Murder by Death is a 1976 American comedy mystery film directed by Robert Moore and written by Neil Simon. The film stars Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker, and Estelle Winwood.
The plot is a broad parody or spoof of the traditional country-house whodunit, familiar to mystery fiction fans of classics such as Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. The cast is an ensemble of British and American actors playing send-ups of well-known fictional sleuths, including Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Charlie Chan, Nick and Nora Charles, and Sam Spade.
Cast and characters[]
The story takes place in and around the isolated country home populated by eccentric multi-millionaire Lionel Twain (Truman Capote), his blind butler Jamessir Bensonmum (Alec Guinness), and a deaf-mute cook named Yetta (Nancy Walker). "Lionel Twain" is a pun on "Lionel Train" also a pun on writer Samuel Clemmons pen name "Mark Twain". "Yetta" is a Jewish word for a gossipy woman. The participants are all pastiches of famous fictional detectives:
- Milo Perrier (James Coco) is a take on Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and arrives at the house with his heavily French-accented chauffeur Marcel Cassette (James Cromwell). The demanding, portly Perrier is overly fond of food and appears annoyed that he must share a room with the lowly Marcel, although the two are later seen sharing not only a room but a bed, quibbling like a married couple. Perrier is repeatedly annoyed by being mistaken for a Frenchman as he is Belgian, saying "I am not a 'Frenchie'...I am a 'Belgie.'" He also is torn between a choice of starving to death or having to eat common food such as Franks and Beans
- Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) parodies Christie's Miss Marple. In the film, Marbles appears as hearty, robust and tweed-clad, wheeling a frail, ancient-looking, seemingly senile companion—her ancient "nurse" Miss Withers (Estelle Winwood), for whom she is now caring—who everyone initially assumes is Miss Marbles. [Ironically, a Lanchester acting role was in Agatha Christie's Witness for the Proscution while a role for Winwood was as a murder defendant in the TV series finale of Perry Mason, "The Case of the Final Fade Out."] Miss Withers herself is also a detective, albeit surely retired by the time of this movie. She is a schoolteacher and self-styled sleuth, the protagonist of a series of books by Stuart Palmer.
- Inspector Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) is based on Earl Derr Biggers' Chinese police detective, Charlie Chan, and is appropriately accompanied by his adopted Japanese son Willie (Richard Narita). Wang wears elaborate Chinese costumes, and his comically broken English is criticized by Twain and others.
- Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith) are polished, sophisticated society types modeled on Dashiell Hammett's characters Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man film series. The Charles' wire-haired terrier, Asta, is also lampooned, appearing here as Myron.
- Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) parodies another Dashiell Hammett character, The Maltese Falcon's hardboiled Sam Spade. [Falk also parodies his most famous characther, Detective Lt. Columo, by wearing a raincoat.] He is accompanied by his long-suffering, hard-boiled, sexy but needy secretary Tess Skeffington (Eileen Brennan), whom he continually denigrates and mistreats. Tess Skeffington's name is a riff on Spade's secretary Effie Perine.
- The only Fictional detectives not present at the dinner are Sherlock Holmes and Dr Watson-although they are seen driving up to the mansion as everyone else leaves—which means the comic murder chase begins all over again....