Murder by Death
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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.
Cast of Characters
The action of 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 wacky mansion.
Sidney Wang, played by Peter Sellers, is based on Charlie Chan, and appropriately accompanied by his 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. 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).
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, 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 spend 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 in twist after twist as each surviving sleuth presents their theory on the case.
A brief late appearance by Sherlock Holmes in early versions of the movie was removed at some point.
Only a couple of the actors involved returned for a later Simon/Moore collaboration, The Cheap Detective.
The Mysterious Ending
After a brutal night where one group is almost killed by a snake, another by a scorpion, another by a falling ceiling, a fourth by posionous gas and the fifth by a bomb, they all collect in the office where the very much alive butler is sitting behind the desk. Every 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. None of the detectives walk away with the million dollars for they were all wrong.After all the guests leave, Twain pulls off another mask, revealing himself to be Yetta, the "deaf, mute cook". She has apparently killed both the butler and the real Lionel Twain and assumed their aliases.
External links
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