Too much of everything

This movie is the proof that the world is becoming a sick and dumb place

Captivating movie !

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

I happened to see this movie in it's original release and thought it was terrific. Then years later I caught a network TV showing, and thought I was watching a completely different, and much worse movie. The butchery by the censors was truly breathtaking. Almost every aspect of the film, including most of its more memorable scenes, were deleted and replaced by some other plot that was about something else entirely. Recently I came across a (bootleg) copy of the original uncut film, and it mostly confirmed my positive memory. P.J. is one of the most entertaining action movies of the sixties, and deserves to be seen in its original form. P.J. Detweiler (Peppard) is a former Marine and Korea vet whose career as a private eye is not exactly flourishing - he works out of a New York bar and seems to owe everybody money. Things start to look up when he is hired by super-rich William Orbison (Raymond Burr) as a bodyguard for Orbison's high-priced mistress Maureen (Gayle Hunnicutt). Turns out that Orbison and Maureen are surrounded by a grotesque entourage of relatives and flunkies - who's out to kill whom anyway? After a series of violent and sexy set-pieces, and a side trip to a Caribbean island, P.J. starts to think he is being set up and decides to solve the mystery on his own dime. One of the main reasons the original film has been suppressed is a scene in which one of the characters lures P.J. to a Greenwich Village gay bar ("The Gay Caballero") where he is attacked by a gang of thuggish leather boys. That scene would not be handled the same way today, but it is a fairly small incident in the context of the film. Another of the many scenes deleted or censored in the TV version is the opening credits sequence, in which P.J. participates in a motel-room entrapment of an unfaithful wife. The 6.4 rating here on IMDB is almost certainly skewed by people who saw only the TV version. The original deserves much higher, at least a 7.2. I can't quite call it a classic, but it is without doubt one of the most enjoyable action movies of its era. It's very much a sixties film, filled with bright primary colors, eye-winking sexiness, and tongue-in-cheek humor almost from the James bond mold. Peppard is a very likable hero and makes you wish for the never-made sequel. It's also fun to see Burr revert to his pre-Perry Mason persona as a heavy. You will enjoy this movie - if you can find it, that is.

I saw this when it was new in Italian Switzerland (=Ticino) with subtitles in two different languages and remember it as being one of the best films I had ever seen together with these other films Peppard did in the late sixties: Pendulum, The Executioners, House of Cards and maybe The Third Day. These films were unique and Peppard was never better. I doubt that he understood it himself, since he only did BS after this. I would even go so far as to claim these films as unique in cinema history, creating an atmosphere all of their own but depending heavily on a George Peppard supplying the uniqueness maybe just by playing roles that were "beneath" him as an actor and therefore charged with surplus that comes across as unique atmosphere - I don't know. All I know is that these were damn good films and are nowhere to get now except the Executioners in Spain.

I haven't seen this movie since it came out, and I sure would like to see it again -- whole & unedited, of course. It was a lot of fun and very 60's. Raymond Burr was great, Gayle Hunnicutt was very sexy, and George Peppard was at his most flippant. I still remember the scene where Orbison orders his long-suffering secretary to type all letters using a half inch margin in future, and do a study for him on the savings over using the prior margins. I have worked for guys who would have done that. I can even remember the calypso welcoming song the hopeful residents did for Orbison when he and his entourage arrived on the island. Bright, beautiful scenery, snappy dialog -- just a really entertaining movie.What's up at Universal? They have treasures in the vault like this that are totally unavailable.

I saw this film as New Face In Hell when it was first released and enjoyed it, in fact I saw it over 10 times I thought it was that good. I remember it was very realistic especially in it's depiction of violence. The scene were he gets beaten up in a gay bar and manages to get to the juke box and play an all American record was very daring particularly here in Britain. I thought that George Peppard made an excellent private eye, cleaning up someone else's crap, I think he compares very well with Humphrey Bogart. I haven't seen the film for years and doubt very much if it will ever be shown in it's original release form here in the UK.