Murder by Death

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Murder by Death
Image:Murder by death movie poster.jpg 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
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
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Murder by Death is also an independent rock band, named after the movie. See Murder by Death (band).

Murder by Death is a 1976 ensemble 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 includes a wealth of British and American comic stars of the time playing send-ups of well-known fictional sleuths, and also features a rare performance from Breakfast at Tiffany's author Truman Capote. The film was presented in the Venice International Film Festival, in 1976.

1 Cast of Characters
2 Plot
- 2.1 The Mysterious Ending
3 Deleted scenes
4 External link

[edit] Cast of Characters

The movie 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-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.

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 criticised by the host.

Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith) are polished, sophisticated society types modelled 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 (James Cromwell, of Babe and L.A. Confidential fame). Portly Perrier is overly fond of food, and is allegedly 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 of detective, perhaps 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 true 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

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

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, 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 12 o'clock that very night, with a reward of $1 million to the winner. 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.

[edit] The Mysterious Ending

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 a woman who looks like Yetta, the deaf-mute cook. It is unclear if she is supposed to be Yetta or someone else and it's undetermined whether she has murdered either Twain or Bensonmum or indeed if there have been any actual murders at all.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Deleted scenes

Some time after the film's initial release two scenes were cut. The first 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 second, 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. Neither scene is included in the current DVD release.