MURDER by DEATH in memory of MAGGIE SMITH * first time watching * reaction & commentary
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- Опубликовано: 9 фев 2025
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Eileen Brennan fainting and a butler failing to catch her..... Love how she got to do it again in Clue.
This is exactly what I was going to say, but you beat me to it!
So many people miss that. Always thought it was funny.
One of my favorite Easter Eggs in Clue!!
She was in private Benjamin.
And if you know the musical Hello, Dolly! she was the original Irene Molloy on Broadway
The more you know all the detectives being parodied, the better it is. They're all based on ones from the 30's and 40's. Agatha Christie, the mystery writer, created the old lady detective (known as Miss Marple) and the Belgian (not French) detective, Hercule Poirot. Th ie British married couple are based on an American married couple, Nick and Nora Charles, famous in The Thin Man movie series. The Chinese detective in based on Charlie Chan, and Peter Falk (from Columbo) is a combo of Phillip Marlowe/Sam Spade from The Maltese Falcon. Someone getting murdered in a mansion is a very old plot idea, which is why they use it here and why the game Clue. The game and this movie definitely influenced the film Clue!
And I think the reason they cast Peter Seller as the Chinese detective Wang is because in the 1940's they had a Caucasian actor play Charlie Chan.
@@scottboswell6406 Thank you. I didn't see your post and parroted your explanation.
Miss Marple was the inspiration for Murder She Wrote.
And another great novel and movie with people being invited to a mansion where a murder takes place is Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None, AKA Ten Little Indians.
@jrasicmark1 neither of which is the original title of that book, interestingly. Times were different back then, but decorum won out, at least, especially when courting the American market.
You dont need to be familiar with the characters to enjoy the humor. Better than the Clue movie, sorry.
Love this movie. Great parody on the absurdity of mystery stories. Maggie Smith delivery “That’s tacky” never fails to crack me up
Maggie Smith was great playing against Diana Rigg as acting rivals in "Evil Under the Sun"
Best line in the entire movie, hands down.
@@marennicholson5444 Maggie Smith had some of the best lines in the movie. Her amused smile and "That's tacky" response was hilarious. I also love "Where's my Dickie....I'm sorry, where's my husband" and after finding out the butler is blind saying, "Don't let him park the car". She was truly one of the greats.
I like her line, I like her I really like her
and when reminded that the cook was deaf yelled "come in" louder.
Finally, somebody reacts to Murder By Death. Clue gets all the accolades, but this one precedes it with the comical genius of Peter Falk and Peter Sellers. With as little screen time as he has, I just love the frustration of Truman Capote with those he considers to be hack authors.
Exactly
Funny enough I knew Peter Falk from this before I knew him as Columbo
Agreed! This film walked so Clue could run!
@foreverkent2225 Just one more thing. Isn't Patrick Jane a little like Columbo? It is funny that you saw this movie before Columbo. Good thing, too, that you watched Columbo. One of the greatest detectives to hit the air waves.
Don't forget who wrote it.
The screaming doorbell is actually voiced by the original scream queen Fay Wray. They used the sound bite from her role in the 1933 movie King Kong.
Wow! That's pretty cool.
"Whatever happened to Fay Wray?" Doctor Frank N Furter 🕺🏼👯♂️💃🏼
@@RussellCHall
That delicate satin draped frame
As it clung to her thigh, how I started to cry
Cause I wanted to be dressed just the same
@@MINKIN2 That's actually a fact I didn't know about this movie. Thanks for that.
Is that how she and King Kong got caught in a celluloid jam?
Ashleigh, I'm so proud of you. This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I know you didn't recognize many of the actors but back then this was an all star cast. I knew you would truly appreciate just how funny this movie is. You rock!
Let's do a head count. We have Professor McGonagall (RIP), both Inspector Clouseau AND the Pink Panther, Obi Wan Kenobi, Mrs. Peacock, Columbo, and Zephram Cochrane (the inventor of Warp Drive). Those are the ones I recognize at least.
The chauffeur was farmer Harget in the movie Babe and the warden from The Green Mile and Ogden Philips in the movie Secretariat, and Elsa Lancaster was Katie Nanna from Mary Poppins, David Niven was in the movie The Sting and Eileen Brennen was in The Sting too,
@@EleanorMelusine12 Oops. Niven wasn't in The Sting. That was Robert Shaw. Niven was great in The Guns of Navarone and also in The Pink Panther (#1) with Sellars. Elsa Lanchester was also the Bride of Frankenstein, way back in 1935.
@@glennwisniewski9536 As this is a 'Whodunnit' parody, Niven was the ally to Peter Ustinov's Hercule Poirot in 'Death on the Nile', Phileus Fogg in 'Around the World in 80 Days' and my own favourite; Peter Carter, the RAF pilot, in Powell & Pressburger's 'A Matter of Life and Death'
@@toddhadley9002 and the Bride of Frankenstein.
The blind butler is Alec Guinness who went on to have some success playing Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars.
He was actually sent the script while making this movie and read it in his dressing room.
Alec Guinness also starred in several British comedies during the 50's then turned to more dramatic roles (Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia). In the 70's he returned to more of a mix of TV, film and stage with comedy and drama.
& he complained that Star Wars was silly?!
