‘Murder by Death‘ (1976) proves that the genre of films with a cast composed exclusively or mainly of first-rate Hollywood stars was not invented by Wes Anderson. Alec Guinness, Peter Sellers, David Niven, Peter Falk, Maggie Smith and writer Truman Capote appear in the cast of this film. The script is written by Neil Simon, a very popular playwright and screenwriter, who has often, but not in this case, written scripts that brought his plays to the screen. The direction belongs to Robert Moore, known especially as a TV director, for whom ‘Murder by Death‘ was the first feature film (he would make two more). Perhaps a little intimidated by the caliber of the actors he was mentoring, he let them do what they wanted. It kind of feels, because not everything that works for the theater and TV comedies of those years looks as good on the big screen. I found ‘Murder by Death‘ to be a parody that shows its age and a film that proves that sometimes 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 equals less than 5. The film deserves to be seen today especially for the unique gathering of talents assembled in the same distribution.
The setting of the story is typical of the novels of Agatha Christie, one of the several writers parodied in this story. 5 famous detectives are invited to the Dracula castle-like residence of the wealthy Lionel Twain. The 5 are parodies of famous characters from the books of Agatha Christie and other popular authors of detective novels and films inspired by these books. The reception that awaits them is bizarre: at the entrance they are subjected to a kind of survival test, the person who receives them is a blind butler, and the cook is deaf-mute and illiterate. Outside a thunderstorm breaks, metal bars enclose the building in which the guests have become in effect prisoners. The host informs them that there will be a murder and that the one of the famous detectives who solves it will receive a million dollars. The phenomena that happen are increasingly bizarre and towards midnight the corpse also appears. Who could be the criminal? Any of the detectives? taking into account someone else isn’t really around. As in many detective novels, it appears that all of them had reasons to commit the crime. Not like in detective novels, however, the detectives turn out to be not quite as skilled as they were famous for.
The story – an apparent ‘whodunit’ – is supposed to be the premise for a series of comic gags, and that was probably the intention of the authors. They didn’t really succeed. The story is too convoluted to even be interesting. The time that has passed, almost 50 years, since the release of the film, is probably also to blame. But still, the genre is not completely exhausted, proof are the recent screen adaptations of Agatha Christie’s novels signed by Kenneth Branagh, which, at least I liked. An obvious problem seemed to me to be the setting, which in such a film must create the effect of tension, combined with a comedy elements. At no point did I feel the tension, the effect of rooms that are sometimes empty, sometimes full of people, is completely missed, and I could not familiarize myself with the topography. For these reasons almost none of the situational humor worked. This leaves the audience to enjoy the humor in the text, which, however, is more of a theatrical device than a cinematic one. Of course, we remain with the interpretations. The role I enjoyed the most was that of Alec Guinness (the blind butler), the only actor in the cast who could have included the role on his resume. At the other extreme was Peter Sellers, whose Chinese detective forced to wear a kind of mask for most of the film and speak in a high-pitched voice seemed to me too shrill to be truly comical. Truman Capote, in his only role in a feature film, plays one of his own would-be characters and the effect is successful. If ‘Murder by Death‘ had been a filmed theatrical performance, many of these shortcomings could probably have been overlooked. As a film, it remains memorable by the bringing together of several very popular and high-calibre actors plus Truman Capote, but in the perspective of 48 years since its release, that is no longer enough.