"When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it"
A crabby private investigator (Art Carney), in bad health and barely taking in enough cases to pay the rent, has his former partner turn up dead on his doorstep and, in keeping with Sam Spade's mantra listed above, determines not to rest until the culprits are caught. When he simultaneously takes on the case of a missing cat brought to him by a dippy new-aged woman (Lily Tomlin), he finds both queries pointing in the same direction. Robert Benton's The Late Show is a humorous, well made, and mostly successful reimagining of a Raymond Chandleresque noir featuring a fantastic performance from Carney and an occasionally irritating but mostly winning turn by Tomlin.
