Murder by Death
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| Murder by Death | |
|---|---|
 poster for theatrical release |
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| Directed by | Robert Moore |
| Produced by | Ray Stark |
| Written by | Neil Simon |
| Starring | Eileen Brennan Truman Capote James Coco Peter Falk Alec Guinness Elsa Lanchester David Niven Peter Sellers Maggie Smith Nancy Walker Estelle Winwood |
| Music by | Dave Grusin |
| Cinematography | David M. Walsh |
| Editing by | Margaret Booth John F. Burnett |
| Distributed by | Columbia Pictures |
| Release date(s) | June 23, 1976 |
| Running time | 94 min |
| Country | U.S.A. |
| Language | English |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Murder by Death is a 1976 comedy movie written by Neil Simon and directed by Robert Moore. The plot is a spoof of the traditional country house whodunit, familiar to mystery fiction fans from classics such as Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, a form also parodied for the stage in Tom Stoppard's The Real Inspector Hound. The cast is an ensemble of British and American comic stars playing send-ups of well-known fictional sleuths, and also features a rare performance by In Cold Blood author Truman Capote. The film was presented at the Venice International Film Festival, in 1976.
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[edit] Cast Of Characters
The plot takes place in and around the isolated country home of eccentric multi-millionaire Lionel Twain (Capote), inhabited by him along with his blind butler, Jamesir Bensonmum (Alec Guinness), and a deaf and mute maid called Yetta (Nancy Walker). As the movie opens, our heroes, all pastiches of famous detectives, are approaching the house through dense, fog-bound forest, accompanied by their assistants or sidekicks; it emerges that they have been invited to "dinner and a murder" over a weekend at Twain's mansion.
- Inspector Sidney Wang, played by Peter Sellers, is based on Charlie Chan, and appropriately accompanied by his adopted, Japanese son Willie (Richard Narita). Wang wears elaborate Chinese costumes, and his grammar is frequently criticized by the host.
- Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith) are polished, sophisticated society types modeled on Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man series of films. Their excellent breeding gets them out of a few scrapes during the course of the weekend.
- Milo Perrier (James Coco) is a take on Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, and arrives at the house with his chauffeur, Marcel Cassette (James Cromwell in his first feature film role). The portly Perrier is overly fond of food and appears annoyed that he must share a room with lowly Marcel, but is seen sharing his bed in one of the last scenes of the film. He is repeatedly annoyed by being mistaken for a Frenchman, as he is Belgian.
- Sam Diamond represents the hard-boiled, American-style detective, a pastiche based on The Maltese Falcon's Sam Spade and Richard Diamond, Private Detective. Played by Peter Falk, he is ably assisted by Eileen Brennan as his tough but loyal secretary, Tess Skeffington.
- Christie's other great creation, Miss Marple, appears here as Jessica Marbles, played by Elsa Lanchester as a hearty, tweed-clad Englishwoman, with a frail, seemingly gaga companion, her ancient "nurse" Miss Withers (played by Estelle Winwood, over 90 years old at the time), for whom she is now caring. Ironically, in real life, the two English-born actresses did not care for each other and exchanged mordant, biting insults (recounted in Kenneth Anger's Hollywood Babylon).
[edit] Plot
The plot combines a convoluted, highly improbable murder-mystery arc with plenty of farce, slapstick, witty banter, and self-referential humour. Having lured his guests to his mansion (the address of which is given as "2-2 Twain"), Twain announces that, as a test of their sleuthing prowess, they are expected to solve a murder which will take place in the house at midnight that very night, with a reward of $1 million to the winner. The time comes and everything seems fine, until they discover that Twain himself has been murdered. The party spends the rest of the weekend investigating, dining, and bickering, manipulated by a mysterious behind-the-scenes force, confused by red herrings, baffled by the "mechanical marvel" that is Twain's house, and ultimately finding their own lives threatened. The ending piles on twist after twist as each sleuth presents his or her theory on the case.
After a brutal night where one pair is almost killed by a snake, another by a scorpion, another by a falling ceiling, a fourth by poison gas and the fifth by a bomb, they all collect in the office where the butler — believed to have been murdered earlier — is sitting behind the desk very much alive. Each detective has a different idea to who the real murderer is. However, the man sitting behind the desk has another surprise. He pulls off his mask to reveal he is Lionel Twain, the first victim. He takes a dig at detective stories for introducing crucial characters at the last minute for the traditional "twist in the tale", something which the assembled detectives had been doing a few minutes earlier. None of the detectives walk away with the million dollars for they were all wrong.
After the guests leave, Twain pulls off another mask, revealing "himself" to be Yetta, the deaf cook. It is not clear whether any murder has actually taken place. In the last spoken line of the movie, Sydney Wang, when asked if there was a murder or not, replies "Yes; killed good weekend!"
[edit] Production notes
- Charles Addams drew the caricatures displayed under the beginning and end credits and on the poster.[1]
- The film was shot entirely at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, then named "The Burbank Studios."
[edit] Deleted Scenes
Some time after the film's initial release, four scenes were cut. The first finds Jessica Marbles and Miss Withers discussing payment with their taxi driver. In the second, Dick and Dora Charleston narrowly avoid running over Tess Skeffington, who's been hiking for miles back to Sam Diamond's car from a service station (because she and Sam ran out of gas on the road). Satisfied that Tess is okay, the Charlestons drive off...just leaving her there! The third falls between the discovery of Twain's body and the discussion of motives. Willie Wang has found a note in Twain's hand and, thinking it's a clue, makes a speech about how he'll solve the case and win the prize. However, the "clue" is a worthless note. In the fourth, another detective in a deerstalker cap and his doctor friend (obviously meant to be Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson) arrive late and are directed to the house just as the other characters are leaving hastily. Reportedly this scene was cut because of a dispute over the rights to the Holmes and Watson characters. None of these scenes are included in the current DVD release.
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[edit] Notes
