Murder By Death Trivia Quiz

Answer: A lady's blood-curdling scream

The detectives arrived at Twain's manor individually, with their side-kick (detective with wife, son, mistress, chauffeur, or maid), and they were greeted by a woman's blood-curdling scream. It was Sidney Wang who pointed out to his son that a more experienced ear heard a doorbell, not a real woman screaming. Later in the movie, Mrs. Charleston screamed at the sight of a rat in her room, and the butler thought it was the doorbell.

Answer: 22 Twain

It was given on the invitations the detectives received and on a sign Sidney Wang pointed out.

Answer: Alec Guinness

Alec Guinness was reading a script during the filming of "Murder By Death", that some of you may be familiar with - "Star Wars". He went on to play Obi Wan Kenobi. The other answers are actors who have all played Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot.

Answer: He was blind.

"And those were my most funny of faces," said Inspector Milo Perrier after making faces at the butler to see if he really was blind. The blind butler allowed for many gags throughout the movie.

Answer: pronouns, prepositions, and articles

Sidney Wang's speech was a running gag throughout the movie, as noted in the quotes below.

Twain: "I will tell you, Mr. Wang, if you can tell me why a man who possesses one of the most brilliant minds of this century can't say his prepositions or articles! What *is the*, Mr. Wang! What *is the* meaning of this?"

Milo Perrier: "What do you make of all of this, Wang?"
Sidney Wang: "Is confusing."

Answer: She was old, in a wheelchair, and had to be cared for.

The irony was that people have nurses to care for them, but Mrs. Marbles had to care for her nurse.

Answer: He was nude.

When Perrier, Marples, and Wang went to the kitchen, just the butler's clothes were found. When Diamond and Charleston returned to the kitchen and found the body, it was nude - the clothes that were originally there had vanished.

Sam Diamond (to Dick Charleston): "You search the first dead, naked body, and I'll search the next."

Answer: There was no soup in the soup bowl.

The butler dished the soup out, but there was no soup in his serving bowl.

Inspector Milo Perrier: "There is nothing in my dish, but my dish."

Answer: He was trying to smuggle rich white Americans into Mexico to pick melons.

Falk's Diamond was the funniest character in the movie. He asked Ms. Skeffington to do a background check on Twain, which was how she discovered Twain's record for his smuggling scheme. She told Sam this information while they drove to Twain manor.

Great Sam Diamond quotes:
Diamond: "Now, if one of you gentlemen would be so kind as to give my lady friend here a glass of cheap white wine, I'm going down the hall to find the can. I talk so much sometimes, I forget to go."

Diamond: "Locked, from the inside. That can only mean one thing. And I don't know what it is."

Answer: None

Each of the six detectives offered an explanation, but none was correct (if you think about the explanations offered, each was pretty true of the way the spoofed character's namesake would have solved a crime - ie: ideas brought up in the last few pages of the book, withheld clues, and surprise revelations).

Remember Twain at dinner saying: "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."