Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993) on Netflix
Carol Lipton suspects their neighbor Paul House of killing his wife Lillian, who died suddenly. Her husband Larry, a book editor, dismisses it; their friend Ted joins her hunt.
- Netflix3.5/5
- IMDb7.3/1050,195 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes94%
Trailer
Plot summary
Larry and Carol Lipton meet their neighbors Paul and Lillian House in their Manhattan apartment building, and the next day Lillian dies suddenly of a heart attack. Carol finds Paul's cheerfulness afterward strange, and when she brings him a dessert she spots a crematory urn beneath his kitchen sink that contradicts his account of a burial. Larry, a book editor, believes his wife's imagination is running wild, but Carol takes the key to the Houses' apartment from the building super. She comes away with plane tickets to Paris and hotel reservations booked in the name of a woman called Helen Moss. Larry wants her to drop it; instead Carol enlists their friend Ted, and the two begin their own search for proof.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Woody Allen began Manhattan Murder Mystery as an early draft of Annie Hall but shelved it for years, deciding it was too lightweight, "like an airplane book read".
- Carol was written for Mia Farrow, but Woody Allen recast the part after they ended their relationship and a custody fight over their three children; press reports called the changes, including casting Anjelica Huston as a younger novelist, "definitely a reaction" to his problems.
- Diane Keaton panicked in her first scene with Alan Alda, and Woody Allen decided to re-shoot it while she worked with her acting coach and filmed other scenes.
- Woody Allen staged the climactic shoot-out in a roomful of mirrors so that it mimicked the shoot-out in Orson Welles' The Lady from Shanghai.
- Woody Allen had cinematographer Carlo Di Palma shoot with hand-held cameras, swiveling restlessly from room to room or zooming in abruptly for a close look.
- Manhattan Murder Mystery marked the eighth and final collaboration between filmmaker Woody Allen and actress Diane Keaton, capping the run of films they made together.
