Murder By Death

Lionel Twain invites the world's five greatest detectives to a 'dinner and murder'. Included are a blind butler, a deaf-mute maid, screams, spinning rooms, secret passages, false identities and more plot turns and twists than are decently allowed.



Five famous literary detective characters and their sidekicks are invited to a bizarre mansion to solve an even stranger mystery.
—Kenneth Chisholm




Despite not knowing him, the world's most famous detectives can't pass up the offer of a "dinner and murder" invitation from wealthy Lionel Twain (Truman Capote). Each has no idea until their arrival at Two Two Twain who else will be in attendance. Those detectives are: amateur sleuths and New York City socialites Dick (David Niven) and Dora Charleston (Dame Maggie Smith), accompanied by their pet terrier, Myron; Belgian detective Monsieur Milo Perrier (James Coco), accompanied by his chauffeur, Marcel (James Cromwell); Shanghainese Inspector Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers), accompanied by his Japanese adopted son, Willie Wang (Richard Narita); frumpish Brit Miss Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester), accompanied by her invalid nurse, Miss Withers (Estelle Winwood); and San Francisco gumshoe Sam Diamond (Peter Falk), accompanied by his femme fatale sidekick, Tess Skeffington (Eileen Brennan). The dinner part of the invitation runs into problems due to the non-communication between Twain's blind butler, Jamesir Bensonmum (Sir Alec Guinness), and Twain's new deaf-mute and non-Anglophone cook, Yetta (Nancy Walker). On the murder side, the guests initially believe Twain will try to kill each of them. However, Twain eventually announces his rationale for the gathering: that one of the people at the dinner table will be murdered before midnight, and that Twain will consider himself the greatest detective if his guests, who are now trapped in the house until dawn, cannot figure out who committed the murder, that person also at the dinner table. If one does figure out who committed the crime, he or she will be the recipient of one million dollars and the exclusive rights to the story. So the guests anxiously await the stroke of midnight, with those still alive after that time trying to figure out motive and the opportunity to murder before the rise of dawn, and before the murderer has the opportunity to strike again on one or all of them.
—Huggo




Millionnaire Lionel Twain (Truman Capote) invites the five most brilliant private eyes to a dinner, and a murder. So, Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) from China, Dick Charleston (David Niven) from New York City, Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) from England, Milo Perrier (James Coco) from Belgium, and Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) from San Francisco arrive at the remote castle. They are welcomed by Jamesir Bensonmum (Sir Alec Guinness), the blind butler. At nine, a dinner is supposed to be served. The five private eyes and their companionships are in the dining room, wondering what everything is about. Suddenly, Lionel Twain appears and lets the private eyes in on his plan: Exactly at midnight, a murder is going to take place. He offers one million dollars to the one who can solve the murder. Then he disappears. Before long, a problem arises: The butler is found dead, and it's long before midnight. Will the five most brilliant minds of our time be able to see through the elaborate set-up staged by a criminal mastermind?
—Julian Reischl




Lionel Twain (Truman Capote) has invited the five greatest detectives to a "dinner and murder". How can they resist? Included are a blind butler, a deaf-mute maid, screams, spinning rooms, secret passages, false identities, and more plot turns and twists than are decently allowed.
—John Vogel





SYNOPSIS

A mysterious millionaire named Lionel Twain (Truman Capote) sends invitations to master detectives Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith), Inspector Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers), Milo Perrier (James Coco), Sam Diamond (Peter Falk), and Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lancaster). The invitation reads, "You are cordially invited to Dinner and a Murder at 22 Lola Lane, Saturday evening 7 P.M."

On Saturday night, the Charlestons are lost in a fog. Dick tries to call his host, but Twain's telephone line has been cut by an unseen culprit. Sidney Wang and his adopted Japanese son, Willie (Richard Narita), stop to read a map and encounter Dick.

In another car, Tess Skeffington (Eileen Brennan) recites Twain's dossier to her employer/paramour, Sam Diamond. The car runs out of gas and Tess is required to hike five miles to the nearest station.

In another car, Milo and his personal chauffeur Marcel Cassette (James Cromwell) are trying to find the address and also are having trouble driving through the fog.

When Sidney and Willie arrive at Twain's door, they barely miss being struck by a falling gargoyle. They are greeted by Jamessir Bensonmum (Alec Guinness), the blind butler, who takes them to their room, where "a cozy fire" is consuming the bed. The Charlestons arrive next, sipping martinis to ease the shock of their close call with a falling gargoyle. Bensonmum leads them to their room, which is covered in dust and cobwebs. In the kitchen, Bensonmum informs Yetta (Nancy Walker), the kitchen maid, of her duties. His effort is wasted, as she is deaf and mute, but he cannot see the note explaining her condition.

