Rating: PG
Genre:
Mystery
Release Date: 12/18/2001
SubTitles: English/Espanol/Por/KO/TH
Dubbed: English/Espanol
Sound: 5.1/1
Run Time: 94 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children, Adult Language
Distributor/Studio: Columbia TriStar
As penned by
Neil Simon, this
satire of movie
mysteries is set in motion when several prominent detectives are invited to the mansion of the reclusive
Lionel Twain (
Truman Capote). In
Ten Little Indians fashion, the gathered sleuths are locked into the forbidding mansion, and subject to various death-dealing devices. While struggling for their lives, the vainglorious gumshoes continue to try to one-up one another. Each character is broadly based on a famous literary detective:
Sidney Wang (
Peter Sellers) is an aphorism-spouting
Charlie Chan clone:
Dick and
Dora Charleston (
David Niven and
Maggie Smith) are patterned on the protagonists of the
Thin Man flicks;
Milo Perrier (
James Coco), a
Hercule Poirot takeoff, stalks through the proceedings declaring "I'm a Belgie, not a Frenchie!";
Sam Diamond (
Peter Falk) is
Raymond Chandler's
Philip Marlowe and
Dashiell Hammett's
Sam Spade rolled in one; and
Jessica Marbles (
Elsa Lanchester) is a dottier variation of
Agatha Christie's
Miss Marple. Best bit: a "conversation" between blind butler
Jamessir Bensonmum (
Alec Guinness) and deaf-mute maid
Yetta (
Nancy Walker). The fade-out gag of
Sherlock Holmes and
Dr. Watson showing up late for
Lionel Twain's party was edited from the theatrical version of
Murder by Death, but was restored for TV. The film marked the big-screen directorial debut of
Robert Moore, who'd previously directed several of
Neil Simon's Broadway productions.
Moore went on to direct another
Simon spoof,
The Cheap Detective (1978), before his untimely death.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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