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Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
Lookback/Review by Markdc
Woody Allen does Agatha Christie.
No, not THAT way, you sick, depraved pervert! Take your mind out of the gutter this instant! (Actually, in all seriousness, Ms. Christie would be way too old for Allen’s liking.)
One thing that’s always fascinated me about cinema is how a film project can begin its journey as one thing and end up becoming something completely different. For instance, when he was hired to direct the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, Tony Scott set out to make a dark military movie, a sort of Apocalypse Now in the skies, if you will. However, the suits over at Paramount Pictures were dead set against this, so the end result was a glossy, jingoistic crowd-pleaser that became a megahit at the box office and turned a then-unknown actor named Tom Cruise into an international star. Also, during the mid-1970’s, director Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman, his collaborator, set out to make a murder mystery with a comedic edge. However, they were unsatisfied with their original script and decided to take things in a whole different direction. Ultimately, the pair wound up with the hilarious and groundbreaking comedy classic Annie Hall, which went on to win several Oscars, including Best Picture. But the murder mystery idea never truly died in Allen and Brickman’s minds, and during the early 1990’s, they resuscitated it. (On Allen’s part, this move came largely out of a desire to do a fun film project and take his mind off his personal troubles; at the time, he was in the middle of several ugly personal scandals that played out in the press. Allen, who had entered into a romantic relationship with an adopted child of his then-partner, actress Mia Farrow, was accused by Farrow of molesting one of their three children. This prompted the filmmaker to launch a court battle for sole custody of the children, which he lost.)
The result was Manhattan Murder Mystery, which is about an affluent and bored middle-aged couple named Larry and Carol Lipton, who live in a posh apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. When the two of them return home from a hockey game, they meet Paul and Lillian House, an elderly couple who live in the apartment next door, and they all enjoy a pleasant conversation over coffee and dessert. The next day, however, Lillian dies of a heart attack. The circumstances surrounding her sudden death as well as Paul’s seeming lack of sadness over his recent bereavement causes Carol to grow suspicious, and further developments lead her to believe that her and Larry’s next-door neighbor murdered his spouse and successfully covered up the crime. Yearning for some kind of escape from her humdrum upper-class existence, Carol assumes the role of an amateur sleuth and drags an unwilling, complaining Larry along in her investigation. The two of them also receive assistance from Ted, a divorced friend of theirs who carries a secret torch for Carol, and Marcia Fox, an author who’s attracted to Larry but whom he sets up with Ted.
When Manhattan Murder Mystery opened in the United States on August 18, 1993, it received a positive reception from professional critics, who largely viewed the movie as a fun little whodunit (which, of course, was what it was intended to be). On their television program, the immortal critic duo Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave Manhattan Murder Mystery two thumbs up, though the former argued that it was better in the beginning and criticized how the crime plot unfolded. In his review, in which he awarded the film three stars out of four, Ebert wrote, “It is, on one level, a recycling of ancient crime formulas about nosy neighbors. On another, it's about living in the big city. On still another, it's about behavior and tabus and breaking the rules.” Variety’s Todd McCarthy wrote of Manhattan Murder Mystery: “Light, insubstantial and utterly devoid of the heavier themes Allen has grappled with in most of his recent outings, this confection keeps the chuckles coming and is mainstream enough in sensibility to be a modest success.” However, in a more critical review, the Los Angeles Times’ Kenneth Turan zeroed in on Allen’s well-honed persona, which he described as “possibly the most celebrated complainer in Hollywood history,” and wrote, “Clever and amusing though it often is, ‘Murder’ is also Allen’s whiniest film to date, and your appreciation of its pleasures will fluctuate according to your tolerance for his Angst.” Some of the reviewers mentioned Allen’s then-current troubles behind the camera. For instance, when he gave his assessment of the film, Gene Siskel said, “I’m giving it thumbs up because I may be in some way rooting for Woody Allen to get his life back together onscreen in some way. There’s no way I think you can watch his pictures now and not have the other world stuff come into it.” Audiences didn’t react as favorably as the critics, and Manhattan Murder Mystery grossed just $11.3 million at the box office against its $13.5 million budget. (I couldn’t find international grosses for this movie but am fairly certain that it was a financial failure. Also, while it's possible that Allen’s personal scandals affected Manhattan Murder Mystery’s box office performance, I could find no evidence to indicate that this was the case.) Judging from its incredibly high 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, Manhattan Murder Mystery remains a well-liked movie.
