After seeing knives out last year, I immediately started binging murder
mystery movies. The film inspired a love of the genre in me that I had never had
before, and it's been a lovely and illuminating adventure, so this video is
going to look at what I discovered watching the 10 murder mystery movies
that in some way inspired knives out. Though I've been planning to make this
video for a while, in the last month the task has become a bit morbid. Like... "hey a
deadly virus is spreading all over the world right now time to talk about a
bunch of movies that are about murder and death!" But then again seeing as most
of you are hopefully socially distancing and probably very bored, maybe a video
like this is more necessary now than I had ever hoped it would be at the start.
So no grand unifying thesis this time. I'm just going to review 10 movies and
tell you which ones to watch to pass the time. And no this won't have spoilers in
it. "And who turns out to have done it?
"I couldn't tell you that it would spoil it
for you." "But none of us will see it"
"Let's begin with one of Agatha Christie's most famous stories: The
Murder on the Orient Express. This is a book I read when I was about 12, so it's
the only film here that I was spoiled on before watching it. But the fact that I
still remember exactly what happened even from back then speaks to how
timeless the story is. The film takes place in 1935 when Hercule Poirot boards
a train in Istanbul. Heavy snows stop the train somewhere in Yugoslavia and
while they are stuck, one of the passengers is murdered. Since all of the
passengers are still on the train it had to be one of them. Classic setup. "A murder
in the middle of the night a lot of guests for the weekend everyone's a
suspect that sort of thing" "How horrid." The best part of the movie is that it treats
the train starting up as the most magical and important thing in the world.
I don't know why I find that so funny. Just feels like the shot screams hey get
it this is the train from the title get it ah. The film stars Albert Finney as
the best version of Poirot you'll find. What Finney understands about the character is that he should be extremely
ridiculous. This is what makes him more than just a sherlock holmes clone. His
moustache should be ridiculous. His hair should be ridiculous. His accent
should be incomprehensible. Finney with his gelled hair and hunchback posture
delivers on all of this. It provides a great contrast in the story. We're
dealing with a very serious subject -- murder -- but our main character is
basically a cartoon. Benoit Blanc inherits all of the silliness. If you
were put off by Blanc foghorn leghorn Kentucky drawl, well I feel like it's a
nod to Poirot. For me, this is a big part of the reason that the 2017 remake of
the film directed and starring Kenneth Branagh is a bit of a miss. The only
category he beats our other Poirot in is the mustache game. I mean... look at that
stache. But actually the mustache feels out of place considering Branagh's more
straight-laced version of the character. It's not just Branagh either everyone in
that movie feels like they're holding back making the movie feel a bit stale
so if you haven't yet watched any version of the story, I highly recommend
watching the original first. It's the archetype of the perfect murder mystery.
Finney was unfortunately unable to reprise the role of Poirot for a sequel
but paramount cast someone who is very nearly just as good. Peter Ustinov plays
him as an even more gentlemanly version of the sleuth in three films the first
two of which are on our list Death on the Nile in 1978, and evil under the Sun
in 1982. Of the two, Death on the Nile is the more famous and more frequently
adapted. And if you like the Branagh movie then careful watching this one
since they just remade that one with Branagh and it's due to come out well... it
was supposed to be this year, but I guess no one really knows anymore do they.
But that being said it's the other Ustinov-led movie that is by far my
preference. Death on the Nile is perfectly fine, but there's little you'll
find here that you won't find just watching the Murder on the Orient
Express. It's mostly the same movie just on a boat (and there's a blackmailing
subplot that Rian Johnson draws on for the blackmailing subplot in Knives Out).
Evil Under the Sun though is just so much more fun. Now despite having the
least impressive moustache of the three Poirot's, Peter Ustinov is wonderful in
Evil Under the Sun. I mean... the man wears a full-body bathing suit with his
initials sewn into the breast. Just take this in for a second.
He wears a full-body bathing suit with his initials sewn into the breast. Now
strangely Maggie Smith stars in both Death on the Nile and Evil Under the Sun,
but playing different characters, which is weird because it's the same version
of Poirot so you'd think he'd realize the fact that miss Bowers and Daphne Castle
look an awful lot alike.
"You're not much of a detective are you." But I'm thrilled that they put her in this movie even
though she was already in death on the Nile, because she's a delight in Evil
Under the Sun, especially in her scenes opposite Diana Rigg. Now, if you don't
know who Diana Rigg is, yes you do because THIS is Diana Rigg. Except in
1982 THIS was Diana Rigg. "Hello Daphne." and let me tell you her performance in
this movie is dynamite. Especially because her and Maggie Smith
are so snarky at each other it hurts. "Arelene and I were in the chorus of a show
together. Not that I could ever compete. Even in those days, she could always
throw her legs up in the air higher than any of us... and wider" "Kenneth this is
such a surprise. When you told me of an island run by a quaint little land lady
I don't know, dear it was Daphne Castle."
