Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		4.0

Murder by Death Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Stephen Larson March 20, 2020

Murder by Death (1976) is one of the more impressive ensemble pictures of the Seventies and one of the very few scripts by Neil Simon not adapted from one of the New York writer's plays. Robert Moore, the film's director, was respected and known primarily for his work in the theater (The Boys in the Band) and for television (Rhoda) and made his big-screen debut here. (He'd later direct two more of Simon's screenplays, The Cheap Detective [1978] and Chapter Two [1979]). Simon uses Lionel Twain (Truman Capote) as his central narrator. He's a shady millionaire who in the 1930s was arrested for trying to smuggle a truckload of affluent white Americans into Mexico to pick mel­ons. Lionel sends out invites to five of the world's best detectives to join him at his peculiar and secluded Victorian mansion for dinner. He writes to his guests that a murder will occur at the stroke of midnight and offers $1 million, "plus the paperback and film rights," to the one who solves it. Simon relies on the literary archetypes of Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett, and Earl Derr Biggers for the character composites he creates. The distinguished sleuths joining Lionel are Belgian Milo Perrier (James Coco), who's based on Hercule Poirot and best known for solving murders on trains. He's accompanied by his chauffeur, Marcel (James Cromwell), who drives a 1945 Citroen. Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith), who are clearly inspired by Hammett's Nick and Nora Charles, are among the first to arrive with their pet terrier, Myron. Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) is an amalgamation of Bogart's Sam Spade, P.D. Richard Diamond (created by Blake Edwards), and Falk's own Lieut. Colombo. (The long-running series was going on its sixth season by the time this movie premiered.) Sam Diamond is more coarse and crude than the iconic TV detective. Sam's Girl Friday, Tess Skeftington (Eileen Brennan), is modeled after Mary Astor's Brigid O'Shaughnessy from The Maltese Falcon (1941) and likely Bette Davis's Fanny Trellis Skeffington from Mr. Skeffington (1944). Elsa Lanchester supplies the Miss Marple incarnate as Jessica Marbles, a British detective novelist and crimi­nologist. Peter Sellers delivers his best impression of Charlie Chan as Sidney Wang, a detective of the Catalina Police Force. He's accompanied by this third adopted son, Willie Wang (Richard Narita). Twain's staff consists of Bensonmum (Alec Guinness), the blind butler, and a deaf-mute and illiterate cook named Yetta (Nancy Walker).

Ready for dinner.

Simon transforms the social gathering into a comedy of manners among the diverse guests. They trade barbs and colloquialisms with each other, which add to the levity above the realization that a murder will happen in the coming hours. It's a sheer delight to see Capote act as "master of ceremonies," although his underrated performance was lambasted by critics. (Milton R. Bass of The Berkshire (MA) Eagle called it "incom­prehensibly awful.") Sellers is an absolute hoot as is Coco. The two weak links are Niven and Smith, who are just bland and ordinary among the partygoers. Niven was a great thespian and Smith remains one but Simon doesn't give them anything exciting to work with. These are relatively minor weaknesses in an otherwise fantastic ensemble mystery-comedy. Murder by Death received some outstanding reviews. The San Francisco Examiner's Stanley Eichelbaum deemed it "the funniest, looniest film of the year" and Edward L. Blank, the Pittsburgh Press' drama editor, considered it funnier than both Simon's Barefoot in the Park and The Odd Couple.

Murder by Death Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Murder by Death gets its first North American release on high-def courtesy of Shout Select (#58 in the boutique label's series) on this MPEG-4 AVC-encoded BD-50. The Columbia property appears in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.85:1. While the DI print isn't taken from a recent restoration, it hasn't been upscaled from a SD source as was Sony's Spanish Blu-ray. The HD transfer has very solid blacks but not a lot of room for shadow detail. The actors' costumes, particularly inside the mansion, show bold and vivid colors. Speckling is rarely an issue. David Sterritt, the well-known film critic of the Christian Science Monitor, praises David M. Walsh for his "chillingly atmospheric photography." Sterritt's probably referring to the studio-produced fog on the New England country dirt road (see Screenshot #20). Shout has encoded the feature at an average video bitrate of 34000 kbps.

The 95-minute film is accommodated by twelve scene selections.

Murder by Death Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Shout supplies the original monaural mix on a DTS-HD Master Audio Dual Mono track (1646 kbps, 24-bit). The source material is free of any pops, crackles, or tape dropouts. The cast is a mix of American and British actors and I had not trouble discerning their lines. Dave Grusin's score isn't one of his typical jazz works but a blend of different musical styles that reflect the personalities of the characters. As Tom Greiving suggests in the liner notes that come with Varèse Sarabande's soundtrack album, Grusin picks certain leitmotifs to associate with the characters. For instance, Asian music accompanies Sidney Wang and his third adopted son. Grusin writes a short Parisian accordion theme for Perrier and his chauffeur. A muted trumpet is paired with Sam Diamond. The rapidly performed strings over the main titles have some of the same rhythmic drive that Grusin later brings to the "Fratelli Chase" which opens The Goonies (1985). The one difference is that he adds bass to the latter's score. The fidelity of Grusin's music for Murder by Death sounds equally good on the lossless audio track as it does on album.

The optional English SDH identify the character speaking and give an accurate transcription of the dialogue.

Murder by Death Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• NEW Audio Commentary with Film Historian Lee Gambin - Gambin delivers an abundance of anecdotes and trivia about Murder by Death, its cast, and crew members. He sees several similarities with this film and Clue (1985). In English, not subtitled.

• A Conversation with Neil Simon (10:20, upconverted to 1080i) - Simon compares and contrasts writing for stage versus the screen. He talks about movies he grew up watching and how they inspired the character archetypes of Murder by Death. Simon also shares his experience of working with Robert Moore and anecdotes about Alec Guinness, Peter Falk, and a phone call he received from Orson Welles. The interview was recorded in 1999 and initially appeared on Columbia TriStar's 2001 DVD. In English, not subtitled.

• Theatrical Trailer (3:09, upconverted to 1080p) - an unrestored original trailer for Murder by Death displayed in 1.33:1 with plenty of artifacts. It's clumsily presented with an annoying narrator.

• TV Spot (0:32, upconverted to 1080p) - a spot that aired while Murder by Death was still in theaters, encouraging viewers to go see it for a fourth time. This was preserved on a old analog tape and also hasn't be restored.

• Photo Gallery (6:57, 1080i) - a slide show consisting of 102 images. These include color and black-and-white photos of mostly the actors on the sets. There's also lobby cards as well as American and foreign posters. Shout has also incorporated all pages from the official Merchandising and Advertising Manual and press kit folder contents (full production notes and cast & crew bios). Altogether, this makes up one of the finest galleries Shout's produced.

Murder by Death Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Murder by Death is one of my favorite Neil Simon-scripted films and features a great cast of legendary performers. If you enjoyed Knives Out from last autumn, then you'll definitely want to check out this movie too as they share some parallels. Shout Select delivers a very good transfer (albeit from an older HD master) and largely problem-free uncompressed monaural audio. Unfortunately, most of the cast has passed on but it would have been good to get a recent interview with Maggie Smith or James Cromwell. It's nice to have the Neil Simon interview from the late '90s and a typically informative commentary by Lee Gambin. The still gallery includes pretty good high-res photos (though a bit fuzzy) and detailed production information. A VERY SOLID RECOMMENDATION.