See How They Run (4 Stars)

I said I'd do a mini-marathon of John Carpenter films, but I never said that it would be uninterrupted. Tonight I watched the film "See How they Run" in the cinema. Maybe I should say that without an article, i.e. I watched the film in Cinema, because the Stuttgart cinema is called Cinema. That's a very generic name.

The film takes place in 1953 and is wrapped around true events, featuring characters who lived at the time. It's the 100th performance of "The Mousetrap", a play written by Agatha Christie. That was a big deal for a play, but nobody realised just how long it would run. It ran non-stop from 1952 to 2020, and was only interrupted by the Corona pandemic. After a break of 14 months, it's now being performed again. There have been over 28,000 performances. I don't know what the exact number is, but if you visit the play a counter is displayed in the lobby.

At the 100th performance a film director is murdered who was campaigning to be allowed to direct "The Mousetrap" as a film. Everyone in the cast and crew are suspects. The case is handled by a drunken police inspector and an inexperienced young policewoman. The film is a comedy, frequently parodying "The Mousetrap" and whodunnits in general. One frequent theme is that whodunnits aren't worth watching because they're all the same.

I'll refrain from spoilers. If you want to know what happens, it's still in the cinemas. And it's still in Cinema.