Murder by Death (1976)

"I have taken the liberty of putting you in the same wing as Mr. Wang..."

“You’ve tricked and fooled your readers for years!… You’ve introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before!”

Billed as a comedy thriller, Neil Simon’s Murder by Death (1976), is the next film on WEEKEND FLICKS. Cinema for Grown Ups. It’s all very drole — if you like that sort of thing. A 70s spoof/pastiche on the Agatha Christie/John Dickson Carr whodunnit, a temple to the Cluedobethan. Deliciously silly and by today’s standards, politically incorrect. Five ‘of the world’s greatest detectives’ (and their sidekicks) are invited — for ‘dinner and a murder’— to a creepy manor house (presumably in New England, or similar) belonging to mysterious millionaire recluse, Lionel Twain — played by none other than Truman Capote in his acting debut. One of the guests is destined to meet their demise at midnight. And there’s a million dollar prize waiting for the clever bod who solves the mystery. Or is there?

‘Murder by Death: a temple to the Cluedobethan…’

We’re in Sleuth (1972) territory — quite possibly my favourite film of all time — which I’m saving up to write about later this year. Oh, so need to do it justice, that one. Funnily enough, Murder by Death’s title sequence, designed by Charles Addams of Addams Family fame, reminds me enormously of the beginning of Sleuth, minus the Pollock’s toy theatres and the Vaudeville orchestra. And something must have been in the water, in 1972, that year of style, taste and discernment, ‘cos there was a ‘family’ board game, along these very lines. Step forward Seance: The Voice from the Great Beyond (1972), designed by some genius at Milton Bradley. Nothing like introducing the darling kiddywinks to the occult, eh? Players sat round a 3D reconstruction of a Victorian Haunted House, complete with longcase clock, plastic ‘antique’ dining table and a cardboard suit of armour. Money was involved (screw your siblings and get your grubby little mitts on the inheritance!) and a campy man’s voice (just like Truman!) came out of a battery-operated record player ‘which really worked’. That was horrid old Uncle Everett, deceased. Kaput. As Dead as a Doornail. Reaching Out from Beyond the Grave. The game finished with Uncle Everett’s apparition. With the lights turned off. In the dark. I’m not entirely sure how the effect was achieved, but his glowing, radioactive face appeared in the ancestral portrait on the wall. My God, how I would have loved this one, although I’m not sure if it was sold this side of the Atlantic?

‘The English wire-haired fox terrier — that most 1930s of dogs…’

Anyway. Back to Murder by Death (1976). Part of the fun is identifying the literary characters on which the various film detectives are based. Peter Falk’s hardboiled Sam Diamond is clearly Sam Spade, as played by Humphrey Bogart in Dashiell Hammett’s The Maltese Falcon, and Elsa Lanchester’s Miss (Jessica) Marbles, well — no prize for guessing who she’s supposed to be. Milo Perrier (James Coco) is Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) is Charlie Chan. Dick, Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith) and Myron the dog, apparently, are based on Dashiell Hammett’s sophisticated Society types, Nick and Nora Charles, from the Thin Man series, and their canine companion, Asta — although I have to admit that one passed me by. In any event, camel-coated Nivs and be-furred Maggie Smith are hilarious (they work so well together), marvellously blasé, accompanied by drop-head Lagonda, Martinis and English wire-haired fox terrier (I want one!) — that most 1930s of dogs, redolent of bracing golf courses and tins of pipe tobacco.