Product: Murder by Death (1976)
Rating: 5.0
Sellers Shines In This Wild Spoof
For a long, long time this has been one of the most fun movies I've ever watched. In a recent viewing, it seemed a bit sleazier than I had remembered from the last time but, nonetheless, it still has tons of laughs.This film has one of my all-time favorite characters: "Sidney Wang," played by Peter Sellers. The late English actor did a fabulous job of imitating Charlie Chan. He is the highlight among a very talented cast that includes Peter Falk, David Niven, James Coco, Elsa Lanchester, Alec Guinesses, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker and Truman Capote.Today, the character oddest for me to view is a young James Cromwell who speaks with a French accent! I've never seen him in any role remotely resembling this. The other actors play roles typical of them, such as Niven and Smith's dapper "Thin Man" couple and Falk's, Columbo/Mike Hammer-style American detective.This spoof of great fictional writers and detectives has a purposely exaggerated amount of twists, particularly at the end. Entertainment-wise, start-to-finish it is fun with absolutely no lulls. It's a classic!