Mini-Countdown: Marvellous Murder Mysteries

I love a good murder mystery. As a teenager, I obsessively read Agatha Christie novels and- even now- my go-to leisure reading is crime fiction. It shouldn't be a surprise to tell you Cluedo is my favourite boardgame. There's something incredibly fun in giving the "little grey cells" some exercise, sifting through the clues, and working out who the killer is. Since the dawn of cinema, whodunits and murder mysteries have been a staple of the artform. So here are six of my favourite murder mysteries - with an added bonus at the end.

Murder On The Orient Express (1974)
Written by Paul Dehn and directed by Sidney Lumet
Starring: Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Vanessa Redgrave, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller

The first of the all-star Agatha Christie adaptations in the 1970s and early 1980s (Death On The Nile [1978] and The Mirror Crack'd [1980] are also worth a watch), it takes Christie's iconic 1934 novel- which has one of the best-known endings in all of fiction- and brings it to life (and death) with style and panache. Ingrid Bergman won her third Oscar for playing the mousy missionary Greta Ohlsson, whilst Albert Finney got his second Oscar nod for playing detective Hercule Poirot. It's a sumptuous-looking film; the production design and costume work is superb. The 2017 version doesn't quite capture the story in the same way, but it's definitely worth a look on its own merits. I'd also recommend the 2010 television adaptation- starring David Suchet- for a very different take on the story.

Murder By Death (1976)

Written by Neil Simon and directed by Robert Moore 

Starring: David Niven, Peter Sellers, Alec Guinness, Maggie Smith, Peter Falk, Elsa Lanchester, Truman Capote

Who says that murder has to be a serious business? Not Neil Simon, that's for sure. This affectionate pastiche of popular crime fiction- gathering five of the world's greatest detectives (all of which are the thinnest parodies of well-known sleuths, from Christie, Dashiell Hammett, and Earl Derr Biggers) to solve a murder- has some wonderful moments, sending up the implausibility and outlandishness of certain plots, but always done with charm. An all-star cast of some of the best actors working at the time let loose to play a whodunit through the filter of a screwball comedy is well worth your time. 

Clue (1985)

Written by and directed by Jonathan Lynn

Starring: Tim Curry, Eileen Brennan, Madeline Kahn, Lesley Ann Warren, Christopher Lloyd, Martin Mull, Michael McKean

Had to be on here. No way it couldn't be. The first film based on a board game, Jonathan Lynn's Clue is a cult classic. Eminently quotable, utterly madcap, and played to the hilt by its immensely capable cast, this is a film I have seen numerous times and will never get bored of. Famed for its three different endings, you'll enjoy seeing the explanations of who did what to whom with which item over and over again. Just superb. 

Gosford Park (2001)

Written by Julian Fellowes and directed by Robert Altman

Starring: Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Kristin Scott Thomas, Helen Mirren, Kelly Macdonald, Clive Owen, Emily Watson

A wonderful mix of country-house murder mystery and upstairs-downstairs drama, Julian Fellowes' witty and well-observed script rightly won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar in 2002. Sterling performances throughout the entire cast- including two Oscar nominated turns for Maggie Smith (as a proto-Countess of Grantham [from Downton Abbey]) and Helen Mirren (as the stony-faced housekeeper who is the "perfect servant")- and another visually stunning film. Again, the production design and the costume design are spot-on. 

Identity (2003)

Written by Michael Cooney and directed by James Mangold 

Starring: John Cusack, Rebecca DeMornay, Ray Liotta, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes, Alfred Molina, Pruitt Taylor Vince

On a rainy night at a remote motel out in the Nevada desert, ten strangers end up coming together under less-than-perfect circumstances. But there's a killer stalking the motel, picking them off one by one... Taking its inspiration from another Agatha Christie classic (discussed below), Identity is a nice and nasty little murder mystery done up like a slasher flick. Some of the kills are shocking and the denouement isn't something you see in every murder mystery. Definitely worth checking out for a twist on the usual formula.  

Knives Out (2019)

Written and directed by Rian Johnson

Starring: Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Toni Collette, Christopher Plummer

Ah, family gatherings. Usually a very ripe situation for there to end up being blood on the carpet. In Rian Johnson's wry and densely-plotted puzzle box of a movie, any one of the Thrombey family could have done the old man in. Motive piles on motive, direction leads to misdirection, and all the clues are there - but sometimes what you see (or more accurately, what you think you see) isn't actually what's going on. A sequel is in the works, with Southern gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) taking on a new case. I will definitely be there for that. 

Bonus: Ten Little Indians (1965)

Written by Peter Yeldham & Peter Welbeck and directed by George Pollock

Starring: Shirley Eaton, Hugh O'Brien, Leo Genn, Stanley Holloway, Dennis Price, Wilfred Hyde-White

Originally published in 1939 (under a very different and, by today's standards, unacceptable title), And Then There Were None is the world's best-selling mystery and is one of the best-selling books of all time. The plot is simple: a group of strangers are sent to a large house on a deserted  island and are picked off one by one by an unseen menace. 

