Playwright Neil Simon is on camera in this video that was made to go with the 1999 DVD release of the 1976 movie, "Murder by Death." Simon provides the usual background on the making of the movie. But this is a particularly interesting documentary short because of the insights and thoughts of the creator of the story.
"Murder by Death was like writing a screenplay as if I was 16 years old, or five," Simon says. "That's what I was seeing in those days... 'Maltese Falcon'... Agatha Christie's 'And Then There Were None'... and Nick and Nora Charles which was 'The Thin Man' series. So, I put them all together and concocted a picture that... was a takeoff."
He talks about picking and getting the right actors to play the parts. "We had such a great cast," he says. "I met Alec Guinness for the first time. I was awed by him, much more than anyone else." He said he had tried to get Trumann Capote out of the picture.
Simon said he "tried to make it as sophisticated as I could and yet accessible to a newer audience." And, he concluded that "It was a lot smarter than a lot of other these kinds of pictures."
Film buffs who are interested in the history of moviemaking should enjoy this documentary short.