Peter Sellers as Chinese detective Charlie Chan copy, inspired and based on real parson Hawaiian Chinese detective Chang Apana 1871-1933 , they made books and films already in 1920s inspired of him , so he was bigger that life when alive .
Peter Falk doing this between Columbo , he is doing Humphrey Bogart inspired role, Poirot was James Coco , who sounds and looks like Dom DeLuise .
Only detectives that was missing, Sherlock Holmes , hes only at the end in TV version.
@@richardcutts196his Ealing comedies were absolutely masterful. The Lavender Hill Mob and The Horse's Mouth are personal favorites of mine, but "Kind Hearts and Coronets" as well as "The Ladykillers" are a lot of people's favorites for a reason.
"I don't know who Eileen Brennan is... this is giving me Clue vibes"
Eileen Brennan was in both movies, of course.
Wasn't it Madeline Kahn in Clue?
@@rmhartman They both were. Brennan as Mrs Peacock and Kahn as Mrs White
She was also in Private Benjamin, which she should watch
This made me laugh so hard
Eileen Brennan was also the madam in The Sting.
Peter Falks character is Humphrey Bogart playing Sam Spade. He was in disguise in disguise in disguise.
He's the dude playing a dude disguised as another dude.
He know exactly who he was.
@@AutoPilate I wish I had said that
@@AutoPilateHa! You beat me to it. 😂
@@AutoPilateMy small brain was starting to form a thought, but you beat me to it. Sigh….
Mrs. Marples was played by Elsa Lanchester - the Bride of Frankenstein (1935).
Miss Marbles, I think?
And she was Katie Nana in "Mary Poppins".
No, she's the last Nanny before Mary Poppins in "Mary Poppins".
@@TxSonofLibertyKatie Nana WAS the nanny before Mary Poppins
Wasn't she also the crazy nurse to Queen Elizabeth in the Blackadder 2nd season?
There's a deleted final scene at the end of movie where Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson show up and meet Sidney Wang and his son, who give them directions to the Twain house. After his son asks why he didn't warn them, Wang tells his son to "let the idiots find out for themselves." This deleted scene was later included in the original network television broadcast. Sherlock Holmes was originally supposed to show up and solve the mystery in the film's climax, showing up the other detectives, but that scene was cut from the script after the cast members objected, believing that the scene was too much of a Deus ex Machina and would be disrespectful to their characters.
ruclips.net/video/7vAwH2VEyeg/видео.html
Huh that’s wild! Did they have anyone in mind for the role?
@@questworldiangreenknight7455 They did cast an actor to play Sherlock Holmes in the deleted final scene where Sidney Wang and his son meet Holmes and Watson after leaving the Twain house, but I'm not sure who the actor was.
I ADORE this crazy, ridiculous, perfect murder mystery spoof with one of the most stellar all-star casts ever.
As far as I know, only two people on RUclips have reacted to this gem. I'm sorry it took losing Maggie Smith to get it to your screen, but I'm glad you finally saw it.
Truman Capote was a novelist, screenwriter, playwright and actor. He was a close friend of Harper Lee, the author of *To Kill a Mockingbird* and *Go Set a Watchman*
...and Capote wrote the true-crime novel "In Cold Blood" about a family in Kansas that was murdered by 2 drifters in 1959 and the short story "Breakfast at Tiffany's" about a seemingly happy-go-lucky young lady in Manhattan whose personality and looks win her many admirers including the narrator who was her neighbor. Both stories were adapted into very artistically and financially successful movies. He was a gay bon vivant who was a popular guest on many talk shows in the 60s-80s.
Wow, usually I'm the only one who remembers To Set A Watchman. I have a 1st edition hard cover that I read every few years.
And the 3rd of the 3 children in the movie was based on Capote as a child.
You could have just mentioned Breakfast at Tiffanys.
Ashleigh, you should watch "Capote" or "Notorious". Both are studies of Capote and the "In Cold Blood" period of his life.
*edit: the other movie was "Infamous" not Notorious.
The chauffeur is played by James Cromwell who you might've remembered the warden from the Green Mile you watched. He's also best known for the movie Babe which you should watch sometime.
And LA Confidential, and Six Feet Under...great actor.
And won an Emmy for playing ex-Nazi Dr. Arden in American Horror Story: Asylum.
A back-to-back watch of Babe then LA Confidential will really mess a person up😅
“You should not speak with an accent when you know I’m so hungry.”
Also Zefram Cockrane, inventor of the Warp Drive, in "Star Trek - First Contact" :)
"Murder By Death" walked so "Clue" could run.
And I love that Eileen Brennan is in both of them!
Sorry, while I like Clue - it doesn't hold a candle to Murder by Death!
@@UncleMilo I agree. Both are great but I prefer Murder by Death's humor.
@@UncleMiloexcept Tim Curry who was brilliant in Clue!
*Murder by death wandered so clue could stagger
I like how she says "this has a Clue vibe" and then immediately afterwards Eileen Brennan's name flashes on screen and she says "I don't know who that is" :D
She didn't have a clue. 😊
Lionel Twain's final monologue was actually Neil Simon's critique of the noir detective genre; Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot mysteries being over-reliant on misdirection and red herrings; Dashiell Hammett's tendency for surprise twist endings and introducing new characters in the in final act in The Maltese Falcon and The Thin Man; and Agatha Christie's Miss Marple mysteries withholding clues and information from the readers and the audience.