"Yes, quite." But then later... I can't believe I'm saying this... for a few minutes the
movie becomes a musical and young Professor McGonagall and young Lady
Tyrell sing a song together, and if you're not watching this you're missing
out on a truly transformative life experience. "You're a new invention. You're the
top. You're the fourth dimension." So those are
the Poirot films. Collectively they are probably the finest examples of their
genre, but they are definitely movies from another time.
Despite their subject matter, they are movies without an ounce of grit to them.
Everything is clean and polished, proper and restrained. While Christie does have
some characters who are working-class, most are rich, and it's odd that in the
Ustinov films specifically, there are a bunch of servants in the background,
who are never considered as part of the mystery. It sort of makes it feel like
the characters are not actually solving a real murder mystery, but are rich
people role-playing a murder mystery while on vacation. We'll get into that a
little more in a bit, but first let's talk about the last Agatha Christie film
that's on this list:
this one isn't a Poirot story but a story about her other famous detective Miss
Marple. The best scene is the opening one. It
starts in black and white in a scene that feels like it should be the end of
the movie where the detective explains the crime. Then it's revealed that that
was a movie within the movie when the projector breaks down. Everyone's upset
because now they won't find out who committed the crime, until Miss Marple
stands up and explains it all on her way out. It's a really fun way to introduce
this character who was just so effortlessly good at this well. "Then who
did do it Miss Marple? Who murdered Lord Fenley?" "Why young Miss Kate of course." She
gets injured early on in the story so she has to stay home for most of it
while her nephew does all of the evidence gathering and interrogating, and
I kind of dig the idea of someone solving a mystery while staying at home
and doing the gardening. This one's a middle-of-the-pack movie probably
difficult to find and you've seen it before.
Knives out is also a pretty funny film so no surprise then that three of the
movies that inspired the film are satirical takes on the murder mystery
genre. They are Murder By Death, The Private Eyes and Clue. Now,
superficially these are all almost exactly the same movie, since they're all
basically riffs on Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None." All three of them
are about a group of people who are for one reason or another called to a spooky
mansion by a wealthy host who promptly dies. The characters then wander around
the mansion trying to solve the mystery while not getting picked off themselves.
The mansions almost all look exactly the same - and the Thrombey house looks
like they took every prop from all three of these movies and managed to shove it
into one building. In Murder by Death the characters are all spoofs on famous
fictional detectives. The comedy is very out of date in certain places, and it's
hard to imagine many of the jokes landing, even at the time. It's only 90
minutes, but felt much longer. At the time critic John Smith said "Murder by Death
is not a movie to write or read about but to be seen and modestly enjoyed." So
I'm going to stop talking about it now except to point out that it also stars
Maggie Smith.
The private Eyes is a slightly better version of Murder by Death.
The film stars Don Knotts in Tim Conway who were a well-known comedic duo at the
time, starring together in a boatload of other movies. No movie can really fail if
it has Don Knotts in it since the tone of his voice is just inherently funny to
me. Not much other reason to recommend it though and if The Private Eyes is a
better version of murder by death, then clue is a much much better version
of The Private Eyes. As it's based off of a board game, Clue has no right being as
good as it is. And yet this one's a genuine classic. We've got the same
strangers in a mansion plot and a mystery about who killed the host, so who
did it? And who kills everyone else that follows? Well no one really knows and
neither will you by the end of the movie! When it was released in theatres, Clue
had three different endings but paramount did not advertise that that
was the case so people walked out having seen different movies but without
knowing it. The home release of clue included all three endings and they play
one after the other which is a brilliant decision. The comedy from each just piles
on to the next until the whole thing descends into absolute farce. The actual
plot literally doesn't matter this is about endlessly riffing on the same
handful of jokes... "so it's all has nothing to do with a disappearing nuclear physicist
and Colonel Mustard's work on the new fusion bomb. "Communism is it was just a red
herring." "Communism is just" "a red herring."
... and overacting everything as much as
possible. "I'm upstairs with you. Yes, you." Of course the standout
performance is obviously Tim Curry. I mean Tim Curry is hamming it up so much
in this movie
He steals the spotlight so much that you somehow forget that Christopher Lloyd is
here. I mean do you know how charismatic you have to be to make Christopher Lloyd
a background player? So if you only watch one movie from this, watch clue.
The next two movies on the list are a pair of very twisty thrillers. In The
Last of Sheila, the wife of a Hollywood producer dies in a hit-and-run accident
a year later, the producer reunites other film industry people who are at the
party on the night of the accident, and takes them all on a cruise of the
Mediterranean. During the trip they play a seemingly innocent game of Secrets
where everyone has to figure out everyone else's secret. I won't say any
more about the plot because to do so would be to spoil the many twists along
the way. What I will point out though is that Knives Out definitely inherits the
flashback fake-out from this movie, both movies have prolonged flashbacks to the
murder far before you feel like you should be getting the answers but the
flashbacks do a very good job of convincing you that there's no other way
this could have happened, that they're telling you the truth
and that that is that. But that isn't that, and there's more mystery to be
uncovered. It's a great little trick and it works as well here as a does in Knives Out.
