| 词条 | Murder by Death | ||||||||||||
| 释义 |
| name = Murder by Death | image = murder_by_death_movie_poster.jpg | image_size = 220px | border = yes | alt = | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = Robert Moore | producer = Ray Stark | writer = Neil Simon | starring = Eileen Brennan Truman Capote James Coco Peter Falk Alec Guinness Elsa Lanchester David Niven Peter Sellers Maggie Smith Nancy Walker Estelle Winwood | music = Dave Grusin | cinematography = David M. Walsh | editing = Margaret Booth John F. Burnett | studio = Rastar | distributor = Columbia Pictures | released = {{Film date|1976|06|23}} | runtime = 94 minutes[1] | country = United States | language = English | budget = | gross = $32,511,047[2]}}Murder by Death is a 1976 American satirical mystery comedy film[3] with a cast featuring Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, James Coco, Peter Falk, Alec Guinness, Elsa Lanchester, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Maggie Smith, Nancy Walker, and Estelle Winwood, written by Neil Simon and directed by Robert Moore.[4] The plot is a broad parody or spoof of the traditional country-house whodunit, familiar to mystery fiction fans of classics such as Agatha Christie's And Then There Were None. The cast is an ensemble of British and American actors playing send-ups of well-known fictional sleuths, including Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, Charlie Chan, Nick and Nora Charles, and Sam Spade. It also features a rare acting performance by author Truman Capote. The film was presented at the Venice International Film Festival in 1976. PlotA group of five renowned detectives, each accompanied by a relative or associate, is invited to "dinner and a murder" by the mysterious Lionel Twain. Having lured his guests to his mansion managed by a blind butler named Jamessir Bensonmum, who is later joined by a deaf-mute, illiterate cook named Yetta, Twain joins his guests at dinner. The house is then sealed off. Twain announces that he is the greatest detective in the world. To prove his claim, he challenges the guests to solve a murder which will take place at midnight; a reward of $1 million will be presented to the winner. Before midnight the butler is found dead and Twain disappears, only to re-appear dead from a stab wound immediately after midnight; the cook is also discovered to have been an animated mannequin, now packed in a storage crate. The party spends the rest of the night investigating and bickering. They are manipulated by a mysterious behind-the-scenes force, confused by red herrings, and baffled by the "mechanical marvel" that is Twain's house, and they ultimately find their own lives threatened. Each sleuth presents his or her theory on the case, pointing out the others' past connections to Twain and their possible motives for murdering him. When they retire to their guest rooms for the night, the guests are each confronted in their rooms by things that threaten to kill them: a snake, a venomous scorpion, a descending ceiling, poison gas, and a bomb. They all survive, and in the morning they gather in the office, where they find the butler waiting, very much alive and not blind. Each detective presents a different piece of evidence with which they each independently solved the mystery, and in each case, they accuse the butler of being one or another of Twain's former associates. At first the butler plays the part of each of the persons, male or female, with whom he is identified, but then he pulls off a mask to reveal Lionel Twain himself, alive. Twain disparages the detectives, and metafictionally, the authors who created them, for the way their adventures have been handled, including such misdeeds as introducing crucial characters at the last minute for the traditional "twist in the tale" (something the assembled detectives had been doing a few minutes earlier) and withholding clues and information to make it impossible for the reader to solve the mystery. Each of the detectives departs the house empty handed, none of them having won the million dollars. When asked whether there had been a murder, Wang replies, "Yes: killed good weekend." Alone in his home, Twain pulls off yet another mask to reveal Yetta, who smokes a cigarette and laughs diabolically while rings of cigarette smoke fill the screen. Cast and charactersThe story takes place in and around the isolated country home populated by eccentric multi-millionaire Lionel Twain (Truman Capote), his blind butler Jamessir Bensonmum (Alec Guinness), and a deaf-mute cook named Yetta (Nancy Walker). "Lionel Twain" is a pun on "Lionel Train".[5] The participants are all pastiches of famous fictional detectives:
ProductionThe film was shot entirely at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, then named "The Burbank Studios".{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} Charles Addams, creator of The Addams Family, drew the art and caricatures displayed at the beginning, during the end credits, and on the poster.[6]Deleted scenesAn additional scene, not in the theatrical version but shown in some television versions, shows Sherlock Holmes (Keith McConnell) and Doctor Watson (Richard Peel) arriving as the other guests are leaving.[7] Author Ron Haydock states that an early draft of Neil Simon's script featured Holmes and Watson actually solving the mystery, but their roles were reduced to a cameo appearance and finally deleted, as the lead actors felt they were being "upstaged."[8] ReceptionVincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that the film had one of Simon's "nicest, breeziest screenplays," with James Coco "very, very funny as the somewhat prissy take-off on Hercule Poirot" and David Niven and Maggie Smith "marvelous as Dick and Dora Johnson, though they haven't enough to do."[9] Arthur D. Murphy of Variety called it "a very good silly-funny Neil Simon satirical comedy, with a super all-star cast," adding, "It's the sort of film one could see more than once and pick up on comedy bits unnoticed at first. Dave Grusin's music is another highlight."[10] Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times found the film "amusing" but added, "Why it is only amusing, and not hilarious, madcap, riotous, rip-roaring, or richly romping, I don't entirely know. It's a short movie (94 minutes) but a slow one, surprisingly so when you'd have said knockabout speed was called for."[11] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film three stars out of four and wrote that "after getting off to a shaky start, the picture quickly hits a speedball comedy pace it doesn't lose until the unsatisfactory unravelling of the mystery."[12] Gary Arnold of The Washington Post stated that "this burlesque whodunit is probably too static and thinly contrived to generate a lasting sense of pleasure, but it's the kind of skillfully obvious, mock-innocent spoof that seems good fun while it lasts, and the fun is enhanced by the most adept and attractive comedy cast in recent memory."[13]Award nominations
See also
References1. ^{{cite web|title=MURDER BY DEATH (A)|url=http://www.bbfc.co.uk/releases/murder-death-1970-3|work=Columbia-Warner|publisher=British Board of Film Classification|date=June 14, 1976|accessdate=March 15, 2014}} 2. ^{{Cite web|url=http://www.the-numbers.com/movies/1976/0MBYD.php|publisher=The Numbers|title=Murder by Death, Box Office Information|accessdate=January 23, 2012}} 3. ^{{cite web|title=Murder by Death|author=Hal Erickson|website=AllMovie|url=http://www.allmovie.com/movie/murder-by-death-v33816}} 4. ^{{cite web|work=The New York Times|title=Murder By Death (1976) Simon's Breezy 'Murder by Death'|author=Canby, Vincent|authorlink=Vincent Canby|date=June 24, 1976|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9501E5DE1E38E53BBC4C51DFB066838D669EDE}} 5. ^{{cite news|title= Mystery Film Baffles Master Sleuths |date= 1976-06-25 |newspaper= The Indianapolis Star |type= film review |page= 38 |url= https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/105869782/ |accessdate= 2016-10-24 |subscription= yes}} 6. ^{{cite web |url=http://www.artofthetitle.com/title/murder-by-death/ |title=Murder by Death (1976) |author= Angel Tagudin |date=January 22, 2013|website=Art of the Title|access-date=January 29, 2016}} 7. ^{{cite web|last1=De Waal|first1=Ronald B.|title=The Universal Sherlock Holmes|url=https://www.lib.umn.edu/scrbm/ush/volume-3-section-XB|publisher=University of Minnesota|accessdate=22 January 2016|archiveurl=https://www.webcitation.org/6eiqJ1LeV?url=https://www.lib.umn.edu/scrbm/ush/volume-3-section-XB|archivedate=January 22, 2016|deadurl=yes|df=mdy-all}} 8. ^Haydock, Ron. Deerstalker! Holmes and Watson on Screen. Scarecrow Press, 1978. {{ISBN|0-8108-1061-1}} 9. ^Canby, Vincent (June 24, 1976). "Simon's Breezy 'Murder by Death'". The New York Times. 26. 10. ^Murphy, Arthur D. (June 23, 1976). "Film Reviews: Murder By Death". Variety. 16. 11. ^Champlin, Charles (June 23, 1976). "A Potshot at Mystery Genre". Los Angeles Times. Part IV, p. 1, 14. 12. ^Siskel, Gene (June 25, 1976). "'Murder' is a comedy—and why it works is no mystery". Chicago Tribune. Section 3, p. 1. 13. ^Arnold, Gary (June 23, 1976). "'Murder by Death' or, the Case of the Super-sleuth Spoof". The Washington Post. B1. External links{{wikiquote}}
16 : 1976 films|1970s comedy films|1970s crime films|American films|American comedy films|American detective films|American mystery films|American parody films|American satirical films|Columbia Pictures films|Comedy mystery films|English-language films|Films directed by Robert Moore|Films scored by Dave Grusin|Films set in country houses|Screenplays by Neil Simon |
||||||||||||
| 随便看 |
|
开放百科全书收录14589846条英语、德语、日语等多语种百科知识，基本涵盖了大多数领域的百科知识，是一部内容自由、开放的电子版国际百科全书。