I'd like to know where Simon gets that idea. Christie was scrupulous about playing fair. It was the pre-1920s mystery writers who would pull deus ex machine endings. Christie's generation made it a fetish to have all the cards on the table.
(The early Ellery Queen mysteries actually had a "Challenge to the Reader" before the final act, wherein it is explicitly stated that all necessary information is present. In the "Ellery Queen" TV series [also 1976], Jim Hutton as Ellery would turn to the audience and break the fourth wall to let us know that we should be able to figure it out by now.)
Also not certain about claiming the Poirot tales relied on misdirection. The one OBVIOUS case of that involves a very unreliable narrator, which seems wide of the critique. And the Poirots with the most famous red herrings are deceptions being played by the killer, not Christie tricking the readers. (The one where the killer is being disgustingly homophobic still makes me angry, but at the character, not Christie for writing them that way.)
@@Jessica_Roth Well, I've only seen one Miss Marple mystery movie, The Mirror Crack'd with Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple, and that movie most definitely did withhold important information that was not revealed until Miss Marple solved the crime at the end. At least the Hercule Poirot mysteries never did that, although the Poirot mysteries were maddeningly complex.
@@44excalibur Hmm, you could have a point on that one. Recall, the killer's motivation is based on something that happened to Gene Tierney in real life during World War 2, so while I know it's in the book (1962), for all I know the screenwriters in the 1980 film adaptation might have considered it impossible to credibly reference a motive from that long ago and changed it or not properly cued it.
Still, film adaptations are an entirely different beast. It is clued in the book, I do know. And Simon could hardly have been complaining about a 1980 film when he wrote this screenplay in 1976.
(Did you ever see "The ABC Murders" from 1967 with Simon favorite Tony Randall as Poirot? A bit silly, perhaps, but reasonably faithful to the book.)
36:56 marks the first time I've ever noticed that the title drawings for MBD were done by Charles Addams.
Murder By Death is one of the best movies of its time!
@@kingoglow2186 all time
You really need to watch the original "The Thin Man" someday. That movie and its first sequel are comedy gold to this day. It's about a detective who retires when he marries a rich heiress, but mysteries keep finding him. There are a ton of great lines that I love to repeat. The wife from that series is parodied by Maggie Smith here. I guess you also need to watch "The Pink Panther" finally, although that's a series that finds its footing by the third and fourth movie. Peter Sellers is here playing a parody of Charlie Chan. His being a white actor doing obvious "yellowface" makes fun of how Charlie Chan was a white actor in the old days. His son being a Japanese actor who speaks perfect English also helps poke fun at it.
Please consider this a second nomination for the Thin Man- maybe this Christmas? It's takes place between Dec 24-jan 2nd.
Adding my +1. I've suggested The Thin Man before, and I know she's been sent the DVD.
Agreed. The Thin Man movies are a must!
Jumping on the request for Thin Man series. Hilarious 😂🤣😂.
FYI, squabs are birds (pigeons actually).
I absolutely love this movie. Everyone plays their roles so well. All the reveals at the end are done beautifully.
Truman Capote is famous for writing "In Cold Blood", a famous True Crime novel that was made into a famous movie. The music for the movie was done by (the now late) Quincy Jones. Either "In Cold Blood" or the outstanding Sidney Poitier film "In the Heat of the Night" would be a very fitting tribute to Quincy Jones.
Also, "Breakfast At Tiffany's"
Yes, please do In the Heat of the Night. Adore that movie!
and the Austin Powers theme
@@kw7378a1it’s brilliant
Each couple was a parody of an actual detective movie franchise. Dick and Dora were Nick and Nora from the Thin Man series. Perrier, is Hercule Poirot, Marbles is Miss Marple, both Agatha Christie characters. Sam Diamond was Sam Spade from Maltese Falcon. Sydney Wang was Charlie Chan. Small details like Charlie Chan was really played by a white guy, but his son was really asian were a great touch. This is a silly movie but I'm glad you liked it.
The Deaf Cook who couldn't speak was comedic actor Nancy Walker. She played the mother in the 70's sitcom RHODA which was a spinoff of the Mary Tyler Moore show. She played Sofia's sister in 2 episodes of the Golden Girls.
She was also the maid, Mildred, on _Macmillan & Wife,_ a detective series that rotated on the wheel with _Columbo_ and others.
Rhoda wAs such a good show, just like S-O-A-P..
My generation most remembers her as Rosie the waitress from a series of Bounty paper towel commercials.
OMG that was her?? Now that you say that I see it! I loved Sofia's sister! LOL
Honestly after reading up on television history, EVERY sitcom is a spinoff of the Mary Tyler Moore Show.
It's a testament to Neil Simon's brilliant writing that Ashleigh cannot get any of the references and still find this funny.
Maggie Smith also played the goddess Thetis in the original Clash Of The Titans (just saying). 😊
I was hoping that would be the Maggie Smith tribute viewing.
She totally needs to watch Clash of the Titans. She'd love that movie. Also a great introduction to Ray Harryhausen.
@@kellypedersen6590 Thetis in Greek mythology was actually a sea nymph, a daughter of Nereus, and the mother of Achilles. The Greek goddess of the seas was actually Tethys, and she was one of the Titans.