The novel has been adapted to film several times, with the setting changed from an island (1945, dir. René Clair), to a hotel in an Iranian desert (1974, dir. Peter Collinson), and an African safari (1989, dir. Alan Birkinshaw), but the 1965 version sets it in a luxurious mountaintop mansion. 

Clair's 1945 version is also definitely well worth a watch, but the reason I highlight the 1965 version of the story is the gimmick of the "Murder Minute". Before the climax of the film, where the killer is unmasked, the action stops and a recap of the deaths is given, to allow the audience a chance to work out the identity of the murderer. In some versions of the film, the "Murder Minute" is taken out, but is retained in others.

So there are several murder mysteries that are worth a watch if you've not seen them before. What would you add to the list? Let us know below!

Murder By Death (1976)

An elegant pastiche of the country-house murder-mystery, Murder By Death is written by Neil Simon (The Sunshine Boys, California Suite, The Odd Couple) and directed by Robert Moore (The Cheap Detective, Chapter Two).

A group of the world's greatest detectives, each accompanied by an associate or relative, are invited to the home of the eccentric multi-millionaire Lionel Twain for dinner... and a murder. Twain proclaims himself the world's greatest detective and offers $1 million to anyone who can solve the crime that's about to happen. Sure enough, a body is soon discovered. But with a house full of tricks and traps and somebody behind the scenes pulling the strings, can the bickering detectives survive until morning, and work out- not so much whodunit- but what the hell is actually going on?

A star-studded cast bring this story to life. David Niven and Maggie Smith give an air of suave class as sophisticated crime-solving socialities Dick and Dora Charleston (a take on Dashiell Hammett's characters Nick and Nora Charles who appeared in The Thin Man stories and films). Smith is often seen as purely a dramatic actress- something she excels at- but, here, she channels a fine comedic streak as the debonair Mrs Charleston, showing some impeccable comic timing throughout. 

Another Hammett character is spoofed with Peter Falk's hardboiled Sam Diamond an obvious rip-off of Sam Spade, accompanied by his long-suffering secretary Tess Skeffington (played by Eileen Brennan who, nine years later, would return to a country-house murder-mystery spoof in the frankly wonderful Clue). Diamond is a gumshoe of the old school, and he parodies the sexist, racist, misogynist attitutes of the 1940s hardboiled noir tradition. Some of the lines are a bit close to the bone but Falk's performance softens any offence. 

Agatha Christie's two major sleuths Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple get parodied here with James Coco and Elsa Lanchester playing Belgian detective Milo Perrier and English spinster Jessica Marbles respectively. Coco's meticulously fussy portrayal of the perpetually hungry Perrier is nicely observed and his relationship with his chauffeur Marcel- played by James Cromwell in his film debut- provides a couple of great moments- the two of them bicker like an old married couple. Lanchester's turn as Miss Marbles is equally as good, making her a hale and hearty tweed-clad woman accompanied by her aged nurse Miss Withers (the final film role of Estelle Winwood) whom everyone initially mistakes for the fabled detective. 

The last of the detectives is Inspector Sidney Wang (based on Charlie Chan, created by Earl Derr Biggers). Now, here's where things get a bit tricky. Wang is played by Peter Sellers, heavily made-up to look more Oriental, and speaking in broken English and dispensing gnomic fortune-cookie-esque statements (without prepositions or articles). Thing is, Charlie Chan was also portrayed on screen by other Occidental actors (J. Carrol Naish, Sidney Toler, and Peter Ustinov among others) so it's perhaps less of an issue than it could be. But this is one performance that hasn't aged well, although we're not in Mickey-Rooney-in-Breakfast-At-Tiffany's level of offensive. 

Rounding off the cast are Alec Guinness as blind butler Jamesir Bensonmum, Nancy Walker as the deaf and dumb maid Yetta, and writer Truman Capote taking a rare acting role as the mysterious Lionel Twain. Guinness' understated performance as the blind butler is hilarious, and it's a pure joy to see an actor usually associated with serious drama cutting loose. Walker's performance is great- she gives a great physical performance in her few scenes, with no dialogue. Capote's performance as the eccentric Twain is probably the weakest link in the film but, given that he's surrounded by actors of the calibre of Guinness, Smith, and Niven, can be excused. That said, Capote was nominated for a Golden Globe for his performance, in the Best Acting Debut In A Motion Picture- Male category (but he lost to Arnold Schwarzenegger). 

Simon's script is tight and has some amazing one-liners. The plot plays with the conventions of a murder mystery, including the outlandish motives people could have had to commit the murder, doors locked from the inside, hidden traps and so on. The solution to the murder makes absolutely no sense at all. None whatsoever. But that's the point. The denouement takes a metafictional jab at mystery writers who withhold important clues or information, or introduce characters at the last minute, or go for a twist in the tale just for the sake of it (at the expense of narrative cohesion or sense). Simon was nominated for a Writers' Guild Award for Best Comedy Written Directly For The Screen. 

