Review of Murder by Death (1976) by Kevin N — 19 Mar 2009

A meandering comedy which jumps back and forth between moments of geniousness and desperation. A stacked cast of experts slyly fills the film's deranged roles, people who are supposed to be familiar caricatures anyway.

Sellers and Guinness are especially fantastic, the first as a sterotyped oriental detective and the latter as a blind butler. The film goes nowhere and does it fast; ordinarily this is no problem, and the story fits the pace, but every once in awhile the script becomes bored with itself and resorts to thoughtless ethnic jokes or tired repetition.

While its gags are hit or miss, Moore and his cast have a lot of laughs at the detective story's expense and they're more than happy to let us in on the joke.