Joe McDoakes (George O'Hanlon) daydreams that he's private eye "Phil Snarlow" in this general parody of 40s hard-boiled detective films and specific spoof of the subjective camera technique used in Robert Montgomery's "Lady in the Lake" (1946).Joe McDoakes imagines himself as a private detective on a murder case. Throughout the film, he spars verbally with narrator Art Gilmore.