Murder by Death **** (1976, Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker, Estelle Winwood) – Classic Movie Review 6788

Director Robert Moore’s clever and witty 1976 comedy parodies a number of famous detectives, with Peter Sellers indulging himself as Sidney Wang in a spoof of Charlie Chan, Peter Falk as Sam Diamond in a spoof of  Sam Spade, David Niven and Maggie Smith as Dick and Dora Charleston in a spoof of Nick and Nora Charles (The Thin Man team), Elsa Lanchester as Jessica Marbles in a spoof of Miss Marple, plus James Coco as Milo Perrier in a spoof of Hercule Poirot.

The contrived mystery is set up by conniving mastermind Lionel Twain, played by the author Truman Capote, doing a spot of moonlighting as an actor, and he is outrageously camp and spectacularly embarrassing.

Neil Simon’s screenplay offers a chance for all the actors involved to do their amusing party pieces, rather engagingly over-acting and trying to upstage each other just a little, and the result is a bundle of fun that amuses and puzzles in equal measures.

Murder by Death is a winsome film that entirely outclasses the follow-up, 1978’s The Cheap Detective, also with Falk. The star role for Estelle Winwood as Nurse Withers, at 94, is her last film appearance, and she lived till she was 101 in 1984.

The main cast are Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker, Estelle Winwood, James Cromwell and Richard Narita.

Murder by Death is directed by Robert Moore, runs 94 minutes, is produced by Rastar, is released by Columbia, is written by Neil Simon, is shot by David M Walsh, is produced by Ray Stark, is scored by Dave Grusin and is designed by Stephen Grimes.

 © Derek Winnert 2018 Classic Movie Review 6788

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Peter Sellers indulging himself as Sidney Wang in a spoof of Charlie Chan in Murder by Death (1976).