Murder Party (1962)

Murder Party is an offbeat poisoned confection. Feeling like the Brian and Edgar Wallace films being turned out in Germany at the same time, the film is decidedly its own thing.

Opening with a POV sequence of a murderer cleaning up after himself, things are taken a step farther as we hear the murderers thoughts. We are firmly in the killers headspace. Leaving the crime scene the killer unfortunately meets a friend. Despite liking the guy it is decided he will have to be killed but it isn’t that easy. The idea to get drink is squashed since the friend is going to a party- why not come along? He says. Things spin out further when at the party the killer’s wife is there and all sorts of people he really doesn’t get along with. Worse they decide that they are going to play a party game involving a murder…only a real murder occurs

This is an uncomfortably funny and tense film is part crime story and party society portrait as the idle rich are bitchy to each other and the police.

What makes the film work is we aren’t sure how it’s going to go. From the POV and stream of consciousness narration to the dual murder plotting or even the bitchy society folk we can’t fully predict how it play out. Even the illusion of unpredictability is a bonus in a genre where so many films are easy to sort out even before anyone dies.

I really liked the film. Admittedly it maybe because it is different enough to stand out. As such it is recommended.