THEY ALL LAUGHED (1981) Delectable detective comedy

You may best remember the late John Ritter as the lovably licentious Jack Tripper in "Three's Company," but it's his lovesick film character Charles Rutledge in the quirky THEY ALL LAUGHED that made me his everlasting fan. This sweet little screwball comedy, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, follows the criss-crossed lives and loves of the employees of the Odyssey Detective Agency and their case subjects. Ritter is novice gumshoe madly in love with the achingly lovely Dorothy Stratton (her final movie) – and even amid all the nuttiness there's something very touching and belieavable about his bumbling heartsickness. For the midde-agers, there's a sweet subplot about a brief autumnal romance between senior detective Ben Gazzara and the wife (Audrey Hepburn) of one of his clients.