The Private Eyes (1980) is an American film starring Tim Conway and Don Knotts. The pair play bumbling American detectives who (unexplainedly) work for Scotland Yard. The film is directed by Lang Elliott, and marks the final pairing of Conway and Knotts, not counting their cameos as two California Highway Patrol officers in the 1984 film Cannonball Run II.
The film opens with the apparent murder of Lord and Lady Morley in their car by a figure in a black cape. Inspector Winship (Knotts) and Detective Tart (Conway) then travel to the Morley mansion, brandishing a letter from the late Lord Morley asking him to investigate the murder. They encounter the heiress (Trisha Noble) and a questionable staff. As the two investigate the murder, each of the staff, which includes a Japanese samurai caricature, a hunchback, a busty maid, a gypsy, and an insane butler to mention a few, are seemingly killed. However, each of their bodies disappear before the detectives can show them to the heiress. The detectives then wind up in a 'torture chamber' (whose purpose is not explained), where Winship is caught in a deadly trap until the caped figure ("The Shadow") leaps out to rescue him.
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