ChanBot i must have seen a different film!!

MoPoshy Absolutely brilliant

AshUnow This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Uriah43 This movie begins with a mysterious man name "Lionel Twain" (Truman Capote) sending out invitations to the five greatest detectives in the world to come to his house and solve a crime. When they get there he tells them that at the stroke of midnight one of the people at the dinner table will die at the hands of the murderer--who will also be at the table. He then adds that he will give $1 million to whoever can solve the crime first. Sure enough, someone at the dinner table is indeed killed at midnight and all five detectives soon scramble around feverishly looking for the clues necessary to break the case. But who will finally be able solve it? Now rather than answering that question I will just say that this movie has a number of twists and turns along the way which results in a very peculiar film overall. There is a great deal of humor even though some of it falls rather flat. Likewise, there were some pretty good performances along with some that were a bit over-the-top. Personally, I liked Peter Falk (as "Sam Diamond") and James Coco ("Milo Perrier") the best. But in any case, this was a decent enough film even if it was both odd and somewhat uneven. I have rated it accordingly.

Rainey Dawn This is another wonderful comical whodunnit film. Like other mystery films, you cannot speak much about it to others who have not seen the film - least you ruin the entire movie for them. All I can say is just watch it if you love mystery and/or comedy films.The good thing about not watching a mystery film in a long time is that you may forget exactly whodunnit. I have done that with a few mystery films and this one is no exception.This is a great film to watch from time to time - after you forget exactly whodunnit!! Good companion films to this movie would be "Clue", "Deathtrap", "Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid" and "Sleuth".9/10

pm4000 I hated the movie. The movie is about the worlds greatest detectives who get invited to a mansion where they are challenged to solve a murder which hasn't been committed yet. The plot has some holes, they are quite annoying, but it isn't the plot that made me hate the movie. The core concept is actually not that bad.The biggest problem I have with this movie is the dialogue, the acting, the depiction of the characters and that it is not at all funny.Lets start with the funny part. The key to a good joke is timing. Some of the jokes could have been funny but there is no timing. The jokes go on and on and sometimes the joke is even explained by the detectives. There are many possibilities to make jokes around the blind servant and the deaf housekeeper but they are making more or less the same jokes over and over again. Many of the jokes are outright offensive to the Chinese and women.Every single character is a stereotype. Which isn't so unusual in this genre but they are all played so over the top that you can't connect to any of them at all. The Chinese detective (Mr Wang) is insulting. He speaks this stereotypical Chinese accent and is an insult because he mocks the culture of the Chinese people. He frequently says offensive things. He even says he bought his sidekick. Slavery wasn't a real thing in china at that time. I know racism wasn't such a big deal back then, but even at that time this was considered downright offensive.The writer tried to make fun of the cliché characters in detective literature and movies but didn't know where to stop. None of the main characters are likable. I hated every single one of them.Sam Diamond, an American detective, (I believe he was from Chicago) has this silly accent. I didn't really understand how this character fits in the movie. He is kind of a distraction from the general style of the movie. He is kind of a mockery of film Noir detectives. That doesn't really fit into this kind of detective story. He is extremely offensive towards women. Well I know it was most likely intended as humor because the film noir movies of the 40s and 50s are often considered sexist. But what is funny about a man mistreating women.I could go on about the characters but I just wanted to give you an example.Most of the movie the characters do nothing at all they are just annoyingly talking to each other in silly accents. When I watched 20 minutes of the movie I lost all interest and was suffering through it. I really don't understand why so many people like it.Not a single one of the jokes is funny every single character is so over the top idiotic. It is racist sexist. It was just insulting.

dougdoepke Five eminent detectives are invited to a fog-bound mansion for a sleuthing contest, presided over by a blind butler, a mute maid and a lisping mastermind. What follows are a series of goofy gags and loony deceptions.What a treat for old movie fans. Sure it's an outrageous send-up of some of the popular amateur detectives of the period. But, thanks to writer Simon and a wickedly funny cast, the movie's a real hoot. I especially like Falk's no-nonsense Sam Spade, when he stomps on everyone's civilized pretensions. Then there's Sellar's Charlie Chan who can't seem to arrange his grammar to suit the snobbish Lionel Twain (Capote). Fact is that there's no telling where the next throwaway line will come from given the all-star cast, even as the gags just keep coming. One thing for sure, production didn't have to pop for more than one or two sets. Ordinarily, that would mean a cheap, boring movie, but not here. The appeal is all in the parody and gag lines, plus seeing notable stars in improbable roles. However, pity poor Guiness (the blind butler) who thought the movie would flop and so sold his share. Instead, the funfest was a major hit and I enjoyed catching up with it again, though I could have done without the very last twist.