Murder By Death

MOVIE REVIEW OF Murder by Death (1976) PG

Cast
Director	Robert Moore	Runtime: 1hrs 34min ( 94min)
tess skeffington	.....	eileen brennen
lionel twain	.....	truman capote
milo perrier	.....	james coco
sam diamond	.....	peter falk
james bensonmum	.....	alec guinness
jessica marbles	.....	elsa lancester
dick charleston	.....	david niven
sidney wang	.....	peter sellers
dora charleston	.....	maggie smith
yetta the maid	.....	nancy walker
nurse withers	.....	estelle winwood
marcel cassette	.....	james cromwell
willie wang	.....	richard narita
myron	.....	myron the dog

PLOT SUMMARY

The hilarious Neil Simon does it again. He has managed to make my day with his amazing talent to produce one of many seriously gut-busting comedies.

This time, he's making fun of mystery book characters. Five of the world's greatest detectives have been invited to have a murder mystery weekend at the home of Mr. Lionel Twain (Truman Capote) who lives at number 22. That's right...two...two...Twain's house. Say it out loud to get the joke.

All the guests are clever parodies of famous detectives we all know. There's Dick and Dora Charleston (parodies of Nick and Nora Charles, played by David Niven and Maggie Smith), Sidney Wang (parody of Charlie Chan, played by Peter Sellers), Sam Diamond (parody of Sam Spade, played by Peter Falk), Milo Perrier (parody of Hercule Poirot, played by James Coco), and Jessica Marbles (parody of Jane Marple, played by Elsa Lancester).

The unexpected twist to them is that the murder is real. And according to their host, one of them is the murderer! At the stroke of midnight...and after dinner, of course, someone will be murdered...and one of them will have done it! And speaking of dinner, that itself is riddled with mayhem. The butler (Alec Guinness) is blind, and the maid (Nancy Walker) is deaf and dumb.

It is up to the famous detectives to figure out who the murderer is and collect the 1 million dollar prize before the morning arrives.

TECH INSPECTION

I've taken time off for two days now to see if I could come up with some sort of negative criticism for this movie. No luck. Like most of Neil Simon's works, even though they are originally meant for the stage (and I could certainly imagine this one as such a production), they have been masterfully produced for film. If you think I'm making this up, just take a look at some of my favorite movies: The Odd Couple, The Out-Of-Towners (1970), The Prisoner of Second Avenue, The Sunshine Boys (1975), The Goodbye Girl (1977), and Lost in Yonkers just to name a very select few! And yes, Murder by Death is in there, too.

I find it difficult to write an extensive review of a Neil Simon mystery as most of my points involve scenes that would either tell the whole movie (in effect, rendering it pointless to actually see the movie) or at the very least give away something crucial (spoilers). However, given a look at the selected quotes I have chosen below, you don't need my critique to tell you that you are missing 90 minutes of good times by not seeing this movie.

Note: An internet search revealed to me that Simon's original script for this movie had Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson arriving and solving the mystery as everyone else is leaving. I would have loved to see that!

QUOTES
Finally, a short list of quotes I think are worth repeating. You may recognize some, but these are my own picks, not ones that are particularly famous:

• Idiot! Not finish mushroom story! Idiot! ~ Sidney Wang
• You should not speak with an accent when you know I am so hungry. ~ Milo Perrier
• Why do I have to drive the car? ~ Willie Wang
  
  Cause I smart enough to get out first. ~ Sidney Wang
• Isn't that nice, darling? We're in Wang's wing. ~ Dick Charleston
• Room filled with empty people. ~ Sidney Wang
• IT IS... IT IS confusing. Say your Goddamn pronouns! ~ Lionel Twain
• What if you don't wake up? ~ Willie Wang
  
  Then you did it. ~ Sidney Wang
• You've tricked and fooled your readers for years. You've tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You've introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You've withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it. But now, the tables are turned. Millions of angry mystery readers are now getting their revenge. ~ Lionel Twain

Here is my personal rating of this movie. This rating is out of ten meows.
¹⁰/₁₀

---

Thanks for Visiting!!!