Rarely do fans of any given movie, book, or genre of movie or book find anything more amusing than parodies of said works. In recent years, this has been seen through Scary Movie and the subsequent other lackluster works from it (Epic Movie, Date Movie, and all of the others that I keep seeming to forget). While parody is easy to laugh at, a really good genre parody is hard to come by. However, in 1976, Neil Simon managed to succeed in parodying the hardboiled detective genre in his cult classic film, Murder By Death.
The film takes a star-studded cast and launches them into cleverly designed and easy to recognize roles, with James Coco and Elsa Lanchester as Milo Perrier and Jessica Marbles (parodies of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple), David Niven, Maggie Smith, and Peter Falk as Dick and Dora Charleston and Sam Diamond (Dashiell Hammett’s Nick and Nora Charles and Sam Spade, respectively), and Peter Sellers as Sidney Wang (Earl Derr Bigger’s Charlie Chan). Alec Guinness plays the traditionally suspicious butler (this time blind- a source of many gimmicks that arise with the introduction of a deaf-mute-illiterate cook), and Truman Capote makes his acting debut as eccentric millionaire Lionel Twain.
Having so many wonderful actors in one movie is one of the many joys of watching this. Peter Falk’s performance as Sam Diamond sticks out as a slightly more insane impersonation of Humphrey Boggart’s Sam Spade, and his impersonation is impossible for any viewer to fail to recognize. As Dick and Dora Charles, Maggie Smith and David Niven never waiver from their posh but amicable styles, and Niven’s snappy delivery makes for many of the film’s best one liners. And Peter Sellers gives a decent if horribly politically incorrect performance as Sidney Wang, delivering the other half of the film’s best one liners (“Conversation like television on honeymoon- unnecessary.”)
Neil Simon’s script misses none of the cloak and dagger mystery clichés, mocking every single one of them. The doorbell screams, the guests are on their guard for murder attempts designed for each of their individual skills (what the characters lose in seriousness, they keep in style and intelligence, and as in any real murder mystery, it’s always a pleasure watching them solve the crimes ahead of them), and cotton candy cobwebs decorate the bedrooms. The snappy one-liners and round of gags is occasionally silly, but show off Neil Simon’s talents as a playwright and screenwriter nonetheless.
The only real downsides of this movie come from its extremely dated political incorrectness (mainly in Sellers’ portrayal of Sidney Wang) and its Holy Grail-esque unsatisfying ending. The former may or may not be forgivable, depending on how much the viewers are willing to keep the time period in mind, but the latter does leave the viewer wanting something more. Even with these flaws, the film is worth renting for a few decent laughs at a genre that could always use a few more.
Grade: B+
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