Equally fun is the Michael Caine film Deathtrap. I imagine that the first
image that pops into your mind when you think of Knives Out is the extravagant
knife display in the home of Harlan Thrombey, a mystery writer himself. Well
that idea is ripped whole cloth from Death Trap. The movie takes place almost
entirely in the home of Sidney Bruhl a playwright whose recent thrillers have
been critical failures. Then one of his old students, Clifford Anderson, contacts
him hoping to get notes on a script that he's written called
Deathtrap. Sidney, realizing the play is magnificent, plots to kill Anderson so he
can steal the play and pretend it's his own work, unless his wife stops him. That
premise is a formula for incredible tension throughout the entire two-hour
runtime of the film. Part of this is that the film itself is based off a play and
it really feels like it was based off of a play. There's very few characters and
there's very few scene changes so the scenes are just allowed to marinate in
the tension of their situations, and like The Last of Sheila, this is a very twisty
story I don't know if it quite holds together by the end, but it's a lot of
fun and in terms of pure entertainment value, it's only behind clue on this list.
So there's just one movie left and one more connection to Knives Out to make so
let's talk about Gosford Park and class conflicts.
A lot of movies we've talked about so far are very entertaining, but Gosford
Park is the most interesting. On paper it's the classic setup for a murder
mystery story, a fact which is pointed out by one of the characters a Hollywood
producer himself who was working on a movie that parallels the story we're
watching. "Most of it takes place at a shooting party in a country house sort
of like this one actually. Murder in the middle of the night, a lot
of guests for the weekend, everyone's a suspect, that sort of thing." But of course
the movie is so much more than that. Yes we have a plot where there is a
party at a country house and a murder is committed but that's never the focus.
This is a drama first which just has the thinnest veneer of genre tropes in it. It
feels like there are more characters in this movie than all of the movies we've
talked about so far. And it's dizzying trying to keep track of them all. The
world of this movie feels much bigger than the slice of it that we get to see.
Everyone's got their own little agendas and side plots going on in a way that
feels totally natural and seamless, the dialogue is so understated, that it
really does feel like we're watching a day in the life of these characters
rather than a plot. The film is a satirical black comedy but it's not one
that you'll often laugh out loud - that's not to say it isn't funny. It's
that the jokes make you furious. Like when Constance tells Mary to wash
this shirt and Mary has to go through an ordeal to do that and the next day
Constance is like actually I don't even need that shirt and you just want to
explode. But wait... hold on a second... is that Maggie Smith? Okay time out. That's
four out of the ten movies we've talked about so far. If Rian Johnson doesn't
cast her in knives Out 2, it will be a crime. Please, please do this. I need this.
#CastMaggieSmithInKnivesOut2. Despite being a twenty-year old movie
about the 1930s in another country, Gosford Park feels urgent as does every
movie about class divisions these days.
There are two worlds in Gosford Park. The upstairs world of the noblemen, and the
below stairs world of the servants. Some of the best jokes are the movies send-up
of murder mystery tropes. Instead of a brilliant detective, we have inspector
Thompson, a bumbling idiot. He routinely ignores clues and contaminates
evidence. "there's a broken coffee cup down here."
"Dexter they have people to clear these things up you get on with your own job."
Usually the detective is the most verbose character in these movies, but inspector
Thompson is constantly interrupted. "I'll introduce myself.
I'm inspector Thomp..." "This is the countessTrentham." "Yes I served with your husba..." "Lord Stockbridge."
He also delivers the most revealing line in the whole movie. When he asks if he's
going to interrogate the help about the death of the master of the house, "Only
people with a real connection with the dead man." But the entire movie has
convinced us that maybe the only people who know a rich man are his servants.
Where Agatha Christie stories typically background these characters,
Gosford Park tells the story from their perspective. Showing the many horrors of
being in their position. And knives out inherits the conscience of this movie. By
making it star a nurse battling against a rich family, both movies are actively
revising this trope, in this genre. Gosford Park is a biting heartbreaking
perfectly crafted film out of this bundle of movies it's at the top of the
pack along with Clue and Death Trap. A set below but still very strong
are Murder on the Orient Express, Evil Under the Sun, and The Last of Sheila. The
others you can skip. When I started watching these movies I didn't expect
all the connections to knives out to be so immediately apparent, except for the
Christie films. But in these 10 features you can draw a direct line from one of
them to Knives Out and explain everything from the basic premise, the
plot, the subplots, the setting, the set design, the props, the tone, the comedy, the
characters, the perspective, the acting, and probably a bunch more I'm missing
Yet another lesson in how writing isn't so much about inventing new ingredients
as it is using the same old ingredients in an inventive way.
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