PRINCIPAL CAST: Peter Falk, Alec Guiness, Truman Capote, Peter Sellers, Nancy Walker, James Coco, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Maggie Smith and others.

Director: Robert Moore

SYNOPSIS:

I should preface this review by pointing out that the movie is not a typical Agatha Christie type whodunit - this is purely a comedy spoof from the pen of Neil Simon, well known for many classic social comedies of the 1960s - 1980s (The Odd Couple, California Suite etc etc). The basic plot of the film revolves around an invitation to dinner from a mysterious host to five eminent fictional detectives and their sidekicks at an isolated mansion. The invitation also indicates that a murder will take place. Most of the five `dicks’ will be well known to crime readers and/or movie fans - Charlie Chan, Miss Marple, Sam Spade, Hercule Poirot and Nick Charles (The Thin Man) - although their names have been thinly disguised for this story.

The host tells them that the murder will take place at midnight in the dining room they are located in, and are challenged to solve the murder before dawn - the reward being one million dollars to the winning sleuth or sleuths.

To give much more away would be quite unfair to those who haven’t seen the film before; suffice to say that there are many, many twists and turns to the plot before the rather muddy conclusion that will surprise many and disappoint others. Overall, the impersonation of these famous detectives is quite well done, with some standout performances (Peter Falk as the `Bogeyesque’ Sam Diamond and Peter Sellers as Sidney Yang in particular). Alec Guiness and Nancy walker also have their opportunities to supply comedic input with the surprise appearance of Truman Capote (an author and screenwriter of great renown) being quite effective as the host in his only `starring’ role. The strength of the cast is quite extraordinary; though strangely enough I found some of the actors hamstrung by their roles - they were too far into character to display their individual genius to `spice’ up the whole film, which may have helped it immensely.

This film is also not quite up to the usual standard of Neil’s normally intelligent and intellectual work, with the whole cast, director and screenwriter trying too hard to produce the comedic aspect of the plot - some of the sight gags and one-liners are telegraphed and/or over-exaggerated as if the viewer is incapable of understanding the point - quite unfortunate. At the same time there are a couple of Simon `gems’ included in the dialogue. The movie wasn’t helped with an insipid (annoying?) musical score that tended to destroy any atmosphere at times. Needless to say though, everyone involved seems to have a great time putting this movie together, and this helps the overall enjoyment level of the film.

EXTRAS

? A 10-minute interview with Neil Simon about the making of the movie.

? Theatrical trailers for this movie, “The Cheap Detective” (the follow-up release) and “Manhattan Murder Mystery”.

? Filmographies for the director and many of the cast members, though the term `selected’ as used is certainly true in this case.

? Multiple audio and subtitle language options.

OVERALL

The idea behind the creation of the movie is excellent. However, in application, the plot is very disjointed and confusing, with the ending particularly muddy. If, however, one enjoys a well-played assemblage of several of the silver screen’s greatest sleuths at the same time then you won’t be disappointed. It just could have been so much better.