I just saw this movie for the nth time and this always bugged me. All of the cast members were supposed to be parodies of famous detectives:
Peter Falk: Sam Diamond / Sam Spade
Peter Sellers: Sidney Wang / Charley Chan
James Coco: Milo Perrier / H. Peroit
Elsa Lanchester: Jessica Marbles / Miss Marple
David Niven: Dick Charleston / ???
Who was Niven’s character supposed to be parodying?
I for one welcome our new insect overlords… - K. Brockman
I always thought he was Nick Charles of The Thin Man series.
Dick Charleston / Nick Charles – see the similarity?
By the way – greatest line in the world comes from that movie. After Dick has propounded a convoluted theory, Sidney Wang responds, “Very interesting theory, Mr. Charleston. But - one problem.”
“Oh, really, Wang? What’s that?”
“Is stupid. Is most stupid theory I ever hear.”
I still crack up, hearing that in my head!
Heh, heh…that’s one of my brother’s favorite movies. I’ve personally never been able to make it past the “Two-two Twain” line before changing the channel with a groan. 
“I don’t know…I don’t know.” – St. DooDah
I always thought Nick & Nora Astor, but the Thin Man theory works.
“I don’t know what them society dames is like, but you ain’t never had it until you’ve had it with a big, fat, blondie waitress.” - Sam Diamond
I’m a loner, Dottie … a rebel.
Oh, this is like my all-time favorite film of all time (yeah rully), and it’s chock-fulla great lines, but the one I love the best is when Truman Capote gets in Peter Sellers’ face at the dining table:
“It’s ‘THE cow on THE wall’!! Say your God DAMNED prepositions!”
HAHAAAAA!!!
Lacey
“Casey got hit with a bucket o’ ****
and the baaannnnddd plaaayyed onnnnnnn…”
Twain: “You people are driving me crazy!”
Diamond: “Sounds like that’d be a short trip…”
Gypsy: Tom, I don’t get you.
Tom Servo: Nobody does. I’m the wind, baby.
Diamond: You’re Number One? Ya look more like Number Two ta me, if ya know what I mean.
Yeah, Niven is supposed to be Nick Charles.
God damn, I saw this movie when it came out…I was about 14, saw it with my older sister. We were reminding each other of the lines on the drive home, laughing so hard she almost wrecked the car.
Uke
Dang…
Lionel Twain: That drives me crazy!
Sam Diamond: Sounds like a short ride to me.
Wang gets some of the best lines in that movie. The best exchange is between him and his son:
They’re going to bed -
Son: Who do you think is the murderer?
Wang: Must sleep on it. Will know in morning when wake up.
Son: But what if you don’t wake up?
Wang: Then YOU did it.
Eschew Obfuscation
Uh oh…looks like this might beat out Princess Bride as the MPSIMS favorite.
Can anyone do a Bensonmum quote?
My favorite part is the ending where the butler, played by Sir Alec Guinness, who’s more than six feet tall, takes off his disguise and becomes Truman Capote, who was about eight inches shorter! And then HE becomes Nancy Walker, who was also taller than Capote.
Favorite line: Sam Diamond checks a door and says, “Locked! From the inside. That can mean only one thing… And I don’t know what it is.”
When all else fails, ask Cecil.
I remember when our local cable company added HBO (ca. 1976), it seemed that this movie played, oh, about a MILLION times a month. Still, I would watch nearly every time.
Favorite line: “Ahh, room filled with empty people!”
You want a great Bensonmum line?
Bensonmum: “She murdered herself in her sleep, sir.”
Dick Charleston: “You mean suicide, don’t you?”
Bensonmum: “Oh, no. It was murder, all right. Mrs. Twain HATED herself.”
And random other greats:
Dick Charleston: “Will you look at that, Dora – a blind butler.”
Dora Charleston: “Don’t let him park the car, Dickie.”
Sam Diamond: “I don’t get it. First they steal the body and leave the clothes, then they take the clothes and bring the body back. Who would do a thing like that?”
Dick Charleston: “Possibly some deranged dry cleaner.”
Sam Diamond: “Forget it, Frenchie.”
Perrier: “Stop it! I am not a Frenchie! I am a Belgie!”
Miss Marbles: “I smell gas!”
Miss Withers (the old ‘nurse’ in the wheelchair): “I can’t help it, I’m old.”
Miss Marbles: “No, not that kind of gas. The kind that kills!”
Miss Withers: “Well, sometimes my gas…”
Ah, I could go on for hours.
Yeah, I’ve gone so far as to make wavs of some of my favorites.
Guinness: That? Oh, it’s nothing, sir - just the cat.
(loud barking)
Sellers: That cat? You feed cat dogfood?
Capote: How do I look so young? Quite simple. A complete vegetable diet, 12 hours sleep a night - and LOTS and LOTS of makeup.
Niven: I say, you don’t happen to have seen a little white…Wang!
Narita: A white wang!?
Has anyone else noticed that M. Perrier’s chauffeur (James Cromwell) was the farmer in “Babe”?
:::laughing so hard I’m scaring the cats:::
You guys are the best! It’s been a few years since I saw it start to finish - great to hear the lines again…
“A white wang!” HAAA!!!
Ok, I had to do it. Went to Amazon and ordered it - it’ll be here in a couple of days (yay!) I’ve looked for it at the local video parlor, and was practically insulted they didn’t carry it. (Neanderthals!) Now I’ll have my very own copy to watch whenever I like. Neener neener neener!!!
Hey :::light bulb glows over head:::! Anyone up for a Murder by Death sleepover?
Lacey
“Casey got hit with a bucket o’ ****
and the baaannnnddd plaaayyed onnnnnnn…”
Willy: “I don’t get it, Pop. Was there a murder or wasn’t there?”
Wang: “Yes. Killed good weekend. Drive, please.”
Ooh, I gotta order it too! Good idea, Brewpub
OK, Thin Man makes more sense - I’d always been thinking along the lines of James Bond, which I found especially ironic since Niven played the spoof Bond in “Casino Royale,” another great film to watch right after “Murder by Death.”
Oh, and I’ve already got my own copy of MbD - had it for years. 
Esprix
Heehee…Drewbert - that’s tied with the one I quoted as my favourite exchange in the movie. Wang got all the best lines. Or else people talking to him did.
Another favourite (The wording might be slightly wrong…):
Son: Why do I always have to do this stuff?
Wang: Because your mother not around to do it.
Eschew Obfuscation
Thanks. I never read mystery novels so I’d never heard of him.
Miss Withers: “Jesus H Christ!”
Hail:
I think the point of MbD was that it made fun of MOVIE detectives and MOVIE mystery cliches, rather than mystery novels.
Nick and Nora Charles only appeared in one book, but they were in several films. The Charlie Chan novels, by Earl Derr Biggers, are very rarely in print these days, but the movies made enough of a cultural impression that we still recognize the source when someone says “Number One Son” or makes up a fortune-cookie aphorism.