Although Manhattan Murder Mystery is far from Allen’s finest work, I harbor a deep fondness for it—though I believe its Rotten Tomatoes score is way too high. I love Woody Allen films, and I love murder mysteries, and this cinematic combination of these two things is a fun, old-fashioned whodunit that’s infused with its director’s particular brand of neurotic humor. The cast is key to the movie’s success. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, who play Larry and Carol Lipton, display the infectious chemistry that they enjoyed in previous collaborations, most notably Annie Hall; indeed, a number of critics saw the Liptons as a middle-aged version of Annie Hall and Alvy Singer. Alan Alda, a terrific actor who’s arguably most famous for his role as Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce from the beloved television series M*A*S*H, and the indomitable Angelica Huston, add to the fun as Ted and Marcia. But the best performance in Manhattan Murder Mystery is by Jerry Adler. Although I’m not familiar with Adler’s other work, he plays Paul House as a quiet, kind, and gentle man who may or may not have a sinister side to him.
As is the case with Allen’s best comedies, many of the scenes and lines of dialogue are hilarious. For instance, there’s a scene near the beginning of the film when Carol, frustrated that Larry doesn’t share her suspicions about Paul, says to him, “Why aren’t you more fascinated by this? We could be living next door to a murderer!”, to which Larry replies, “New York is a melting pot. I’m used to it.” Later in the film, there’s another scene that takes place in a hotel where Carol and Larry are doing some amateur sleuthing. When they’re done interrogating a custodian, Larry hands the stranger a bill and tells her that they may need more information in the future. After looking down at the bill, the custodian frowns at Larry, and he says, “Don’t stare at me like that. He’s the father of our country.” One of the things I like most about Manhattan Murder Mystery is that it’s a loving homage to classic film noirs from Hollywood’s Golden Age; indeed, two of the movie’s influences, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai, appear during crucial scenes. I also like the love rectangle between Carol and Ted on one side and Larry and Marcia on the other, and my only criticism of Manhattan Murder Mystery is that this was never fully explored in a way that it could have been in a different (and probably better) film.
So, in closing, I heartily recommend Manhattan Murder Mystery and encourage people who love a good whodunit or the work of Woody Allen to watch this fun movie, and to this end, I’ve refrained from spoiling the ending. If you want to know if Larry and Carol Lipton’s next-door neighbor is really a cold-blooded killer (or not), then you’ll just have to find that out for yourself.
Lookback/Review by Markdc
Woody Allen does Agatha Christie.
No, not THAT way, you sick, depraved pervert! Take your mind out of the gutter this instant! (Actually, in all seriousness, Ms. Christie would be way too old for Allen’s liking.)
One thing that’s always fascinated me about cinema is how a film project can begin its journey as one thing and end up becoming something completely different. For instance, when he was hired to direct the 1986 blockbuster Top Gun, Tony Scott set out to make a dark military movie, a sort of Apocalypse Now in the skies, if you will. However, the suits over at Paramount Pictures were dead set against this, so the end result was a glossy, jingoistic crowd-pleaser that became a megahit at the box office and turned a then-unknown actor named Tom Cruise into an international star. Also, during the mid-1970’s, director Woody Allen and Marshall Brickman, his collaborator, set out to make a murder mystery with a comedic edge. However, they were unsatisfied with their original script and decided to take things in a whole different direction. Ultimately, the pair wound up with the hilarious and groundbreaking comedy classic Annie Hall, which went on to win several Oscars, including Best Picture. But the murder mystery idea never truly died in Allen and Brickman’s minds, and during the early 1990’s, they resuscitated it. (On Allen’s part, this move came largely out of a desire to do a fun film project and take his mind off his personal troubles; at the time, he was in the middle of several ugly personal scandals that played out in the press. Allen, who had entered into a romantic relationship with an adopted child of his then-partner, actress Mia Farrow, was accused by Farrow of molesting one of their three children. This prompted the filmmaker to launch a court battle for sole custody of the children, which he lost.)
The result was Manhattan Murder Mystery, which is about an affluent and bored middle-aged couple named Larry and Carol Lipton, who live in a posh apartment on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. When the two of them return home from a hockey game, they meet Paul and Lillian House, an elderly couple who live in the apartment next door, and they all enjoy a pleasant conversation over coffee and dessert. The next day, however, Lillian dies of a heart attack. The circumstances surrounding her sudden death as well as Paul’s seeming lack of sadness over his recent bereavement causes Carol to grow suspicious, and further developments lead her to believe that her and Larry’s next-door neighbor murdered his spouse and successfully covered up the crime. Yearning for some kind of escape from her humdrum upper-class existence, Carol assumes the role of an amateur sleuth and drags an unwilling, complaining Larry along in her investigation. The two of them also receive assistance from Ted, a divorced friend of theirs who carries a secret torch for Carol, and Marcia Fox, an author who’s attracted to Larry but whom he sets up with Ted.
