Vote up the whodunit facts that you definitely did not see coming.
Whodunits keep us guessing with tales of intrigue and mystery. They might feature detectives like Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, or Benoit Blanc sleuthing out a crime, or they may depict ordinary individuals trying to put together the pieces of a puzzle that crosses their paths. Often, whodunits weave together comedy, thrills, and a little blood to make the whole thing enjoyable on multiple fronts - if you're into that sort of thing.
Authors such as Agatha Christie are well-known for their whodunits, while filmmakers like Alfred Hitchcock have numerous mysteries on their resumes. Many whodunits can become cult classics and fan favorites, often forming the foundation for future TV shows and movies.
We started thinking about some of our favorite mysteries and got curious about the stories behind them. What we found was full of zigs and zags we never saw coming - much like the movies themselves. Take a look and see if these tidbits about classic whodunits threw you for a loop, too.
The chase scene involving Detective David Mills (Brad Pitt) and John Doe (Kevin Spacey) in Seven was in the script for the movie, but not like it eventually took shape. The much more severe injury Mills experiences is a reflection of a real injury Pitt had during filming.
The actor put his arm through a car windshield while pursuing Doe, and required urgent surgery; he reportedly had a severed tendon and bled profusely. This is why Mills is seen wearing a cast - Pitt needed it for much of the movie shoot. Because it was shot out of order, the cast was hidden, as needed.
The line of contributors to the voice of Betty Boop during the 1930s includes Margie Hines, Harriet Lee, Bonnie Poe, and Mae Questel. Animator Max Fleischer discovered Questel, and according to his son Richard:
Several squeaky female voices were tried out in the early Betty Boops, but none seemed exactly right. The voice needed to be squeaky, but it also needed to be cute and sexy, to sing, to do good line readings, and be able to say and sing “Boop-oop-a-doop” in exactly the right way. Max finally found what he was looking for in 1931 when he came across the incomparable Mae Questel. Her voice and Betty Boop became synonymous. Oddly enough, Mae looked exactly like Betty Boop.
Questel's voice led to a long run as Betty Boop, one that extended to the 1988 movie Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Her cameo ended up being the last time she voiced the character.
Complete with an all-star cast and three endings, Clue channels the board game of the same name. As viewers learn about the characters - and how their paths have crossed in the past - Mrs. White provides a clear description of how much she dislikes Yvette, the maid.
Played by Madeline Kahn, Mrs. White's vitriol was scripted to be fairly mild. According to Michael McKean (Mr. Green),
All that was written was, “I hated her so much that I wanted to kill her,” or something like that. But [Kahn] just kind of went into a fugue about hatred. She did it three or four times, and each time was funnier than the last.
The results were the well-known “flames” speech - the only improvised scene in the entire movie:
Yes. Yes, I did it. I killed Yvette. I hated her, so much... it-it- the f - it -flam - flames. Flames, on the side of my face, breathing-breathl- heaving breaths. Heaving breaths... Heathing...
Part mystery and part comedy, Sleuth featured Sir Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine as Andrew Wyke and Milo Tindle, respectively. As the two men match wits, the elaborate story of adultery, manipulation, and murder unfolds. In one exchange, Olivier brushed aside broken glass and cut his hand. Viewers may notice him wince, but his costar was none the wiser.
When the remake of Sleuth came out in 2007, Caine (cast as Wyke) recalled the scene:
There's a scene in the original Sleuth where he's talking to me and then angrily sweeps things across the table. Larry briefly puts his hand to his face, which is in the movie, and continues with his speech. After the director yelled “Cut!” we saw that Larry had cut his hand badly and was rushed to the hospital for stitches, but he didn't stop the scene even though he was in obvious pain. You don't get more professional than that.
Anyone who met Grace Kelly on the set of a project reportedly fell in love with her - including Alfred Hitchcock. Herbert Coleman, one of Hitchcock's associate producers, explained:
Just about everyone wanted to bring her a cup of tea or run an errand for her or do something. She never asked, much less did she demand anything, but everyone wanted to show how much they loved and admired her.
On at least one occasion, however, Hitchcock sought to change his star - or at least her physical appearance on the screen.
While filming Rear Window, Hitchcock told costume designer Edith Head to “put in falsies” to a nightgown. Kelly told Head she wouldn't wear them and the two decided to make some alterations to fool the director.
Together, they adjusted the garment and Kelly walked out to greet Hitchcock, sans falsies. Their ruse worked and Hitchcock cried out, “There now Grace - That's more like it! See what a difference they make?"
In an interview with Graham Norton in 2016, Jodie Foster offered insight into how she and Sir Anthony Hopkins interacted on the set of Silence of the Lambs. In short, they didn’t.
Aside from rehearsing their lines and filming scenes, neither Foster (Clarice Starling) nor Hopkins (Hannibal Lecter) conversed because, for her part, “He was scary!”
I avoided him as much as I could. I really avoided him… He came up to me… And I said - I don’t know, I sort of had a tear in my eye - I was like, “I was really scared of you.” And he said, “I was scared of you!"
There was at least one more interaction that stuck with Foster. In a behind-the-scenes interview, she revealed how one take of a Starling-Lecter exchange made her feel:
He started imitating my accent. He would say, "Your problem, Clarice, is you need to get a little more fuhn out of life." And suddenly… It upset me so much! It like struck a really bad chord in me.
