Murder By Death

Actors:  Peter Falk, David Niven, Peter Sellers, Truman Capote, Maggie Smith, James Coco, Eileen Brennan, Alec Guiness, Elsa Lanchester
Rating:  8 out of 10, an extremely intelligent comedic parody of film noir  detectives that shows its age but is still laugh out loud funny.  The film was penned by Neil Simon and his sharp wit gives real traction to what would otherwise be extremely silly.  The story has five famous detectives based on Hercule Poiroit, Sam Spade, Miss Marple, Nick and Nora Charles, and Charlie Chan who are challenged to solve a murder by/of Truman Capote.  You can take a look at the cast and realize this was a lot of fun to watch.  As with most of Simon’s work the best part were the one liners and most of those fall to Falk in what I believe to be his best film role.  They even made a sequel featuring his character, called the Cheap Detective which was horrible.  I didn’t realize how hot Maggie Smith was at the time but she is also very good in a small part.  Alec Guiness is so funny as the blind butler James Sirbensonmum and shows a real flair for physical comedy, although I ddi keep flashing back to Obi Wan hearing his voice.  The only misses were Coco and Sellers who overdid their parts, maybe because they were surrounded by such talented actors.  I still love this movie and could not believe it was not in my collection until now. 
MVP:  Falk as the over the top tough detective Sam Diamond steals scenes even in the august company of this cast