Random.
@@44excaliburoooooh!
Hi Ashleigh! I have to be honest, when I saw you were viewing Murder By Death my heart started racing and I got goosebumps because for a lot of people this is an unknown gem! I just want to say TY, it's almost like you did this for me 😂.
After I got my tonsils removed as a kid, I rented a handful of movies from Blockbuster and watched them on repeat for a week. This was one of them 😂
Murder By Death is Neil Simon's satire of noir detective thrillers, with all of the characters based on famous detectives from popular fiction. Sidney Wang is based on Charlie Chan, from the detective novel series created by Earl Derr Biggers. Dick and Dora Charleston are based on Nick and Nora Charles from The Thin Man, and Sam Diamond is based on Sam Spade from The Maltese Falcon, both written by Dashiell Hammett. Milo Perrier and Jessica Marbles are based on detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, both created by Agatha Christie.
The butler in this was the actor who played Obi-One in Star Wars. Also, Sam the detective was the grandfather in the Princess Bride
"Oh, that's tacky. That's really tacky." --that line was pretty funny.
Her delivery of finding joy in the tackiness it what sells it.
Greatest line in the film for me.
"I was in disguise, in disguise, in disguise. You work hard for fifty bucks in this racket." 🤣🤣🤣 That line and delivery always gets me and I hope I can one day use that line as it still makes me laugh to this day. Peter has always been an amazing actor for me.
Peter Falk is amazing. I love his well-known roles as Columbo and the Grandpa from Princess bride, but my favorite performance has to be the one from the Twilight Zone episode 'The Mirror'. He plays a political revolutionary (very Fidel Castro coded) who becomes increasingly paranoid and violent as a mirror shows him visions of betrayal at the hands of his comrades. Eventually the mirror's prophecy becomes self-fulfilling, as he's become as bad or worse than the old dictator they overthrew.
Its one of the more heavy-handed Twilight Zone stories, and Falk is chewing the scenery left right and center, and I love every minute of it.
Truman Capote was an infamous author and playwright. His most famous novel is "Breakfast at Tiffany's"
He also wrote a little non-fiction book called "In Cold Blood"
@@WRam-fo2scwhich is the title I initially associate with Capote. He also wrote a charming Christmas novella that was adapted to TV, starring the transcendent Geraldine Page.
I think I remember the film
Never in a million years did I think I'd see a reaction to this movie. It doesn't hold up too well, but man it's funny as hell. My parents loved this movie when I was a kid, so I grew up watching it now and then. Maggie Smith just makes the movie for me. She was a treasure.
I think it holds up fine... but what do I know?
@danzthename I'm unsure why you think it doesn't hold up well. For a period piece, I think it holds up quite well.
@@lakjun1 The British Peter Sellers playing a Chinese character might be the most obvious example of archaic casting.
@@eastportland - You completely missed the point there. It's a jab at the original Charlie Chan films casting white men to play Charlie with Asian actors cast for his family.
This is one of my all-time favorite movies.
Miss Marble is played by Elsa Lanchester, who was the monster's mate in the original Bride of Frankenstein.
And the lady in the wheelchair is Estelle Winwood who played "Hold me, Touch me!" in "The Producers".
Maggie smith also played in Murder on the Orient Express based on an Agatha Christie novel of the same name. It also had an all star cast including Sean Connery, Albert Finney, Anthony Perkins, Lauren Bacall, and Ingrid Bergman
The cook was Nancy Walker who is best known from the 70's Mary Tyler Moore show spin off Rhonda. She also got her start in Palm Olive commercials with the famous line "You're soaking in it".
Walker did the Bounty paper towels commercials. The Palmolive commercials featured manicurist "Madge".
The “all you have to do is whistle” quote by Peter Falk is a reference to a line in “To Have and Have Not” by Lauren Bacall to Humphrey Bogart:
“If you want me, just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and blow."
Peter Falk is of course playing Humphrey Bogart playing Sam Spade and Eileen Brennan resembles Bacall.
Later, “Bogie and Bacall” married in real life and had an idyllic life until his death.
Regarding the host Lionel Twain, a Lionel Train was a popular child's Christmas gift at one time and why you often see them as Christmas decorations today. It's also the significance behind the address Two Two Twain.
Sam Diamond = Dashiell Hammett's hard-boiled detective Sam Spade.
Miss Jessica Marbles & Perrier = Agatha Christie's Miss Jane Marple & Hercúles Poirot, respectively.
Sidney Wang = Earl Derr Bigger's Charlie Chan.
And Dick & Dora Charleston = The Thin Man adventures of Nick & Nora Charles, also by Dashiell Hammett.
All characters played seriously by actors in films of the 30's-40's.
Thank you, I was going to come into the comments to do this.
I am glad that she finally watched it and enjoyed it. I love this movie but was afraid her missing the references would hurt her enjoyment of it.
It is easier to appreciate a satire of all these fictional detectives if you have seen the originals, which, for the most part, Ashleigh has not.
The Thin Man films are so excellent, especially the first two (The Thin Man {1934}, After the Thin Man {1936})! William Powell and Myrna were perfectly cast to play Nick & Nora. They had such great couple's chemistry and humor. Their Wire Fox Terrier, Asta (played by a pooch named Skippy), was also an outstanding animal actor. Skippy also appeared in the classic 1938 screwball comedy "Bringing Up Baby" (starring Cary Grant & Katherine Hepburn) and played a pivotal role in the film.
