From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Murder by Death
poster for theatrical release
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
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Murder by Death is also an independent rock band, named after the movie. See Murder by Death (band).

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.

Contents 1 Cast of Characters 2 Plot 3 Deleted scenes 4 External link

The plot takes place in and around the isolated country home of eccentric multi-millionaire Lionel Twain (Capote), inhabited by his blind butler, Jamesir Bensonmum (Alec Guinness), and a deaf 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 costume, 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 (although the Charlestons are British and the Charleses are American). 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). 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.

• Sam Diamond represents the hard-boiled, American-style detective, most closely based on The Maltese Falcon's Sam Spade. 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).

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. 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.

Some time after the film's initial release, three scenes were cut. The first finds Jessica Marbles and Miss Withers discussing payment with their taxi driver. The second 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 third, 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.

• Murder by Death at the Internet Movie Database