Because Murder by Death is a silly riff on
vintage detective stories, it’s tempting to think the picture was intended to mimic
Mel Brooks’ crowd-pleasing style of throwback spoofery, although it’s just as
possible the film merely rode a mid-’70s boom in nostalgic crime films.
Whatever the motivation for making the picture, the result is the same—Murder by Death is goofy but uninspired,
a harmless romp that never quite achieves liftoff. Fans of detective stories
will, of course, get more out of the picture than anyone else, because the
film’s characters are gentle caricatures of famous literary sleuths. Casual
viewers might simply enjoy the star power of the cast and the occasional
glimpses of screenwriter Neil Simon’s signature wit. But, alas, this is a minor
effort for everyone involved.
The plot isn’t really worth describing, since
it’s just a perfunctory contrivance, but the gist is that a mysterious
millionaire named Lionel Twain (played by author/TV personality Truman Capote)
invites a coterie of detectives to his estate and challenges them to
investigate a murder that will take place during the detectives’ visit. Whoever
solves the crime will get $1 million. The detectives include Dick and Dora
Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith), based on Nick and Nora Charles from
the Thin Man movies; Sam Diamond
(Peter Falk), based on Maltese Falcon
hero Sam Spade; Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester), based on Agatha Christie’s
Miss Marple character; Milo Perrier (James Coco), based on Christie’s Hercule
Poiroit; and Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers), based on Charlie Chan.
Obviously, any
film that attempts to put these diverse characters together isn’t striving for consistency
or credibility—the Spade-esque character emanates from hard-boiled fiction, for
instance, whereas the Thin Man types
emerge from a bubbly light-comedy milieu. Rather, Simon and producer Ray Stark
(abetted by undistinguished director Robert Moore) concentrate on stringing
sight gags and verbal zingers together. Unfortunately, none of the humor is
memorable, and the actors give such cartoonish performances that Murder by Death feels juvenile. Falk
probably comes off the best, since his version of Sam Spade is fairly close to
his Columbo role from TV, and Falk’s
rat-a-tat interplay with his secretary, Tess (Eileen Brennan), has some energy.
In sum, Murder by Death is exactly as
clever and funny as its title, which is to say not very.
Murder by Death: FUNKY
2 comments:
and not a single mention of sir alec guinness? for that id give your review "lame"!
That this often shows up on Top 10 lists of funniest comedies from the 70's tells me that there weren't really ten genuinely gut-busting movies made during the decade. Outside of proven stalwarts like Mel Brooks, John Landis, and Carl Reiner, most "good" comedy films from the era are short on "Dear God, I can't breathe!" laughs and long on the "expel a little air from the nostrils and nod slightly" laughs that aren't nearly as fun.
Murder by Death is certainly packed with the latter, and the closest thing to a genuinely clever gag is so subtle that most people miss it, when someone notes that everyone aside from Wang's son is Caucasian, implying that Sidney Wang is supposed to be a white guy doing an offensive Asian caricature within the actual story... And it's not even that great of a joke.
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