- Joined
- Jul 3, 1997
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- Real Name
- Ronald Epstein
Murder By Death
He has succeeded in gathering the world's five
greatest detectives to investigate a crime that has
not yet been committed
It's about time!
It took Columbia nearly five years to release
perhaps one of the most memorable comedies of
the seventies. Not that this is particularly
the funniest film of the 70's, but certainly boasts
one of the most finely assembled casts of comics
and personalities from that era.
Written by Neil Simon and released in 1976,
Murder By Death is a cleverly written comedy "whodunit"
with many twists and turns that will keep you
guessing right up until the very end.
Lionel Twain (Truman Capote)has invited the five
greatest detectives to a "dinner and murder."
Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) is the Oriental who
speaks without prepositions. Sam Diamond (Peter Falk)
is the mysterious detective who imitates Bogart's
style. Dick Charleston (David Niven) is the more
refined English detective. Milo Perrier (James Coco)
is the sloppy French detective with bad hair, and
Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) is the infamous
female detective.
Arriving at Lionel Twain's castle (the in-joke is
that his address is 2-2-Twain), the detectives are
met with the most unwelcome circumstances. If being
set up for the kill is not bad enough, perhaps its
being in the company of a blind Butler (Alec Guiness)
or a deaf and mute cook (Nancy Walker).
A murder is going to take place at the stroke of
midnight. The payoff is $1 million to whichever
detective solves the murder -- or lives through
the night to tell about it.
Columbia Pictures has done a brand new digitally
mastered WIDESCREEN anamorphic transfer (with
FULL SCREEN on the opposite side). As expected
with all the catalog titles I have recently viewed,
the transfer looks great. The last time I saw
Murder By Death, was on VHS. I distinctly
remember how bad the video transfer looked on that
format. Columbia has done a terrific job cleaning
up the print and presenting a transfer that is
generally clear and clean. The only slight grain
that is evident in the print looks mostly due to
the fact that this was filmed in soft focus. This
is the best that the film has ever looked. It was
even cool to see Columbia use its original 70's logo
that I have missed seeing all these years.
The audio has been remastered as well, although
in its original MONO form. The film sounds very
good with no apparent hiss in the soundtrack.
I have to applaud Columbia for putting some real
effort into this disc by including an interview
with Neil Simon in the Supplemental Features.
Filmed especially for this DVD, Neil Simon explains
the difference between writing a Stage Play versus
writing for the screen. He also talks about how he
based Murder By Death on all the Agatha
Christie novels and Bogart movies he read and saw
as a kid. This was a parody of the things he grew
up with.
One very interesting note that Neil Simon brings
up is that between takes, he would see Alec Guiness
reading a script. When asking Guiness what script
he was reading, Guiness replied, "Star Wars". Simon
asks, "What is it about?". "The Future -- we'll see",
replied Guiness.
There are talent files included as well as the
original theatrical trailer, and, a trailer for
Neil Simon's The Cheap Detective.
Now, let me talk about what I am highly disgusted
with about this DVD release....
This is the original poster art for the film.
This was the artwork that was used as the cover
art for the initial VHS release in the early 80's.
I have always felt that the DVD format has a
responsibility to not only present films as they
were originally intended to be seen, but to also
preserve the original artwork of the film. Since
DVD is a format that is more archival than any other
format before it, we should be very concerned about
the way a film is packaged.
I don't know who at Columbia got the bright idea
to try and modernize their recent slew of catalog
releases by butchering the original artwork and
replacing it with the most god-awful images ever
imaginable. The studio ought to be ashamed of
themselves for the horrid artwork on this box and
the fact that the film is being preserved in this
manner.
Final Thoughts
If you were like me, growing up in the 70's,
you will undoubtably have fond memories of
Murder By Death and probably already have
it on your preorder list.
Those of you younger folk who have never seen
this film may wish to rent it first. I think it's
the opportunity to see the great masters of our
time (Guiness, Falk, Sellers, and Niven) as
well as some newcomers (Eileen Brennan and James Cromwell)
who would later make their marks in film.
This is the best the film has ever looked, and
after all these years I still found myself laughing
out loud and having a great time! I am so happy
that this film has finally been released and done
so properly by a studio that cares about their
catalog transfers, but unfortunately, not about
preserving the original artwork.