@@FilmBuff54 Yes, but there's only so much homework you can do for a movie.
If Poirot were real, he'd be fuming that they made his spoof a Frenchman. 😂 "I AM NOT SOME FRENCH GENT! I AM SOME BELGEN GENT!" --- An angry Poirot
I was 13 when this came out and when I saw it, I thought it was so funny, best thing I had seen since What's Up Doc? To be honest, I hadn't thought about the film in years, so I was pleasantly surprised when I saw you had reacted to it. Great!
30:01 Dammit, you totally missed one of my favorites. When the death mask calls for dinner, Wang looks at the old lady in the wheelchair in complete confusion, trying to identify the source of the sound. 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Columbo also plays the same character in Neil Simon's Cheap Detective.
"Cheap Detective" is an underrated masterpiece. Almost every Neil Simon piece is phenomenally hilarious.
@@MrDanteMason I know she watched t his for Maggie Smith but I wish she'd done Cheap Detective instead.. it's so much funnier and it has Madeline Kahn.
@@misterkite And Louise Fletcher!
And he’s reunited with Eileen Brennan!
You can still do Cheap Detective, Ashleigh! I agree that it's even funnier than this one, despite its lack of Maggie Smith. Also written by Neil Simon. Both movies are great, though. Maybe a few Mondays of Neil Simon? Odd Couple, Sunshine Boys, Seems Like Old Times, Barefoot in the Park, and of course Cheap Detective. Can't go wrong with any of those, and it seems you enjoy his wit. And really, who couldn't use the laughs? ❤❤❤
Each of the detectives in this film were spoofs of famous literary and film detectives. Milo Perrier is Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot, Jessica Marbles is Miss Marple, also a Christie character, Sidney Wang is Charlie Chan, Dick and Dora Charleston are Nick and Nora from the Thin Man, and Sam Diamond is Sam Spade from the Maltese Falcon.
Perfect 👍
The board game Clue and its original British version, Cluedo, were both released in 1947.
Eileen Brennan, the secretary, was also in the movie Clue as Mrs. Peacock.
Miss Marbles is a play on Miss Marples, a mystery solving character from Agatha Christie books.
A young Maggie Smith also appears in a few episodes of The Carol Burnett Show.
I do believe this was my first experience of Maggie Smith, watching this gem of a movie. I was 9 years old, I think. If you look up all the actors, you'll see you know them from things you've seen, and some of them are still around doing the acting thing. Like James Cromwell, the young chauffer with the French accent. I know you know him. He was the warden in The Green Mile. He was also in 13 episodes of American Horror Story as Doctor Arthur Arden. And he was in Babe. And Elsa Lanchester, she was Jessica Marbles, and my favorite scene with the whole "murder-poo" dialogue. She was also the bride of Frankenstein, and also in Mary Poppins. And Eileen Brennen, she was Tess Skeffington in this, and she was Mrs. Peacock in Clue. And of course you've seen Peter Sellers in more than a couple movies, he's a legend.
Alec Guinness who plays the Butler, was reading the script for Star Wars during filming of this movie. Neil Simon who wrote the script told the story about this.
Guinness himself mentions it in the book "Once Upon a Galaxy: The Making of 'The Empire Strikes Back'".
Sir Alec Guinness saying the line, "That's what you think, big boy..." will forever stay in my mind as one of the greatest scenes of all time! 😂😂😂
WOW, this is only the second reaction I could find on YT for this movie, as it is a classic, and was even before my time(born in 71), as I'm pretty sure I saw this on TV in the late 70's. As a kid I found this very comical and it's a parody film for detective shows and films like Austin Powers parody's spy films. I did get a few of the references early on, but as I got older and saw more detective offerings, then a lot more of the characters in the film made more sense. And yeah, this was Clue, before there was a Clue movie, as that movie barrows heavily from this one. Glad it won your poll, as this movie is a hidden gem that has kind of been lost to the ages, hence the low reaction count.
As with some others - one of my favourites. The blind butler / deaf-mute maid thread is pure genius. Your reaction proves that it even works for those of an age unlikely to be familiar with those being parodied.
The deaf and "dumb" cook was the legendary Nancy Walker. She was a great comedienne and had been in several movies and early tv shows. One of her most famous roles was from the sit-com "Rhoda" in the mid-70's right before her death. Surprised you didn't recognize Eileen Brennan since she was also in "Clue" as Mrs. Peacock.
I LOVE this movie. I stumbled upon it in a $5 bin at Wal-Mart back in college and figured it had to be decent with a hilarious title like that and wound up loving every minute of it. It pokes fun at all the cliches, tropes, stereotypes and everything in between of murder mystery novels. Contrary to what you said I don't think it could be remade today with cancel culture. RIP Maggie Smith.
That was a great find for you. Neil Simon never disappointed. I can barely remember when I was first turned on to it, but I think it was a Blockbuster Video when I was a teenager.
