and angry. Scarlotti saved his life once and, with Scarlotti gone, Gunn is now at the mercy of his successor, Nick Fusco, who has a dim view of Gunn. Fusco is the prime suspect for the murder but it's going to be a struggle for Gunn to investigate him, let alone make anything stick.

Created by Blake Edwards, the TV series 'Peter Gunn' ran from 1959-61 and was reasonably entertaining. The plots were of a film noir crime drama variety, captured in 26-minute episodes. The length of the episodes was easily the biggest drawback to the series: there was far too little time for decent plot or character development, resulting in the episodes feeling rather formulaic after a while.

In 1967 Blake Edwards wrote and directed a feature-length film version of Peter Gunn, once again with Craig Stevens as Peter Gunn. Considering the main shortcoming of the series, surely a film would rectify the duration-caused issue?

Well, it should, but it didn't. Instead of using the extra time to create an intriguing plot and engaging characters, Edwards basically just takes a TV episode and pads it with silly sub-plots, random detours and heaps of shoehorned-in action scenes. The initial plot is even a copy of the very first episode of the TV series!

It's like a stretched out version of a TV episode, so is worse in that it takes even longer to be resolved without any additional intrigue or heightened tension to lock in your attention.

While not entirely without some entertainment value, it is quite disappointing.

I wanted to see this movie because I discovered the beautiful Sherry Jackson in the catastrophe called "The Monitors" (1969), made 2 years after this one. Her beauty makes you instantly and forever to fall in love with her... Well, if "The Monitors" is the worst movie ever made, this "Gunn" is a true masterpiece. Everything is excellent, the script, the actors, the intelligent direction, the humor of every line, all the ingredients to the superlative. Sherry Jackson is more beautiful than ever. And, there is another beauty present, her name is Laura Devon, who after playing in 26 films, has completely retired from cinema, marrying the great film music composer Maurice Jarre, Jean-Michel Jarre's father. Blake Edwards was a great master!

This film is pretty dopey with cheesy 60's sexual revolution dialogue which usually I can handle or find campy and funny but this just comes off as stupid. I only made it about halfway through the film and turned it off. Sherry Jackson is hot but she just has a bit part in a bedroom and her dialogue doesn't even make sense unless she's playing a schizophrenic. I can tell from the higher-rated reviews that the people who liked this were fans of the TV series so I think the reason they like this is a nostalgia thing but honestly, it just ain't worth the investment. Cool theme song of course.

One of the reviewers here mentioned the movie 'Marlowe' with James Garner and said it was similar and I take it better, and from the clip on IMDB it looks like it would be worth watching instead.