Pjtaylor-96-138044 A spoof of the spooky mansion murder mystery, such as Agatha Christie's 'And The There Were None' (as well as the wider 'whodunnit' genre, of course), that was made in an era when such films were often as smart as the pieces they satirised. 'Murder By Death (1976)' is genuinely funny thanks to the fact that it is so consistently clever, keeping up a mile-a-minute pace packed with as many intelligent pastiche-based jokes as possible. There are only two major issues, the first being that the ending - which is initially intentionally puzzling as plot reveal upon contradictory plot reveal are piled on to ridiculous yet hilarious effect - becomes completely confusing once an almost meta layer is introduced and a character begins to refer to the machinations of mystery novel writing with the implication that each detective has a hand in creating their own fiction, leaving the piece on a rather sour note. The second issue being that, while every character is an amalgamation of broad stereotypes meant to imitate individual archetypes of detective seen across multiple forms of media, there's a rather unfortunate Chinese character played by Peter Sellars that is clearly well-intentioned and generally fairly entertaining yet still is unconvincing and retroactively seems in poor taste. Still, the script is smart and the satire sharp enough to provide consistent and hearty laughs throughout. 7/10

patroklosmech The movie enjoys an almost ensemble and all-star cast including already established then stars like David Niven, Maggie Smith, Peter Sellers and many others. I consider they have done a very good acting in their diverse comic roles and all emit a sense of vividness and youthfulness helped by the colour cinematography.Much of the action transpires in no more than a handful of sets, the dining room, the bedrooms and the kitchen and omitted possible sets as a gloomy corridor or a basement which I think flawed sensibly though not greatly the overall result as the film thus lost the chance to enhance a dark comedy approach which would feature a thread of thriller- horror flavour and suspense. The lack of suspense also lies on the fact that the viewer cannot believe that one of the sleuths is actually the murderer, so the canon that the sleuths are not suspect is difficult to discard. A great plus is Truman Capote as the sardonic but well-liked host, in a rare acting performance. His presence should of course be used more, as he would definitely cast a wonderful shadow of omnipresence had his voice used to scare the sleuths more frequently.

classicsoncall Fans of the characters being spoofed or the actors who play them in other films will most likely get a kick out of this picture. I've seen all the Charlie Chan, Bogart and Thin Man movies, and found that having some familiarity with them goes a long way in appreciating this one. Peter Falk in particular was exceptional in imitating Bogie's Sam Spade in "The Maltese Falcon" right down to the speech pattern and mannerisms. The familiar use of the old lights out gimmick was a staple of the Chan films, so one would expect that to be used at some point and on that score I wasn't disappointed.Besides the take off on mystery films of an earlier era, I also detected a couple of other movies that might have been the target of Neil Simon's satirical pen here. The set up using invited guests to spend the evening in an old, decrepit mansion with the possibility of murder reminded me of Vincent Price's 1959 picture "House on Haunted Hill", one of my scary favorites as a kid. And if you go back to an earlier time, a moose head figured prominently in the 1941 Abbott and Costello picture "Hold That Ghost".With a talented cast of comic actors, this turned out to be a fun film for me, very much along the same lines as another Neil Simon flick a few years later, "The Cheap Detective" with Peter Falk and Eileen Brennan reprising similar roles in that story. The fact that the revelation of the murderer at the finale becomes a bit confusing shouldn't be much of a bother because by that time it's all nonsense anyway. It's the sound and sight gags that move this story along, including Truman Capote's helpful insertion of pronouns whenever the Chinese Detective offers a meaningful insight.

Leofwine_draca MURDER BY DEATH is both a send-up of the whole detective genre along with a riff on the classic haunted house movies of old. The plot, like that of CLUE and others in this sub-genre, is simple in the extreme: a group of detectives arrive at a creepy old mansion and must club together to solve a murder.What I liked most about this film was the quality of the writing. Although the producers didn't have the rights to use real-life literary detectives, they're all obvious spins on the famous names: Poirot, Sam Spade, Miss Marple, et al. The jokes come thick and fast and there's barely a slow moment as these guys bumble their way through the plot and drop the ball on regular occasions. Not all of the jokes work, but there's a noticeably higher success rate here than in other spoofs and it never flags at any rate.And what a cast! David Niven's role as a plummy toff is a highlight, but I also have a soft spot for Peter Falk, coming across as a cross between Columbo and a '40s era pulp PI. Peter Sellers stands out as the Chinese detective, and before you cry racist, it's worth noting that he's spoofing the western actors who played Chinese detectives back in 1930s and 1940s cinema. Elsa Lanchester (THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN) is also a hoot as a batty older lady. With the dialogue in the hands of such reliable stars, it would have been hard for it to all go wrong, and thankfully it doesn't. It's great fun.