Movie Review : Murder By Death

Murder By Death (1976) is perhaps the first-ever genre spoof films, (after perhaps Mel Brooks' Young Frankenstein and Silent Movie) containing many fixtures now commonly associated with spoofs, including self-referential comedy, and takes on popular characters and standards of the genre, along with classic farce and banter. (This film in particular is not so much a tribute or a spoof, but a scolding, you'll see why later.)
And did I mention the spectacular Casting? Keep reading.

Wriiten by Neil Simon (The Odd Couple, The Out-of-Towners), the film is a comic pastiche of the Detective and Murder Mystery genre, the books primarily, but people would readily recognize the characters from the film adaptations. The film starts with eccentric multi-millionaire Lionel Twain (VERY Rare performance by Truman Capote, who by the way is more like the short gay guy from Will and Grace than Philip Seymour Hoffman) sending out invitations to the greatest criminologists of the world, inviting them to his country mansion for "Dinner and a Murder".
One by one they arrive, starting with Inspector Sydney Wang (played by Peter Sellers, a take on Charlie Chan) and his adopted japanese son, Willie. Sellers spoofs the forever proverb spewing character extremely well, with elaborate costumes and 'yellowface' talk. They are followed by Dick and Dora Charleston (spoofs of Nick and Nora Charles, played by David Niven and Maggie Grace,) the well-bred, society-type detectives (which is evident from the martinis they drink all the through the story, and I mean every scene) who only do it as a hobby. Then comes Milo Perrier (James Coco, parodying Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot) and his chaffeur Cassette (James Cromwell, Babe's Boss,) as the gluttonous european detective who notices everything. Sam Diamond (Peter Falk, representing the hard-boiled, noirish detective, but Sam Spade more closely than others) is next, accompanied by his faithful secretary Tess Skeffington (Eileen Brennan, married to Tom Waits, might remember her as Jack's acting teacher from Will and Grace). Sam would return in a loose sequel to this, The Cheap Detective.
All of them are greeted by Twain's (the eccentric millionaire, remember) blind butler, Jamesir Bensonmum (Alec Guinness). The name leads up to the gag where a guest asks him "And you are?" "Bensonmum." "Ah, Benson." "No Ma'am, Bensonmum." "Bensonmum?" "Yes ma'am, Bensonmum." And so on with the first name. As they are shown to their rooms, and make their way down to the dining room (while skilfully dodging attempts at their lives) the last guest arrives, Jessi Marbles (Elsa Lanchester, obviously doing Miss Marple), accompanied by her 90 year old wheelchair-ridden nurse, Miss Withers. Around this time the new cook, Yetta (Nancy Walker) a deaf mute, arrives at the mansion, and we get to see Alec Guinness do slapstick (again, Very rare).
Thus, dinner never gets made, and everybody starts asking about the murder mentioned in the invitation. Lightning strikes, blah blah blah, and the mysterious Lionel Twain makes an entry (and what an entry). He tells them that the whole affair is a test - to determine the world's greatest detective; and when he baffles his five guests, Twain will prove that he is The World's Greatest Criminologist! Of course everybody tells him that he has said all that, and now no matter what happens they know he did it, but Twain says 'It doesn't Matter! Someone in this dining room will die before the clock strikes twelve, and no one is leaving until the case is solved!'
This sets the film up for more gags and takes on the whole detective genre. The entire cast does a splendid (that's the word) job of it. The butler ends up dead, then his body goes missing, but his clothes are still there, then his body comes back but his clothes are missing, the dining room keeps emptying and filling up again, and Twain keeps critizing Wang's grammar from the spyholes in the stuffed animal heads on the wall. Also, Twain shows up with a butcher's knife in his back.
Soon, it comes to light that eveybody has had previous dealings with Twain and has reason to kill him. After everybody manages to escape near death, after having scorpions, snakes, bombs thrown in their rooms, not to mention gas (Miss Withers: "I can't help it. I'm old.") and slowly lowering ceilings; they solve the case at the same time and confront Twain. Each detective has their own theory and the culprit changes suitably for each theory - starting from Twain, to Bensonmum, to Twain's Homely Daughter (still Bensonmum, seeing Alec Guinness do this is fun) back to Twain; who literally scolds everyone and says that his real motive was to teach them all a lesson, to take revenge for all those times they have dissappointed their readers, for each plot-device, each deus ex machina, each banal motive, he served them right.
Then he throws them out, after which Twain takes off his mask (his third one I think) to reveal that it is actually Yetta, the cook, who then (quite aptly) laughs. A Victory For Twain? (If Twain is dead, then they never did solve that crime did they?) A Plot Twist? A Final Joke? Mocking The Audience? Whatever it was, it was a fine end to a hilarious film. Wonderfully executed, great script, a laugh a minute (and not in a bad way.)

And Here's The Casting Call Again - Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, Maggie Grace, Peter Falk, David Niven, Truman Capote, James Coco, James Cromwell, Nancy Walker, Eileen Brennan, Elsa Lanchester and Estelle Winwood.