Murder by Death

Plot

A 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 cook named Yetta, Twain announces that it is in fact he who is the greatest detective in the world. In order 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. The house is then electronically sealed off; doors, windows, etc.

Before midnight, the butler is found dead, and later Twain himself appears, only to later re-appear clearly 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 Twains 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.

After retiring to their guest rooms to sleep, during which one pair is almost killed by a snake, another by a scorpion, another by a descending ceiling, a fourth by poison gas, and the fifth by a bomb, they all survive and collect in the office where the butler—believed to have been murdered earlier—is waiting, very much alive and not blind. Each detective "solves" the mystery with claims that the butler is one or another of Twains former associates, complete with backstories and motives.

At first the butler plays the part of each of the persons, male or female, with whom hes identified, but then he pulls off a mask to reveal Lionel Twain himself, alive. Twain disparages the detectives (and effectively 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 so as to make it impossible for the reader to solve the mystery. None of the detectives walks away with the million dollars, and they all leave. Wang, when asked if there had been a murder or not, replies: "Yes; killed good weekend!"

After the guests, freed to leave, do so, and all alone, Twain pulls off another mask—revealing Yetta, who chain smokes and laughs hysterically while rings of cigarette smoke fill the screen.

Cast and characters

The story takes place in and around the isolated country home populated by eccentric multi-millionaire Lionel Twain (Truman Capote), his blind butler Jamesir Bensonmum (Alec Guinness), and a deaf-mute cook named Yetta (Nancy Walker). The participants are all pastiches of famous fictional detectives:

Deleted scenes

An 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. Author Ron Haydock states that an early draft of Neil Simons 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."