It's funny that you say Clue vibes because Eileen Brennan was also in Clue as Mrs Peacock. This is a spoof of murder mystery movies. Dick and Dora Charleston were based on Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man series of movies. Milo Perrier was based on Hercule Poiror. Sydney Wang was based on Charlie Chan, a Chinese detective character who has never been played by a Chinese actor. Sam Diamond was based on Sam Spade, from the Maltese Falcon. Jessica Marbles was based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Some of the actors were famous for playing other detectives. Peter Falk (Same Spade) played Columbo. Peter Sellers (Sydney Wang) was Inspector Clouseau in the Pink Panther movies.
FYI. David Niven is a WW2 veteran, so appropriate that this is the choice before veterans day. Not only is he a veteran, he was a commando conducting raids on the French coast. Proof that you can't judge a book by its cover.
I recall reading about rumors that, during World War II, Niven was experienced with killing with a knife.
Back in high school in 1988 I took an English elective which was focused on Sci Fi and Mysteries. After reading a couple mysteries we watched this film which lampooned a couple staples of the genre. It has always stuck with me and I come back to it time and again. It is funny as hell.
I love this movie! It's so silly. And the reveal at the end is so ridiculous, especially with that laugh!
Omg you're watching one of my all-time favorites. Clicked like before it even started. Let's goooo!
OMG!!! YEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!
ONE OF MY FAVORITES FROM CHILDHOOD💙💙💙💙💙💙
SO HAPPY YOU'RE WATCHING IT!!! HOPE YOU LAUGH A LOT!!!!
So this movie came out way way before I was born.. and I discovered it a few years ago myself and ABSOLUTELY loved it. It became a top 3 movie for me, and I rewatch it a lot still.
I never found anyone properly reacting to this, and was afraid no one ever would. But when I saw this pop up today, I was so hyped to watch your reaction!
This humor is just perfection! And I knew you'd love it after Clue and Airplane and such!
First the Buffy series and now this movie.. you are really on the best path ever!! Keep it up!
On this date in 1976, "Murder by Death" was released.
The plot is a broad parody or spoof of the traditional country-house whodunit, familiar to mystery fiction fans of classics such as Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." The cast is an ensemble of British and American actors playing send-ups of well-known fictional sleuths.
The participants are all pastiches of famous fictional detectives:
- Inspector Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) is based on Earl Derr Biggers' Chinese police detective Charlie Chan and is appropriately accompanied by his adopted Japanese son Willie (Richard Narita). Wang wears elaborate Chinese costumes, and his comically broken English is criticized by Twain and others.
- Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith) are polished, sophisticated society types modeled on Dashiell Hammett's characters Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man film series. The Charles' wire-haired terrier "Asta" is also lampooned, appearing here named "Myron."
- Milo Perrier (James Coco) is a take on Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot and arrives at the house with his heavily French-accented chauffeur Marcel Cassette (James Cromwell in his first feature film role). The demanding, portly Perrier is overly fond of food and appears annoyed that he must share a room with the lowly Marcel, although the two are later seen sharing not only a room but a bed, quibbling like a married couple. Perrier is repeatedly annoyed by being mistaken for a Frenchman as he is Belgian, saying, "I am not a 'Frenchie'...I am a 'Belgie'."
- Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) parodies another Dashiell Hammett character, "The Maltese Falcon"'s hardboiled Sam Spade, and is a caricature of Humphrey Bogart in his "Casablanca" character. He is accompanied by his long-suffering, hard-boiled, sexy but needy secretary Tess Skeffington (Eileen Brennan), whom he continually denigrates and mistreats. Tess Skeffington's name is a riff on Spade's secretary Effie Perine.
- Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) parodies Christie's Miss Marple. In the film, Marbles appears as hearty, robust and tweed-clad, wheeling a frail, ancient-looking, seemingly senile companion-her ancient "nurse" Miss Withers (Estelle Winwood), for whom she is now caring-whom everyone initially assumes is Miss Marbles.
An additional scene, not in the theatrical version but shown in some television versions, shows Sherlock Holmes (Keith McConnell) and Doctor Watson (Richard Peel) arriving as the other guests are leaving. Author Ron Haydock states that an early draft of Neil Simon's script featured Holmes and Watson actually solving the mystery, but their roles were reduced to a cameo appearance and finally deleted, as the lead actors felt they were being "upstaged." (Wikipedia)
I forgot about this movie! I used to watch this in repeat so much in the late 80's, early 90's. So good... Thanks for bringing this back out of my subconscious.
My personal opinion is that this is an underrated and underappreciated film. Thank you for bathing it in the light it deserves.
Omg this was my favourite movie when I was a little boy in the 70's, I loved Maggie Smith in this and it's such a stellar cast.
All the characters are based on literary detectives like Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot and Sam spade.
Sidney Wang: "Answer simple, but question very hard."
Peter Sellers, playing the Charlie Chan detective here, made so many great movies. He was most famous for playing the blundering Inspector Jacques Clouseau in the Blake Edwards written/directed Pink Panther series of movies of the 60s-80s. David Niven also played in several of these movies starting with the excellent "A Shot in the Dark". Neither Roberto Benigni nor Steve Martin could take the place of Sellers in this role.
