MURDER BY DEATH

Truman Capote

MURDER BY DEATH (aka Neil Simon's Murder By Death/1976). Director: Robert Moore.

"As a man you are barely passable, but as a woman you are a dog." -- Milo Perrier summing up the situation. 

A mysterious man invites variations of Sam Spade, Charlie Chan, Nick and Nora Charles, Miss Marple. and Hercule Poirot to his home where he challenges them to solve a murder that will occur at midnight. The host is played by Truman Capote, and the detectives by James Coco (Milo Perrier); Peter Sellers (Sidney Wang); Elsa Lanchester (Jessica Marbles); David Niven and Maggie Smith (Dick and Dora Charleston); and Peter Falk (Sam Diamond). If there's one problem with this rather cute movie is that it's a complete farce, with no real plot (just a premise) and nothing much to hang the jokes on. As for the jokes, for every one that garners a laugh there's two that land with a thud. However, the performances are all wonderful, and there's expert support from Estelle Winwood (Miss Marbel's nurse, who now needs looking after herself); Richard Narita as Wang's son; Nancy Walker as the deaf-mute maid; James Cromwell [American Horror Story: Asylum] as Perrier's chauffeur; Eileen Brennan as Diamond's girlfriend; and especially Alec Guinness [The Swan] as the blind butler, Bensonmum. Truman Capote is no actor, but on an amateur level he isn't too terrible as Lionel Twain. On the other hand, Peter Sellers [The Wrong Box] is simply wonderful. Don't expect any coherency (even for a comedy) and you may have fun.

Verdict: Silly, hardly for all tastes, but beautifully-acted and zany. ***.

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM [Season 2]

Jessica Lange as one weird sister

AMERICAN HORROR STORY: ASYLUM [Season Two]. 2012.

"Mental illness is the fashionable explanation for sins." -- Sister Jude.

In this at times very suspenseful and superior second season of the hit horror show, most of the action takes place in an asylum, Briarcliff Manor, run by nuns. The lead characters include Sister Jude Martin (Jessica Lange), who is in charge of the place, although that opinion isn't shared by the psychotic Dr. Arden (James Cromwell), who conducts sick experiments on the inmates. One of these inmates, and the heroine of the show, is Lana Winters (Sarah Paulson), a lesbian who has supposedly been incarcerated for inversion therapy [the main storyline takes place in the sixties] but who actually had been threatening to dig too much into how the miserable institution was run. A present-day framing story has to do with the reappearance of a maniac, Bloodyface, who once had something to do with the Manor, and whose first victim is that annoying mouse, Adam Levine. Other characters include the "nympho," Shelley (Chloe Sevigny); Monsignor Timothy (Joseph Fiennes); sympathetic Dr. Thredson (Zachary Quinto of Star Trek into Darkness); Sister Mary Eunice (Lily Rabe), who undergoes a startling change in personality; and deceptively calm serial killer Leigh Emerson (Ian McShane of Young and Willing). Along with a compelling storyline which pits Lana vs. Sister Jude (until everything gets switched around), there are alien abductions, weird monsters in the forests surrounding the asylum, a winged angel of death who makes periodic appearances, and even a self-indulgent but fun rock video with the sisters and patients dancing to "The Name Game." In other words, almost everything but the kitchen sink, but mostly it works. While the show occasionally comes close to veering into "torture porn" territory, it is very well-acted by all mentioned, with a truly marvelous Lange making a much better impression than she did in season one. One could say this season of American Horror Story has the spirit of E.C. Comics.

Verdict: Very entertaining, creepy, and with some excellent performances. ***.