Murder By Death is a perfect Sunday afternoon film. It's a wonderfully pleasant way to spend an hour and a half. Give it a try if you haven't before.

Tez

Clue (1985)

If I was ever stranded on a desert island with a TV/DVD player and only eight movies, Clue would definitely be one of them. Recently celebrating its 30th anniversary (it was released in America on 13th December 1985), it's a raucous, endlessly quotable, comedy murder mystery. Clue was the first film to be based on a board-game. There have been others since, but Clue is the original and best. 

Directed and written by Jonathan Lynn (from a story by Lynn and John Landis), it takes the basis of the board-game as the jumping-off point. Six people- Mrs White, Mrs Peacock, Miss Scarlet, Mr Green, Colonel Mustard and Professor Plum- are invited to Hill House for dinner, where they meet the butler Wadsworth and the maid Yvette. Their host Mr Boddy arrives and announces he has been blackmailing them all. The six are given weapons and told to kill Wadsworth - however, it's not the butler who dies, but Mr Boddy. But who killed him, where, and with what? It's not too long before the body count starts to rise and the utter absurdity of the situation reaches boiling point. 

A point of clarification here: the film is based on the American version of the game, hence the name Clue (rather than Cluedo). It is for this reason that Michael McKean's character is Mr Green, not Reverend Green, the victim is Mr Boddy (rather than Dr. Black) and one of the weapons is the wrench and not the spanner. Incidentally, the house in the film is named after producer Debra Hill.

Clue plays like an Agatha Christie novel told through the filter of a 1940s screwball comedy. Performance-wise, it's solid across the board. For me, this is Tim Curry's second best film role (I'm sorry, but his performance in The Rocky Horror Picture Show will always be his best to me) and he is just superb as Wadsworth: dry, sarcastic, unflappable (at least to start with). It was very nearly a different story as both Leonard Rossiter (Rising Damp) and Rowan Atkinson were originally considered for the role before Lynn- who had known Curry for years- personally asked him on board. 

Eileen Brennan is great as Mrs Peacock, starting off as relatively normal and chatty before becoming more and more unhinged as the night goes on. Lesley Ann Warren (a late replacement for Carrie Fisher) vamps it up something rotten as the sultry Miss Scarlet, whilst Madeline Kahn threatens to add petty larceny to a possible murder charge with her performance as Mrs White almost stealing the entire show. Michael McKean's performance as Mr Green is hilarious; his cries of 'I didn't do it' getting more and more shrill as the bodies start to mount up. Martin Mull gives a dignified air to Colonel Mustard, even in the mounting absurdity around him, whilst Christopher Lloyd's thoughtful Professor Plum rounds the main cast off with style. 

Lynn's script absolutely crackles with hilarious one-liners and delicious non sequiturs. It has been known for a group of my friends to spend many an inebriated- and not so inebriated- night quoting from the film. I have too many favourites to list them all- and several of the best ones run the risk of spoiling main plot points- but it's a rare script where almost every line is a good one. Madeline Kahn gets some of the best lines and I do have to mention her sublime ad-lib of 'I hated her... so much... flames... flames on the side of my face...' There's also a lot of great visual comedy as well, some very black comedy involving a few of the dead bodies and- the coup de grace- the final fifteen minutes of the film where Wadsworth explains the solution which has the entire cast running from room to room. 

One of the things most people know about Clue is its ending. Or, rather, endings. Yep, the movie has three different endings. If you watch it on DVD, all three endings are played one after the other (with interstitial cards between). However, you also have the option of watching one of the endings picked at random. When shown in cinemas, one ending were randomly distributed so it wasn't ever sure exactly who was doing it (something that critics had a particular beef for). For my money, the third and final ending is a much more satisfying one (which actually makes sense). 

On first release, the film didn't get particularly good reviews- Roger Ebert said 'Fun... is in short supply' whilst New York Times critic Janet Maslin claimed the film had 'little genuine wit'. It makes me wonder what film they were watching. It didn't do well at the box office either (making $14.6 million on a budget of $15 million). Considered a bit of a flop, it was destined to be an embarrassing little blot on the copy books of all involved, good only for late-night TV reruns and home video. However, in these formats- and with all three endings together- the film started to garner some interest and, through word of mouth, it is now considered a bona fide cult classic.

Clue is a Marmite film. People either love it or hate it. Well, I love it. It's got a dream cast. It's fun, and it's funny. Very funny. I've seen the film twenty times or more and I smile every time. Peter Bogdanovich once said 'the only true test of a movie is time'. Well, Clue passes that test with flying colours. Thirty years after its release, it's still being quoted and enjoyed, and rightly so.

Tez

For more information about Clue, take a look at this brilliant Buzzfeed article by Adam B. Vary and also check out Cluedofan.com for all things Clue and Cluedo.