Review:
Murder by Death. Just savor that title for a moment and you’ll know exactly what glorious silliness awaits you in this delightfully over the top murder-mystery spoof.
Very much Clue‘s spiritual antecedent, Murder by Death brings five of the world’s greatest detectives – parodies of famous fictional sleuths, including Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Charlie Chan, Nick and Nora Charles, and Sam Spade – to the country home of enigmatic millionaire Lionel Twain, who challenges them to solve an impossible murder for the prize of one million dollars cash. If you’re familiar with the aforementioned fictional sleuths and how they operate, you will thoroughly enjoy the mockery in this movie; if you’re not, then you can still have fun watching the movie, just not quite as much.
Writer Neil Simon was Oscar nominated for this screenplay, and with good reason – Murder by Death gleefully lampoons the tropes of the murder-mystery genre, and it does so in style, with a cast to die for – Truman Capote, Alec Guinness, Peter Falk, Peter Sellers, David Niven, Maggie Smith, and Oliver Cromwell, to name a few. And the Evil Speech of Evil at the end is priceless.
Murder by Death is the ultimate mystery reader’s revenge, and a fantastically ridiculous murder-mystery parody. If you’re in the mood for silly fun, look no further.
Truly, Murder by Death is one of my all-time favorite films. I dare anyone to keep a straight face while watching this very,very,very funny & well-executed film. This movie blows your mind on sooooo many different levels. This is so much more than a parody or a satiric take on the detective genre-THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE COMEDIC MASTERPIECE!!!