History Film / MurderByDeath

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'''Sam:''' To me, you look like number two. Know what I mean? \\

* LargeHam: Truman Capote as Lionel Twain. He turns it [[UpToEleven up to eleven]] in this performance.

Five of the world's greatest detectives are each accompanied by an associate to a dinner party held by the enigmatic multi-millionaire Lionel Twain (Creator/TrumanCapote), who challenges the whole group to solve a murder that will take place at midnight. If any of the detectives can figure out who committed the murder, they will earn the reputation as the single greatest detective in the world -- and win a million dollars, to boot. Once the murder occurs, each detective stumbles around trying to gather clues that will help them solve the case, and HilarityEnsues as they all compete for the ultimate bragging rights (and all that cash).

* AmbiguousDisorder: Even given the farcical nature of the film, some of Sam Diamond's dialogue is just...bizarre, full of strange asides and non-sequiturs with no context ("Didja ever make it with a waitress?"). Tess lampshades it by saying Sam had been shot in the head a week before and shouldn't even be out of the hospital.

* Dick and Dora Charleston (Creator/DavidNiven and Creator/MaggieSmith) are modeled after Creator/DashiellHammett's socialite detective couple, Nick and Nora Charles, from ''Film/TheThinMan'' series.

* OccamsRazor: Used by Mrs. Charleston. The other detectives ask Twain if he knows who is murdered, when it will be committed, the location of the crime, and what time it will occur. Dora remarks that this would mean that Twain is the murderer. Quite oddly, Twain does not deny this only saying that he will not listen to the wife of a detective. When Dick pushes the issue, Twain immediately changes the subject by offering a reward and the rights to the story to be published.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

* AffectionateParody: The film is affectionate toward the genre and its icons...in its own odd way. Neil Simon said he wrote the film pretty much as his revenge against mystery stories that [[AssPull introduced new information]] or otherwise used impossible cheats in their solutions; he rather identified with Twain. But the affection varies: while Twain never gets around to a TakeThat against the plot in the Film/CharlieChan or HardboiledDetective stories, he takes every opportunity to [[LampshadeHanging hang a lampshade]] on Sydney Wang's racist speech patterns (Wang is a brilliant detective who speaks in AsianSpeekeeEngrish style ''and'' has the CriticalResearchFailure of being a ''Chinese'' man who is [[JapaneseRanguage unable to pronounce R's]]). Similarly, Sam Diamond is the only detective who comes close to solving the mystery, but he's depicted as a despicable racist [[spoiler:and an ArmoredClosetGay]].

* CorruptedCharacterCopy: Milo Perrier parodies Hercule Poirot, both of them being famed Belgian detectives. However, Perrier possesses far less self-control and politeness than his original and seems to be more of a PunchClockHero than the highly principled Poirot.

-->'''Dick Charleston:''' ''(breezily)'' We didn't; it stung Dora. The poison's in her system right now. We have fifteen minutes to get to a hospital. ''Cue hilarious ecstatic expression on killer's face'' [[spoiler:Fortunately it proved to be a nonlethal type of scorpion. That, or a fake scorpion.]]
** [[spoiler:Though afterwards, Dora quite adamantly asks Dick if he's sure it was fake.]]

* AuthorFilibuster: At the end of the movie, Twain delivers a scathing rebuke against lazy mystery writers who use cheap tricks in order to make sure the audience does not figure out the mystery before the detective has a chance to explain it.

* AdaptationalAlternateEnding: depending on whether you think a murder actually happened in the film (other than of a good weekend). There was a novelization of the movie released at the time. It backs off some of the film's absurdist elements, for example showing that the butler's name was James Benson and the whole Jamessir Bensonmum exchange was just him messing with the detectives on Twain's orders. In the same vein, it changes the film's GainaxEnding by [[spoiler:having both the butler and the maid walk into the room following Twain's TheReasonYouSuck speech, revealing that all of the Twain household are alive and well, so no one actually died and it was all a con on the detectives]].

* BlindDriving: Discussed. Dora Charleston doesn't want to blind butler to park their car for obvious reasons.

* BunnyEarsLawyer: All of the detectives are extremely eccentric, since they're over-the-top parodies of characters who were eccentric to begin with. That doesn't stop them from being clever at their work, though.
* TheButlerDidIt: This is parodied and subverted. [[spoiler:While the man who introduced himself as the butler appears responsible, all explanations past the first involve him clearly not being the butler, including the final one that none of the cast see. Since this is a DeadUnicornTrope, the real joke is that Neil Simon has ShownTheirWork.]]

* RightForTheWrongReasons: In the ending, each detective team claims to have solved the case, and each one makes a series of deductions which are plausible on their face. The villain plays along, too. But each solution is subsequently proven wrong.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: depending on whether you think a murder actually happened in the film (other than of a good weekend). There was a novelization of the movie released at the time. It backs off some of the film’s absurdist elements, for example showing that the butler’s name was James Benson and the whole Jamessir Bensonmum exchange was just him messing with the detectives on Twain’s orders. In the same vein, it changes the film’s GainaxEnding by [[spoiler:having both the butler and the maid walk into the room following Twain’s TheReasonYouSuck speech, revealing that all of the Twain household are alive and well, so no one actually died and it was all a con on the detectives]].

* CostumesChangeYourSize: 5' 10" Alec Guinness' character pulls off his mask to reveal...[[spoiler: 5' 3" tall Truman Capote]], who also had a rather thicker build as well as a completely differently shaped skull.

* SamusIsAGirl: It's subtly implied by the TwistEnding that Lionel Twain never actually existed, and was in fact Yetta the cook the entire time. If this really is the case, then she not only somehow managed to outwit the [[TooDumbToLive greatest detectives in the world with a mannequin of herself]], but she may have actually murdered her blind butler Jamesir Bensonmum in cold blood just to humiliate the eccentric sleuths even further...'''and got away with it in the end'''!

* SamusIsAGirl: It's subtly implied by the TwistEnding that Lionel Twain never actually existed, and was in fact Yetta the cook the entire time. If this really is the case, then she not only somehow managed to outwit the [[ToDumbToLive greatest detectives in the world with a mannequin of herself]], but she may have actually murdered her blind butler Jamesir Bensonmum in cold blood just to humiliate the eccentric sleuths even further...'''and got away with it in the end'''!

* SamusIsAGirl: It's subtly implied by the TwistEnding that Lionel Twain never actually existed, and was in fact Yetta the cook the entire time. If this really is the case, then she not only somehow managed to outwit the greatest detectives in the world with a mannequin of herself, but she may have actually murdered her blind butler Jamesir Bensonmum in cold blood just to humiliate the eccentric sleuths even further...'''and got away with it in the end'''!

* SamusIsAGirl: It's subtly implied by the TwistEnding that Lionel Twain never actually existed, and was in fact Yetta the cook the entire time. If this really is the case, then she not only somehow managed to outwit the greatest detectives in the world with a mannequin of herself, but she may have actually murdered the butler Jamesir Bensonmum in cold blood just to humiliate the eccentric sleuths even further...'''and got away with it in the end'''!