Simon's Breezy 'Murder by Death' (Published 1976) (2025)

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By Vincent Canby

Simon's Breezy 'Murder by Death' (Published 1976) (1)

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June 24, 1976

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The dinner party takes place far from any point of reliable reference, on a foggy night, inside a vast, gloomy old house where one shouldn't trust the wine, the chandeliers, the thunder outside, or the oil portraits, whose eyes tend to follow the action below. The butler is blind and the cook is not only deaf and unable to speak, she also cannot read, which makes the food scarce and communication with and between the domestic help impossible.What's worse is that the host, an eccentric millionaire named Lionel Twain, is some kind of fiend. In the 1930's he was arrested for attempting to smuggle a truckload of rich white Americans into Mexico to pick melons.The guests look familiar, Strangely. They include Sidney Wang, the famous Chinese detective and a member of the Catalina police, who starts sentences saying something on the order of "Treacherous fog, like mushrooms. . . ." There are also Sam Diamond, the tough Frisco private eye and his secretary-mistress, Tess; the famous Belgian detective, Milo Perrier, and his chauffeur-companion, Marcel; the tweedy English amateur sleuth, Miss Marbles, and Dick and Nora Charleston, who are elegant, tall and very thin, and who act as if they invented the dry martini.The occasion is a murder, and the movie, "Murder by Death," is for people who never quite remember who killed Roger Ackroyd. Neil Simon remembers enough to have written one of his nicest, breeziest screenplays, a parody murder mystery that appears to be the cheerful confession of a man who, more often than he should, has sat up until all hours of the night reading to find out who did it, and who has then promptly forgotten."Murder by Death," which opened yesterday at the Baronet and other theaters, is Mr. Simon's fond send-up of the work of Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett and Earl Derr Biggers. By bringing Sam Spade into the comparatively genteel worlds of Hercule Poirot, Charlie Chan, Miss Marple and Nick and Nora Charles, Mr. Simon might appear to have mixed his genres with unforgivable lack of respect. Yet his creation, Sam Diamond, hilariously mugged by Peter Falk, is one of the principal joys of the film; he's the rude noise that shakes up the drawing room.All of the performances are good, and if some seem better than others, it may simply be the material. James Coco is very, very funny as the somewhat prissy take-off on Hercule Poirot, his toupee and his eating habits. David Niven and Maggie Smith are marvelous as Dick and Dora Charleston, though they haven't enough to do, and Eileen Brennan is an inspired hybrid of Joan Blondell and Lauren Bacall as Sam Diamond's secretary-mistress. If Peter Sellers is not quite as funny as we expect, it may be because we've seen him do his Oriental bit before. It no longer surprises.Alec Guinness is most welcome as the blind butler, but Nancy Walker isn't around long enough as the disadvantaged maid, though she almost brings down the house with one magnificent absolutely silent scream. Which leaves Truman Capote, which I suppose I can't because he plays the diabolical Lionel Twain. Mr. Capote possibly is acting, but it looks more as if he's giving us an over-rehearsed impersonation of himself as people see him on unrehearsed TV talk shows.Considering the tone and manner of "Murder by Death," it would seem to be very much a Neil Simon work, but that may be to underestimate the contributions of Robert Moore, a talented theater director ("The Boys in the Band," "Promises, Promises") who is making his debut as a film director here. Whoever should get the credit, "Murder by Death" is as light and insubstantial as one could wish.The film has been rated PG. Naughty language did it.

MURDER BY DEATH, directed by Robert Moore; screenplay by Neil Simon; produced by Ray Stark; music, David Grusin; director of photography, David M. Walsh; supervising film editor, Margaret Booth; editor, John F. Burnett; a Rastar production, distributed by Columbia Pictures. Running time: 94 minutes. At the Baronet Theater, Third Avenue near 59th Street; Little Carnegie Theater, 57th Street near Seventh Avenue; Art Theater, Eighth Street east of Fifth Avenue, and other Theaters. This film has been rated PG.Tess Skeffington . . . . . Eileen BrannanLionel Twain . . . . . Truman CapoteMilo Perrier . . . . . James CocoSam Diamond . . . . . Peter FalkBensonmum . . . . . Alec GuinnessJessica Marbles . . . . . Elsa LanchesterDick Charleston . . . . . David NivenSidney Wang . . . . . Peter SellersDora Charleston . . . . . Maggie SmithYetta . . . . . Nancy WalkerMiss Withers . . . . . Estelle WinwoodMarcel . . . . . James CromwellWillie Wang . . . . . Richard Narita

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