Maggie Smith (1934-2024) is no longer with us, unfortunately. To many fans, Smith embodied sophistication and withering wit. She and Sian Phillips were long among the elder stateswomen when it came to traditionally classy British actresses.
Balladeer’s Blog hasn’t reviewed many of Maggie’s movies because of the oddball topics I cover, but here’s a brief look at Murder by Death, in which she co-starred.
MURDER BY DEATH (1976)
Directed by Robert Moore and written by the accomplished Neil Simon himself, Murder by Death uproariously parodied classic mystery novels and movies. (In 1980 Murder Can Hurt You tried the same approach with television detectives.)
A talented cast brings to life pastiches of assorted iconic detectives. Peter Falk plays Sam Diamond (Sam Spade), Elsa Lanchester portrays Jessica Marbles (Miss Marple), Peter Sellers is Sidney Wang (Charlie Chan), James Coco plays Milo Perrier (Hercules Poirot) and David Niven & the extremely elegant Maggie Smith are terrific as Dick and Dora Charleston (Nick and Nora Charles).
The script not only had a lot of fun with pointless convolutions and multiple false identities but good-naturedly poked a little fun at stylistic flaws of Agatha Christie, Dashiell Hammett and Earl Derr Biggers.
AND for everyone whose friends and family have ever doubted you about the now-deleted scene with Sherlock Holmes and Watson at the end of the film, you can show them HERE.
Balladeer's Blog 
A fitting tribute, BalladMan.
Thank you, Espie!
An extraordinary actress and woman. RIP!💖🙏🌹
You said it!
A woman who always showed class!
I agree!
Logged.
The conflict has expanded to Lebanon and Iran.
Logged.
A beautiful tribute to a fantastic actress. As I mentioned on my review, she truly was an extraordinary person with a gift for performing. Whether it was fantasy, period pieces or even murder mysteries, she proved the could do anything. She also seemed like a nice person with a genuine personality. She became most famous for the Harry Potter movies for which she is most well-known. However, I also enjoyed her performances in small roles in movies that most people haven’t seen. For instance, she was excellent in “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”. She has a short role in the movie with limited screen time but she ends up stealing the show. Truly a one-of-a-kind person that will forever be sorely missed from Cinema.
Here’s why I recommend seeing “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”:
Thank you so much! I agree, she was great!
Maggie Smith is a wonderful and beautiful actress. Generations are irreplaceable. Thank you for sharing. I wish you good luck, happiness and success, my dear brother.
Thank you for such kind words! She was special! Best wishes to you, too!
👋🏻🥰💐Welcome 🙏🏻
😀
You knowledge always impresses me. May she rest in peace Xx
Thank you very much! Good to see that you are back!
Such a sad day!
I agree!