One of my favorite movies is Murder By Death. It’s funny, witty, very well written, and has a great cast. The movie is based on a play written by Neil Simon. The complete cast is as follows:

  • Eileen Brennan
  • Truman Capote
  • James Coco
  • Peter Falk
  • Alec Guinness
  • Elsa Lanchester
  • David Niven
  • Peter Sellers
  • Maggie Smith
  • Nancy Walker
  • Estelle Winwood
  • James Cromwell
  • Richard Narita

Five detectives are invited to “dinner and a murder.” They’re all take-offs on famous fictional detectives:

  • Sam Diamond (Sam Spade) - Peter Falk
  • Milo Perrier (Hercule Poirot) - James Coco
  • Jessica Marbles (Miss Jane Marple) - Elsa Lanchester
  • Dick & Dora Charleston (Nick & Nora Charles) - David Niven & Maggie Smith
  • Sidney Wang (Charlie Chan) - Peter Sellers (made up and talking with an accent)

And Alec Guiness (the original Obi-Wan Kenobi) is the blind butler.

Some of my favorite quotes from the movie:

“And what is your name?”
“Bensonmum.”
“Thank you, Benson.”
“No, my NAME is Bensonmum.”
“Bensonmum?”
“Yes sir. Jamesir Bensonmum.”
“Jamesir Bensonmum?”
“Yes, sir.”
“How odd!”
“My father’s name, sir.”
“What was?”
“Howard. Howard Bensonmum.”

“Just as I thought: another test that could have cost us our lives, saved only by the fact that I am ENORMOUSLY well-bred.”

“I don’t get it. First they steal the body and leave the clothes, then they take the clothes and bring the body back. Who would do a thing like that?”
“Possibly some deranged dry cleaner.”

“There’s nothing on him ’til ‘46, when he was picked up in El Paso, Texas, for trying to smuggle a truckload of rich white Americans across the border into Mexico to pick melons.”

“Since we cannot call for a doctor, I will need a cold compress for my chaffeur, and a cup of hot chocolate for me, n’est ce pa?”
“I don’t think we have any Nespa, sir. Just Hershey’s. ”

“Is he dead?”
“With a thing like that in his back, in the long run, he’s better off.”

“I’m scared, Sam. Hold me.”
“Hold yourself. I’m busy.”

“I never did nothin’ to a man that I wouldn’t do to a woman.”

“Mrs. Charleston’s hair red. You have blond hairs on shoulder. This means she has dyed red hair blond, then back again to red, or else you have been…. So sorry, Wang is wrong.”

“Something isn’t right in all of this, eh. I can feel it in my buns.”
“Your what?”
“My buns.”
“Buns? Your buns? You bought buns and you didn’t tell me? Where are they? Where are the buns?”
“Oh! No, monsieur. The BONES in my body.”
“You should not speak with an accent when you know I am so hungry.”

“How lovely dear! We’re in Wang’s wing!”

Currently watching: Murder By Death