10 All-Star Cast Whodunnits To Watch Before Knives Out

Murder by death is a literal take on the all-star whodunnit movie. Apart from its stacked star cast, it also parodies the who's who of the literary crime detectives. Imagine a comedic fighting game where the lynchpins of the classic mystery literature like Hercule Poirot, Charlie Chan, Ms. Marple, Nick and Nora Charles along with Sam Spade (played by Peter Falk, trying hard not to channel Columbo), have a go at it.

One of the biggest cliches of the countryside or a locked room mystery is when an eccentric millionaire invites a group of people to a secluded setting. Now, this is the kind of spoof where Truman Capote plays the eccentric millionaire, and a blind butler and a deaf-mute cook are his primary aides.

Screen and playwriting legend Neil Simon, who wrote the movie, manages to put his unique spin on the genre. By the end, he not only spoofs it but also takes on its writers, and its often confusing rules. Peter Sellers, giving a rest to the exaggerated french Inspector Clouseau, plays the exaggerated oriental Charlie Chan surrogate here, ending the movie memorably with that killer last line.