Sellers also played 3 roles in the outstanding nuclear nightmare comedy "Dr. Strangelove" after co-starring earlier in another Stanley Kubrick black-comedy/drama called "Lolita" from the Vladimir Nabokov novel. He was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for Dr. Strangelove. Sellers could play for strictly laughs, but he also could display some serious gravitas when the role required it (similar to Robin Williams). Also like Williams (and some other comedians), Sellers was known to suffer from bouts of depression throughout his life.
When he made the switch from British radio/TV to movies, he played in a number of satirical comedies in the 1960s like "The Magic Christian" with Ringo Starr and "Casino Royale" (a Bond film but made as a comedy with Niven, Orson Welles & Woody Allen). One of his zaniest roles was playing an Indian actor, Hrundi V. Bakshi, in another Blake Edwards directed film called "The Party". Although he's wearing "brown-face" to play Indian, Seller's mannerisms and the character's bumbling naivety are just gut-busting hilarious and endearing at the same time.
I didn't mean to go on this long, but Peter Sellers is just too great an actor not to delve deeper into his filmography. His second to last film, "Being There", is a magical, fairy-tale about a simple gardener named Chauncey that gets mistakenly identified as a economic/political mastermind by some very affluent people. He was nominated for a second Best Actor Oscar (which he should have won) for Chauncey. Sellers died a bit later of a heart attack at just 54.
Niven was in the first one and the later "Trail of" and "Curse of", but not "A Shot in the Dark".
The Party is my favorite Sellers film. Also check out "I love you, Alice B. Toklas"
One of my favourite films!!! I'm glad to see it getting some recognition.
My mother and I always loved this movie. It came out when I was 12 and, like her, I enjoyed murder mysteries. Great ensemble film with wonderful character actors. 😃👍
So glad you picked this movie. It's one of my all-time favorite movies that very few other people seem to know.
This was the first time I ever saw Maggie Smith, and I. Fell. HARD. Just head over heels. RIP to a great and talented lady.
She was also in the Prime of Jean Brodie. That's where I first saw her
I was only 13 when I saw this movie, and it didn’t have no nekkid folks in it like The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie did - but when I did see it, I was blown away by her performance. Well deserved Oscar.
@@FBodStudios I saw the edited version of it
California Suite is another favorite Maggie Smith film of mine.
Sidney Wang: "Conversation like television set on honeymoon: unnecessary."
Peter Sellers played the Chinese detective, and he was a comic genius. He played three different roles in Dr. Strangelove, was Inspector Clouseau in the "Pink Panther" films, and my personal favorite was his role as Hrundi V. Bakshi in "The Party" from 1968. You should look into more of his work, and seeing your reation to "The Party" would be great.
Also, a squab is just the fancy French name for a pigeon.
Another good one is Chance, the gardener, in Being There.
Loved this film. It came out the year before I was born and parodied all the great detectives that I grew up on in the 80s so I got most of the references. And such a great cast.
I love that you reviewed this particular movie! I actually saw it in the theatre back in the day at a local cinema. I liked it then, but I came to appreciate its qualities more as I grew older and time passed. Look at that acting line-up! Today, something like that is unthinkable! The movie aged like a fine wine or camembert. Witty dialogue, great cast, fun special effects, it's a very clever satire joining two things: Old Hollywood and its iconic characters, and the mystery novel medium. And how brilliant was it to have the authors actually also be real detectives, mirroring the Old Hollywood movie versions of the same! And Neil Simon did one really genius thing that made it impossible to accuse the movie of having any plot holes: that's the very theme of the movie! So no matter how silly and unbelievable anything in it is, that IS the motif! And how funny was it, looking back, that Alec Guinness (what range!) pulls off his face to reveal Truman Capote, and then in the final scene, Truman pulls off his face to reveal Nancy Walker!
The reason Neil Simon wrote Murder By Death is all in Twain's rant at the end. He hated how mysteries withheld information or introduced clues or characters at the very last minute. Some very interesting trivia connected with this film. One of Alec Guiness's earliest film roles was in Kind Hearts And Coronets, in which he played multiple characters, including one female. He does the same here. The various detectives were all take-offs on established fictional detectives. Nick and Nora Charles from the Thin Man films, Sam Spade, the hard-boiled Humphrey Bogart type, Charlie Chan, Hercule Poirot (not a Frenchie! A Belgie!) and Miss Jane Marple. There was even a deleted scene at the end as they're all driving away, with Sherlock Holmes and Watson showing up late for the party.
Great reaction and glad you enjoyed it so much. This has been one of my favourite comedies since I saw it as a kid in the 80s, and once I started reading/watching Agatha Christie stuff it made me love this even more.
The woman who played Yetta, the deaf mute cook, was Nancy Walker. At the time this movie was made, she was best known for being the housekeeper, Mildred, on the popular mystery show, *McMillan & Wife.* (This show was part of the rotation of similarly-themed shows in the *NBC Mystery Movie* anthology series, along with *Columbo* and *McCloud.* )
One of the funniest films of all time, about my favourite film ever - thank you Ashleigh for choosing this film. Whatever else no-one can ever say "That's tacky..that's so tacky" to one of your reviews! Thanks and thanks again, glad it brought you as much joy as it does me!
Such a fun and crazy movie! This is one of my favorite movies!
I was excited to see you react to this fantastic film!
Thank you! I had forgotten this movie, but all the clips brought it back. It was the original Clue.
