At the time I was a major Columbo fan so I remember seeing Murder By Death when it was released or just a few months later, at the Little Carnegie cinema on 57th street.  I was also was a big fan of British actors so I loved seeing David Niven (whom I knew from Wuthering Heights) and Maggie Smith and others. Great cast. 
The Cheap Detective (which also had an all-star cast) came out a couple of years later but by that time I guess I wasn't as enamored of Falk as I had been, so I never got around to seeing that.  

ETA: fwiw, both movies are from the '70s. Murder by Death, 1976....The Cheap Detective, 1978

I remember that! It was one of a series of small shorts they aired in-between movie times. The film rolled off it's spools, enveloped a guy and then ate/dissolved/absorbed him. It freaked me out as kid.

A few films that come to mind:

Looker - with Albert Finney, James Coburn, Susan Dey. Finney plays a plastic surgeon caught up in the murders of supermodels (some of whom were his clients), a company's obsession for finding the 'perfect' model and a funky prototype light-based ocular gun used in the murders. 

Brainstorm - Natalie Woods' last film which also starred Christopher Walken. Shot on location in Research Triangle Park in Raleigh which I remember got a lot of local news coverage at the time (which only amped up when Woods died). Trippy film about the development of a device able to record a person's thoughts and feelings which can then be experienced by someone else. This of course leads to some abuse by some people but ultimately ends with the lead scientist using the device to record her thoughts as she suffers a heart attack and then dies with the machine still on her. Walken (her fellow scientist) races to 'view' her last thoughts before the plug is permanently pulled on the project. TCM recently aired it, first time I'd seen it in years and still holds up rather well IMO.

Runaways - with Tom Selleck and Gene Simmons. Basically, Selleck is a new type of cop investigating crime involving hi-tech and/or robots. Simmons plays the bad guy with the evil robot critters. Full of future tech as seen through the prism of the 80s (I recall a great car chase involving mobile robots laced with explosives and Selleck's hi-tech police car). May be campy by today's standards but I thought it was a good fun film.

Runaways is THE HBO movie from back then that introduced us to Gene Simmons without the KISS Makeup. He kinda creeped me out lol plus the acid spider robots.

that horror short of the film reel eating people, man that freaked me out when i was a little kid back then.

speaking of Shocker, since it has Mitch Peleggi aka Skinner of X Files, he was along in another old 1980s movie Three O Clock High. Even when was a little younger back then he was still bald/clean shaven before he showed up in X Files.

actors like Mitch along with Patrick Stewart while they were a little younger back then in the early 1980s they were just still bald lol.

Murder By Death is Neil Simon with a spoof of the stereotypical drawing room mystery. The film plays with the conventions of those works. It's more of a literary spoof than cinematic. Cheap Detective isn't directly spun off of it; but, is inspired by Falk's Bogey impression, as Sam Diamond. Here, it is a cinematic spoof of Bogey and his detective films, complete with its own Sydney Greenstreets and Peter Lorres and Mary Astors.

Of a similar, yet more off-kilter nature is Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid, with Steve Martin (directed by Carl Reiner). Martin plays off of footage from classic detective and noir films, while investigating a murder and conspiracy. Reiner gets a cameo role, as well as directing. Bit uneven; but a lot of fun, for film buffs.

Three O'Clock High is a good one, with Casey Siemaszko as Jerry, a nice, if nebbishy kid, who makes a mistake and finds himself the target of a new student, with a history of violence, when he inadvertently touches him. Lots of fun stuff with the camera angles and techniques, good character comedy.

Siemaszko also figures into a favorite of mine and my NROTC classmates, which got fairly ignored in the 80s and ever since: Gardens of Stone. It tells the story about the Old Guard, the Army unit that conducts funerals and stands vigil at Arlington National Cemetery. It is during the Vietnam War and they are burying bodies nearly every day. James Caan and James Earl Jones are senior NCOs, with a ton of experience. Caan wants to be somewhere where he can do some good, not playing toy soldier. Jones is more practical and philosophical (and the command sergeant major, the highest NCO rank). Into this group comes DB Sweeney, son of an old friend, who itches to be where the war is, as he feels that is a soldier's duty. he's a natural leader and smart and is a good candidate for OCS. Siemaszko is a screw up, scared little guy, who Sweeney babysits, teaching him how to do things right. His name is Wildman, which is a constant source of jokes. There is a dual romantic subplot, as Caan develops a relationship with Angelica Huston, while Sweeney rekindles one with Mary Stuart Masterson. Good stuff, from Francis Ford Coppola, overshadowed by Platoon and Full Metal Jacket.



It didn't get the greatest reviews and had a limited release; but, we loved it, as it more closely represented the reality of military life than most things in Hollywood, including Platoon and FMJ. It gets into leadership, politics, family, and the brotherhood of servicemembers, which is hard for a general audience to fully understand. It also seems to both condemn and condone the war, which critics couldn't understand. Within the military, the feeling was often that it was a futile war; but that so many of the protesters didn't understand it enough to attack the right people, resorting to the easy targets like soldiers, instead of the politicians and industries that were making a profit. Caan sums up many a Vietnam-era servicemember I met: the war was pointless, but they would rather be there trying to keep people alive than home, were they could just sit by and watch the death toll rise.

A few more perpetual late night plays I rememberwatching on HBO:

Nighthawks with Sylvester Stallone, Billy Dee Williams, Rutger Hauer and Lindsay Wagner. 1981
Wolfen with Albert Finney, Gregory Hines and Edward James Olmos. 1980
White Knights with Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines. 1985
Videodrome from David Cronenberg with James Wood and Debby Harry of Blondie fame. 1983
Into the Night. John Landis movie with Jeff Goldblum and Michelle Pfeiffer.
Doctor Detroit a comedy with Dan Akroyd, Fran Drescher, Donna Dixon, Howard Hesseman. 1983
Jekyll and Hyde...Together Again, comedy with Mark Blankfield, Bess Armstrong and Cassandra Peterson NOT playing Elvira. 1982