First things first, the character Sellers plays could not be put into film today. The racial typecasting was cringeworthy! He did it in one of his Pink Panther movies but it was a small bit. In this one it's front and center which makes it so obvious.
Now, on to the film. I don't know why I hadn't seen this one before as it's right up my alley. You can see where Clue: The Movie got its inspiration. This one felt like that plus Airplane plus Young Frankenstein, and more of those types of films. It's a silly take on a familiar genre, the murder mystery.
The core of the story is that five of the world's best detectives are invited to a murder mystery dinner. These are plays on common characters like Sam Spade, but in the movie he is Sam Diamond. Or Milo Perrier instead of Hercule Poirot. They are brought together to solve a murder which hasn't happened yet.
Sir Alec Guinness had such a fun role as the blind butler. He had me laughing within the first few minutes of the film. This was also a bit of a reunion as Sellers, Guinness, and David Niven had all worked together before in different films.
The first half of the film had a lot of LOL moments.Some fun comedy and word play made for some good jokes. One of my favorite silly ones had to do with the address of the house. The second half wasn't as funny because it was more about solving the mystery so it had to be a little more straightforward. That's not to say it was bad but some of the plot points were manipulated in a way that was not very believable.
I enjoyed this one. I'll likely watch it again in the future. I also now want to go and watch Clue: The Movie again. The only thing I wasn't as keen on was the ending as it felt rushed. That and it, again, made things too easy. I didn't guess the ending, by any means, but it was the way in which the reveal was done that felt a bit... cheap.
Yes, I'll recommend this one. I got a lot of good laughs out of it.
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