Inspector Ike’s Throwback Detective Riff Is a Comfort-Food Cult Classic in the Making
In what seems like a lost TV movie from the 1970s, the understudy of an avant-garde theater group murders its star actor in cold blood so that he can finally have the spotlight for himself. He thinks he’s gotten away with it until Inspector Ike, New York City’s greatest police detective who, according to legend, can “solve crimes without any clues or evidence,” comes knocking at the door asking questions and poking holes in the understudy’s story. Since the exact details of the crime are revealed in the first act, Inspector Ike’s charm doesn’t come from trying to figure out whodunit, but from watching Inspector Ike unfold the case before him with signature deadpan—all while the killer’s inner psyche unravels as he tries to outrun his guilt.
From the leads to the smaller cameos, the Inspector Ike cast is a real who’s who of the current independent Brooklyn comedy scene: Search Party’s John Early steals the show with his limited screen time as Chip Conrad, the theater star whose life is cut short by his understudy Harry Newcombe, played by a gleefully over-the-top Matt Barats, himself a longtime member of the Holy Fuck Comedy Hour. Clad in nearly identical turtlenecks and blazers, the two play off each other’s cues with expert timing and dry delivery. Early winks directly at the camera. These are performers that know precisely what the rules are and how to break them.
Where most detective parodies might take their leads for a bumbling fool, Inspector Ike himself is skillfully played straight-faced by Ikechukwu Ufomadu in a refreshing spin on an old comedy trope. Ike’s confidence in himself and in his work projects the presence of a trustworthy, comforting guiding hand in the absurd world that director Graham Mason has carefully crafted. It’s no wonder that the other characters in the film trust him so readily, such as the killer’s girlfriend Jan (Grace Rex), who decides to confide in Inspector Ike when she realizes that Harry’s alibi, which she’d previously supported, doesn’t actually hold much water (he brought her to an eight-hour experimental play about the average American work day, where she promptly fell asleep). This isn’t to say that Ike is without his own sense of humor. On the contrary, he has a lot of fun toying with Harry in their cat-and-mouse game, always one step ahead.