"Is the!" Truman Capote correcting everyone's English is hilarious. Capote was a famous author. He wrote the first true crime novel: "In Cold Blood."
There was a film I saw recently that Maggie starred in... "Travels With my Aunt." A real hidden treasure.
The nursemaid in the wheelchair was Estelle Winwood. She was 92 years old when she played this role. She also hated doing this role. She, as she said, "did it for the money". She was also one of the rich old ladies in "The Producers". She died at the age of 101.
Winwood hated her part "The Producers" as well. She was a classically trained stage actress and didn't play in a film until she was about 40, and her character ended up on the cutting room floor. She finally appeared on the screen when she was 48. I think pretty much all of her tv and film work was largely "for the money".
"I smell gas"
"I can't help it-I'm old"
"Not that kind. The gas that kills!"
"Well, sometimes my gas..."
I remember that line so well, and I haven't seen this in 35 years!
Love Neil Simon, very funny playwright! I think the next Neil Simon movie you should watch is “The Goodbye Girl” Richard Dreyfus is funny and charming in it!
I just recommended that, too! One of the all-time great comedies! 🙌
I think just about the whole cast have been mentioned in comments except Esteel Winwood (Miss Marbles Nurse) who was 92 at the time this film was made. She continued acting until she was 100 and when she died the following year was the oldest member of SAG. As she made her stage debut in South Africa at the age of 20 that's an 80 year acting career. While she was mainly a stage actress, and later TV, she made a few notable film appearances including The Misfits, Camelot and The Producers.
And for completion's sake, Richard Narita (Willy Wang) is, at time of writing, one of only two cast members still with us, the other being James Cromwell. With a solid career on TV he seems to have retired in 2017.
I am so excited to watch this when I get home. This is one of my all time favourite movies. ❤
One of my all-time favorite movies. Glad you loved it. Was the first movie I saw Maggie Smith in and instantly loved her.
Eileen Brennan was Mrs. Peacock in Clue but I understand how you didn’t recognize her since she had a hat and glasses on in Clue.
I’m glad you watched this. I saw it in cinema when it came out I. ‘76, but not since. I’d forgotten this spoof on classic detective novels & films. Each character in Murder by Death is a knock off of a famous fictional detective: “Sam Diamond,” played by Peter Falk (yes, Columbo), is Dashiell Hammett’s famous hard boiled detective, Sam Spade, played by Humphrey Bogart in the film version of The Maltese Falcon. Dashiell Hammett’s detective couple were Nick & Nora Charles. He was a retired police detective who had married a rich woman with an annoying dog. The two boozed it up & solved crimes in 1 novel, The Thin Man & a series of Thin Man films. Dick & Dora Charleston are their stand-ins. Wang & his idiot son are spoofs of Charlie Chan, the Chinese detective from Hawaii who would appear with a series of dumb sons. In the films, as in this spoof, Chan/Wang would be played by a white actor in bad makeup while the son would really be Chinese-American. The Belgian detective Perrier is a spoof of Agatha Christie’s famed Hercule Poirot. Miss Jessica Marbles is a spoof on Agatha Christie’s other famous sleuth, Miss Jane Marple.
*gasp* You didn't like Asta? He was adorable! ...and also an easy answer for a crossword.
FINALLY, I recommend this movie a year ago !!!
One more thing. Miss Marbles is Elsa Lanchester. The Bride of Frankenstein
Also a very memorable role in Witness For The Prosecution which, IIRC, wasn't in the original play by Agatha Christie.
That might be a fun reaction for Ashleigh ...
The movie was advertised as having an ending so bizarre that you couldn't reveal it even if you wanted to. It delivered.
Eileen Brennan never fails every time I see her Private Benjamin pops to mind with Goldie Hawn. While Eileen and Goldie Were leaving a restaurant together Eileen was hit by a car and was injured very badly. She did recover from her injuries in time.
Truman Capote was a writer who was most famous for “In Cold Blood,” one of the first true crime nonfiction novels, and for the novella, “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”
He was good friends with Harper Lee, who wrote “To Kill a Mockingbird,” and was infamous for his rivalries with other writers and became persona non grata among the wealthy women patrons of the arts who had been his friends because they felt he betrayed their confidences.
NO WAAAYYY!!! I Love this movie. Peter Falk (Columbo) is great to. I like these Kind of old movies and the humor.🙂 Thank you for the Reaction!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! I knew you'd love Maggie in this, she was simply devine... 😍
Eileen Brennan, who played Tess Skeffington, also played Mrs. Peacock in Clue.
This was written by Neil Simon, who is a prolific Broadway writer I think it’s most famous. Work is the odd couple. Everyone of these people represents a detective from the movies and books
Yes, those of us who love *love* Murder By Death are pretty bitter about Clue stealing all the thunder…
I’m envious of you Ashleigh, seeing you introduced to all these great actors for the first time!
clue is pure garbage compared to this greatness!
hey, steal from the best
That truly is my main reason for watching movie reactors; the second hand high I get from their first time experience! I envy them so!
@@shasta810 I like the actors just as much as this cast but I have NEVER been able to get into Clue and can't understand it's hold on people while MBD gets forgotten.
💯
I'm so glad you enjoyed this! It's a Sally movie too. And yes, that is Columbo.
The Columbo role made Peter Falk the perfect choice for his part in this movie.