When Manhattan Murder Mystery opened in the United States on August 18, 1993, it received a positive reception from professional critics, who largely viewed the movie as a fun little whodunit (which, of course, was what it was intended to be). On their television program, the immortal critic duo Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave Manhattan Murder Mystery two thumbs up, though the former argued that it was better in the beginning and criticized how the crime plot unfolded. In his review, in which he awarded the film three stars out of four, Ebert wrote, “It is, on one level, a recycling of ancient crime formulas about nosy neighbors. On another, it's about living in the big city. On still another, it's about behavior and tabus and breaking the rules.” Variety’s Todd McCarthy wrote of Manhattan Murder Mystery: “Light, insubstantial and utterly devoid of the heavier themes Allen has grappled with in most of his recent outings, this confection keeps the chuckles coming and is mainstream enough in sensibility to be a modest success.” However, in a more critical review, the Los Angeles Times’ Kenneth Turan zeroed in on Allen’s well-honed persona, which he described as “possibly the most celebrated complainer in Hollywood history,” and wrote, “Clever and amusing though it often is, ‘Murder’ is also Allen’s whiniest film to date, and your appreciation of its pleasures will fluctuate according to your tolerance for his Angst.” Some of the reviewers mentioned Allen’s then-current troubles behind the camera. For instance, when he gave his assessment of the film, Gene Siskel said, “I’m giving it thumbs up because I may be in some way rooting for Woody Allen to get his life back together onscreen in some way. There’s no way I think you can watch his pictures now and not have the other world stuff come into it.” Audiences didn’t react as favorably as the critics, and Manhattan Murder Mystery grossed just $11.3 million at the box office against its $13.5 million budget. (I couldn’t find international grosses for this movie but am fairly certain that it was a financial failure. Also, while it's possible that Allen’s personal scandals affected Manhattan Murder Mystery’s box office performance, I could find no evidence to indicate that this was the case.) Judging from its incredibly high 94 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, Manhattan Murder Mystery remains a well-liked movie.
Although Manhattan Murder Mystery is far from Allen’s finest work, I harbor a deep fondness for it—though I believe its Rotten Tomatoes score is way too high. I love Woody Allen films, and I love murder mysteries, and this cinematic combination of these two things is a fun, old-fashioned whodunit that’s infused with its director’s particular brand of neurotic humor. The cast is key to the movie’s success. Woody Allen and Diane Keaton, who play Larry and Carol Lipton, display the infectious chemistry that they enjoyed in previous collaborations, most notably Annie Hall; indeed, a number of critics saw the Liptons as a middle-aged version of Annie Hall and Alvy Singer. Alan Alda, a terrific actor who’s arguably most famous for his role as Benjamin “Hawkeye” Pierce from the beloved television series M*A*S*H, and the indomitable Angelica Huston, add to the fun as Ted and Marcia. But the best performance in Manhattan Murder Mystery is by Jerry Adler. Although I’m not familiar with Adler’s other work, he plays Paul House as a quiet, kind, and gentle man who may or may not have a sinister side to him.
As is the case with Allen’s best comedies, many of the scenes and lines of dialogue are hilarious. For instance, there’s a scene near the beginning of the film when Carol, frustrated that Larry doesn’t share her suspicions about Paul, says to him, “Why aren’t you more fascinated by this? We could be living next door to a murderer!”, to which Larry replies, “New York is a melting pot. I’m used to it.” Later in the film, there’s another scene that takes place in a hotel where Carol and Larry are doing some amateur sleuthing. When they’re done interrogating a custodian, Larry hands the stranger a bill and tells her that they may need more information in the future. After looking down at the bill, the custodian frowns at Larry, and he says, “Don’t stare at me like that. He’s the father of our country.” One of the things I like most about Manhattan Murder Mystery is that it’s a loving homage to classic film noirs from Hollywood’s Golden Age; indeed, two of the movie’s influences, Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and Orson Welles’ The Lady from Shanghai, appear during crucial scenes. I also like the love rectangle between Carol and Ted on one side and Larry and Marcia on the other, and my only criticism of Manhattan Murder Mystery is that this was never fully explored in a way that it could have been in a different (and probably better) film.
So, in closing, I heartily recommend Manhattan Murder Mystery and encourage people who love a good whodunit or the work of Woody Allen to watch this fun movie, and to this end, I’ve refrained from spoiling the ending. If you want to know if Larry and Carol Lipton’s next-door neighbor is really a cold-blooded killer (or not), then you’ll just have to find that out for yourself.