Weekly Theme

Weekly Theme for July 13: Whodunit?

With the internet all abuzz about the onslaught of board games getting the celluloid treatment, I was reminded of one of my favorite movies that is based on a popular board game: Clue. Now I get a lot of criticism for liking this film but am unwavering on my commitment to its absolute hilarity and it being a deft example of a whodunit mystery movie. Not as widespread as it was back in the Golden Age of Hollywood when the studios were pumping out Charlie Chan and The Thin Man like their lives depended on them (which they probably did, but alas), the whodunit genre has more or less been slivered into other more popular genres such as Horror and Action.

I may be wrong, but movies like Scream, The Thing, and Identity definitely utilize key elements of a whodunit film.

Dressed to Kill (along with Clue) is one of my favorite murder mysteries due to the insane nature of the film and all the traditional elements being twisted and played with by De Palma.

The other day I grabbed a copy of Murder By Death at my local grocery store for a buck and have to say I was slightly amused by it (if not completely offended by Peter Sellers horribly racist portrayal of a Chinese detective).

Gosford Park is a great recent example of a whodunit. With such an amazing cast it definitely makes me miss Altman.

What do you all think?

Re:Weekly Theme for July 13: Whodunit?

The whodunit appears to have morphed into about 30 or 40 different police procedurals on TV.  Between the million CSI and Law & Order variants, you could find yourself watching a whodunit for just about every waking hour of the week.

In terms of movies, you've hit most of the ones that immediately jump to mind.  A couple of others:

The Name of the Rose - I haven't seen this in years, so maybe it doesn't hold up, but this adaptation of an Umberto Eco novel was pretty good.

The Usual Suspects - Perhaps not a pure whodunit, I think this still works

Seven - Again, probably not a pure whodunit, but it kinda works

A lot of slasher movies could arguably be whodunits.  My Bloody Valentine and Sleepaway Camp spring immediately to mind (heck, even Friday the 13th Part V might work, though it's pretty inept).

Re:Weekly Theme for July 13: Whodunit?

mercurial:

 

Gosford Park is a great recent example of a whodunit. With such an amazing cast it definitely makes me miss Altman.

What do you all think?

Gosford Park's one of my personal favorites. It was simply a great way to film a mystery. So much of the information you need to take in is constantly in the background.

Here's a few more that came to mind:

Deceiver was a good, not great whodunit style mystery with a really good performance by Tim Roth as an expert at telling lies. He is playing a very similar role on a new show that I can't remember the name of.

The Spanish Prisoner is my favorite Mamet film. This one completely blew me away the first time I watched it and I really like to revisit it once every few years.

Chinatown and Brick come to mind as a couple of good neo-noir mysteries with alotta flair. ( I try to make a Chinatown reference at least once a month)

And who could forget Who Framed Roger Rabbit? P-p-p-p-p-p-p-p-leeeeasse Eddie.. This movie reeks of cool.

Re:Weekly Theme for July 13: Whodunit?

mciocco:

The Name of the Rose - I haven't seen this in years, so maybe it doesn't hold up, but this adaptation of an Umberto Eco novel was pretty good.

That movie was so freakin' bizarre. I should probably see it again (I couldn't have been older than 15 when I saw it). I just remember some funky homosexual undertones, and wondering why everyone was so ugly.

However, if you enjoy period whodunits in that style, "The Reckoning" is a pretty interesting, often overlooked piece of work. It's got a good cast, too, which includes Paul Bettany, Willem Dafoe and Vincent Cassel. The director, Paul McGuigan, has a pretty interesting resume, too, if a tad varied.

Re:Weekly Theme for July 13: Whodunit?

I love a good Whodunit!

For a while my favorite novel was And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie.  There are a lot of movie versions of this book, but I would just recommend reading it first if you have never seen any of them.  Somewhat recently I saw the René Clair version which was good, but changes the ending.  It might be more appropriate for a film ending, but I would still recommend reading the book.  It's short and exciting!

I've been reading some Sherlock Holmes a bit over the past couple years too.  Does anyone have an alltime favorite Whodunit novel?