Bensonmum returns to the living room to find Milo, who complains that Marcel has received a minor injury from a falling gargoyle. Sam is less passive about his gargoyle encounter and threatens Bensonmum at gunpoint. The guests gather in the drawing room for cocktails and deduce that the world's greatest detectives have been brought together for a reason. Sam and Tess enter, followed soon after by Jessica Marbles and her wheelchair-bound nurse, Miss Withers (Estelle Winwood). The group is summoned to the dining room. Bensonmum serves soup from an empty tureen. He apologizes and goes to the kitchen to fire Yetta, still unaware of the futility.

After narrowly escaping death from poisoned wine and falling swords, the guests meet their host, whose entrance is accompanied by flashing colored lights. Twain announces that he will prove himself to be the world's greatest criminologist. A murder is to be committed at midnight, and both the killer and the victim are currently at the table. Twain wagers $1 million against their reputations that none of the five detectives will be able to solve the crime. With the push of a button, he seals them inside the house, and then makes a dramatic exit. Yetta storms into the dining room and "screams," although she produces no sound. Sidney, Jessica and Milo go to the kitchen, where they discover the body of Bensonmum, and notice a butcher knife missing from the knife rack. Locked out of the dining room, Milo retrieves the key from Bensonmum, but the body has disappeared and only the butler's clothes remain. They find the dining room deserted, but Twain, watching from the moose head on the wall, assures the detectives that no one has left the dining room and instructs them to leave the room and re-enter. They follow Twain's instructions and find all the guests in place. The sound of gunshots emanates from the kitchen, prompting Dick and Sam to investigate. Bensonmum's body has reappeared, but without clothing.

While Dick uses the bathroom, Sam returns to the dining room, which is again deserted. When he opens the bathroom door, Sam sees a cobweb-covered bed occupied by the Charlestons' terrier. Dick reappears when Sam closes the door and reopens it. Sam enters the dining room and tells the other guests of his experience, which leads them to deduce that Twain has "two of everything" in the house. Milo leaves the room to demonstrate by knocking three times. Dick returns, followed moments later by Milo, who has been squeezed into Bensonmum's suit.

As the clock is about to strike midnight, Dora notices that Yetta has disappeared and there is a knock on the door. Twain stands in the doorway and falls forward, revealing a butcher knife and multiple stab wounds in his back. Dora concludes that Yetta is the culprit, but Sam discovers a case containing Yetta's components, proving the maid to be an automaton robot. Dora then asserts that one of the guests must be the murderer.

The guests assemble in the drawing room, where they posit their theories. Dick believes the murder was an elaborate suicide. Sidney suspects Dick, explaining that the Charlestons are destitute and have been borrowing money from Twain at seventeen percent interest. Dick draws attention to Jessica, explaining that Twain, her former fiancee, left her at the altar. Milo suggests patricide, and Tess admits that Twain was her uncle, but he was also Sidney's adoptive father. When Twain realized, after 19 years, that his son was Asian, Sidney was forced to leave home. Wang counters by reminding Milo of Marie Louise Cartier, Milo's poodle, which Twain hunted and killed. Tess divulges that Sam also hated Twain because he had photographs of Sam wearing women's clothing from the night they met in a gay bar, although Sam argues that he was undercover.

When they retire to their bedrooms, the Wangs are threatened by a deadly snake. At the same time, the Charlestons are frozen in fear as a scorpion crawls toward them. In their bedroom, Jessica and Miss Withers smell poison gas. In their room, Sam and Tess receive notice of a hidden time bomb ticking down. As the bomb is heard exploding, Milo and Marcel are trapped in their room and are about to be crushed by a descending ceiling.

In the drawing room, the very much alive and not-blind Bensonmum crosses the detectives' names off of a list. However, each of the guests appears in the room having miraculously cheated death for various reasons, and offers his or her solution in hopes of winning the $1 million wager. Sidney relies on the old adage, "the butler did it," while Jessica knows Bensonmum to actually be Irving Goldman, Twain's attorney. Dick suggests that Bensonmum is an accountant named Marvin Metzner, but Milo believes him to be Twain's daughter, Rita, whose hatefulness stems from her manly appearance. Sam announces that he and Tess are actors, and Bensonmum is the real Sam Diamond, who created this ruse to prove his superiority to his colleagues.

After humoring each of them, the butler removes his mask and reveals himself to be the very much alive Twain himself. He berates the detectives for exploiting their readers with nonsensical surprise endings and other unscrupulous devices. Their reputations will be ruined when the world learns that Twain outsmarted them.

As the guests leave, without the $1 million, Sam admits to Tess that he really is Sam Diamond, while Dick explains to his wife that everything they've experienced was fake, including the fog. When Willie asks Wang if there had really been a murder or not, Wang replies: "Yes. Killed a good weekend!"

Alone in his home, Twain pulls off yet another mask to reveal the mute Yetta, who lights up a cigarette and laughs diabolically while rings of cigarette smoke fill the screen.

End credits.