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Murder By Death
Columbia/Tri-Star // PG // December 18, 2001
List Price: $24.99 [Buy now and save at Amazon]
The Movie:
Neil Simon's hilarious 1976 comedy isn't particularly ambitious or substancial, but it succeeds in the way that many of the Zucker Brothers ("Airplane") movies have: to simply pack the slightly over 90 minute running time with as many slight gags and nicely delivered witty jokes as possible. In any film like this, some of the jokes work better than others, but the film throws out so many gags that there's always a decent one around the corner.
The film involves a group of detectives: Sam Diamond (Peter Falk), Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith), Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) and Milo Perrier (James Coco) invited to the mansion of Lionel Twain (Truman Capote). The great detectives are asked to solve a mystery by the house's owner, which he believes that they won't be able to make sense of.
Again, there are a few jokes here and there that don't work (and a few that are repeated more than once), but the film's cast is able to use terrific comedic timing to sell the jokes - occasionally still able to hit them nicely the second time around. The actors also play off one another wonderfully, helped along by the occasional lines funny enough to be worthy of being called classics. It's not perfection, but "Murder by Death" is often hilarious and performed with exceptional comedic timing.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Murder By Death" is now 25 years of age. Presented by Columbia/Tristar here in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen (and a pan & scan version on the flip side of the disc), the picture quality is somewhat flawed, but better than I'd expected. The film appears slightly on the softer side, as detail and depth are not that great. The film takes place in a lot of shadowy rooms as well, and can tend to look slightly murky in spots.
Aside from the issues of softness, there's not a great deal else to complain about. The print seems clean for the majority, with only a few stray specks and a mark or two appearing during the film. Edge enhancement remains slight and there are only a couple of tiny traces of pixelation. The picture remains free of all but very minimal grain.
Colors looked acceptable, but a tad faded here and there. This is a respectable and certainly watchable transfer, but it's just a little rough here and there. Subtitles in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean and Thai.
SOUND: The mono soundtrack has held up nicely over the years. It's not exceptional in any way, but it's consistent in quality and generally covers all the bases. Audio quality is pleasant, as the score sounds respectably warm and crisp and dialogue sounds clear and not rough or thin.
MENUS:: Very basic main and sub-menus, with no animation or any other touches besides basic film-themed images.
EXTRAS: A 10 minute interview with Neil Simon, who offers his thoughts about the film and the production in general. Filmographies and trailers for "Murder by Death" and "The Cheap Detective" round out the supplements.
Final Thoughts: Not without a few stumbles, "Murder by Death" is still often utter hilarity, thanks to a great script and performers. Tristar's DVD edition does provide decent audio/video quality, but nothing much in the way of supplements. It's priced right though, and still worth a look for fans of these kinds of spoofs.
Neil Simon's hilarious 1976 comedy isn't particularly ambitious or substancial, but it succeeds in the way that many of the Zucker Brothers ("Airplane") movies have: to simply pack the slightly over 90 minute running time with as many slight gags and nicely delivered witty jokes as possible. In any film like this, some of the jokes work better than others, but the film throws out so many gags that there's always a decent one around the corner.
The film involves a group of detectives: Sam Diamond (Peter Falk), Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith), Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) and Milo Perrier (James Coco) invited to the mansion of Lionel Twain (Truman Capote). The great detectives are asked to solve a mystery by the house's owner, which he believes that they won't be able to make sense of.
Again, there are a few jokes here and there that don't work (and a few that are repeated more than once), but the film's cast is able to use terrific comedic timing to sell the jokes - occasionally still able to hit them nicely the second time around. The actors also play off one another wonderfully, helped along by the occasional lines funny enough to be worthy of being called classics. It's not perfection, but "Murder by Death" is often hilarious and performed with exceptional comedic timing.
The DVD
VIDEO: "Murder By Death" is now 25 years of age. Presented by Columbia/Tristar here in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen (and a pan & scan version on the flip side of the disc), the picture quality is somewhat flawed, but better than I'd expected. The film appears slightly on the softer side, as detail and depth are not that great. The film takes place in a lot of shadowy rooms as well, and can tend to look slightly murky in spots.
Aside from the issues of softness, there's not a great deal else to complain about. The print seems clean for the majority, with only a few stray specks and a mark or two appearing during the film. Edge enhancement remains slight and there are only a couple of tiny traces of pixelation. The picture remains free of all but very minimal grain.
Colors looked acceptable, but a tad faded here and there. This is a respectable and certainly watchable transfer, but it's just a little rough here and there. Subtitles in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese, Korean and Thai.
SOUND: The mono soundtrack has held up nicely over the years. It's not exceptional in any way, but it's consistent in quality and generally covers all the bases. Audio quality is pleasant, as the score sounds respectably warm and crisp and dialogue sounds clear and not rough or thin.
MENUS:: Very basic main and sub-menus, with no animation or any other touches besides basic film-themed images.
EXTRAS: A 10 minute interview with Neil Simon, who offers his thoughts about the film and the production in general. Filmographies and trailers for "Murder by Death" and "The Cheap Detective" round out the supplements.
Final Thoughts: Not without a few stumbles, "Murder by Death" is still often utter hilarity, thanks to a great script and performers. Tristar's DVD edition does provide decent audio/video quality, but nothing much in the way of supplements. It's priced right though, and still worth a look for fans of these kinds of spoofs.
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