Daily Dialogue — May 3, 2013
Lionel Twain: You’ve tricked and fooled your readers for years. You’ve tortured us all with surprise endings that made no sense. You’ve introduced characters in the last five pages that were never in the book before. You’ve withheld clues and information that made it impossible for us to guess who did it. But now, the tables are turned. Millions of angry mystery readers are now getting their revenge. When the world learns I’ve outsmarted you, they’ll be selling your $1.95 books for twelve cents.
— Murder by Death (1976), written by Neil Simon
The Daily Dialogue theme for the week is: I’m not who you think I am, suggested by Mark Twain. Today’s suggestion by Barbara Thomas.
Trivia: Peter Sellers reportedly played a number of practical jokes on cast and crew during filming, including once calling Neil Simon up whilst imitating co-star Alec Guinness and demanding a re-write of a key scene in the middle of the night. Neither Guinness nor Simon was amused.
Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary from Barbara: “Murder by Death spoofed the big reveal (and every other trope surrounding the detective/mystery/noir genre) in a series of scenes that are one reveal after another, growing more and more ridiculous (and funny).
Lionel Twain, an eccentric millionaire invites the world’s greatest detectives (turned authors) to his home for the weekend. They’re all parodies of great fictional detectives. Sam Diamond for Sam Spade, Dick and Dora Charleston for Nick and Nora Charles, etc.
He tells them there will be a murder that night. And there are two. But the murders are not what they seem and neither is anything else. In the ending set piece, the characters reveal one secret after another. I can’t find them all on Youtube but here’s one of Sam Diamond’s (played by Peter Falk).
Oh but there’s more. And more, and more!
Sam’s assistant, Tess Skeffington, reveals that she had a secret relationship with Lionel Twain:
Tess Skeffington: “He was very good to me. He would take me to the circus and give me candy. We stopped going when I was about twenty-six. I’m sorry, Sam.”
Sam Diamond: “Twenty-six? What the hell kind of a circus was it?”
In the end, Lionel Twain comes back from the dead to ultimately reveal his master plan. [See dialogue above].
But there’s a reveal after that too…
Take aways — In this comedy, every line is funny, but not every line is a joke. The dialogue doesn’t patronize it’s audience by explaining the humor. Since it’s a spoof, it’s supposed to be over the top, and Neil Simon catapults over the top, particularly with Alec Guinness’ character reveal.”