[5]

With a script by Neil Simon and an incredible all-star cast, I expected more from this spoof of murder mysteries. Most of the ensemble are confined to playing the same note throughout the film, including Peter Sellers as a simile-spewing Charlie Chan and Alec Guinness as the blind butler. The squeaky-clean humor is in dire need of some double-entrendres or naughty subtext. Still, it’s kinda cool just seeing this kind of talent assembled for an hour or two: Peter Falk, David Niven, Maggie Smith, James Cromwell, Elsa Lanchester, James Coco, Truman Capote, and Eileen Brennan. (Brennan would revisit this sort of material nine years later, and with greater comedic success, in Clue.)