Murder by Death (1976)

Murder by Death
Directed by Robert Moore
Written by Neil Simon
1976/US
IMDb page
First viewing/Amazon Prime rental

Lionel Twain: You’ve tricked and fooled your readers for years. You’ve tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You’ve introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You’ve withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it. But now, the tables are turned. Millions of angry mystery readers are now getting their revenge. When the world learns I’ve outsmarted you, they’ll be selling your $1.95 books for twelve cents.

This is a fairly funny spoof of murder mysteries featuring an all-star cast and rare screen appearance by Truman Capote.

It is a dark and stormy night.  The mysterious Lionel Twain (Capote) has invited the world’s five greatest detectives and their sidekicks to dinner.  They are: Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) and Tess Skeffington (Eileen Brennan); Milo Perrier (James Coco) and chauffeur Marcel (Peter Cromwell); Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) and nurse (Estelle Winwood); Dick (David Niven) and Dora Charleston (Maggie Smith); and Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) and adopted son Willy (James Narita).  Each is greeted to the creepy mansion by blind butler Bensonmum (Alec Guinness).  Dinner is to be prepared by a hired maid who turns out to be deaf, mute, and illiterate in English (Nancy Walker).

After dinner their host appears and announces there will be a murder in that very dining room at midnight.  The sleuth who is able to solve the murder will win $1 million.  If none is able to solve it, the reputations of all will be permanently ruined.

Many hilariously scary happenings occur before the big reveal.  Or make that reveals.

Although this was evidently written for the screen, I am sure I saw it as a stage play and remembered the ending.  There are some good pokes at traditional mystery tropes.  Other jokes fall flatter.  Neil Simon is hit or miss with me.  My favorite aspect was Truman Capote.  Peter Sellers’s fake Chinaman gets old fast.  Fans of Simon might want to check this out.