At the end of the movie, the (surviving) members of the Ballon household get into a fight and calling each other on their crimes. Has anyone ever paid enough attention to this scene to figure out who murdered who (and, optionally, why), etc?
share- Madame Ballon shot Manguel Ostoss (the chauffeur) by accident, because she expected to find her husband with Maria. Then Ballon put the gun in Maria's hand to protect his wife.
- Madame LaFarge (the cook, and wife of Henri, the head butler) killed Georges (the gardener), probably using gloves (because her fingerprints weren't found, only Maria's) to cut him in the OOP-UH with his pliers. She did this because Georges was having an affair with Madame Ballon, even though Mdm. LaFarge wouldn't admit it, but Pierre (the 2nd chauffeur) saw it.
- Simone (the maid) strangled Dudu (another maid) to death because Simone discovered that Dudu was having an affair with Pierre. Before she died, Dudu told Maurice (the 2nd butler) because the two of them were blackmailing Madame Ballon. And Madame Ballon saw it, even though Simone wouldn't admit it.
- Monsieur Ballon killed Henri by shooting him and breaking his backbone, not only killing him but paralyzing him, because when Ballon, Dreyfus, and Francois found him, he was not only dead, but he was paralyzed stiff. And Ballon dragged a gun and put it into Maria's room. Madame Ballon saw it all.
- Like I said, before, all Maurice did was blackmail the Madame. And Pierre didn't do anything but just accuse, so he's innocent.
- Dreyfus killed the doorman, two customers and the Kazak dancer, trying to kill Clouseau; and injured all the surviving Ballon household except for Maria, who wasn't in the exploding car. The reason why I don't think they died, even though Dreyfus and Clouseau thought they did (they're wrong), is because not only did Clouseau always survive an explosion, but so did Cato, Dreyfus, Francois, and even Prof. Balls and Cunny in Revenge (and the inflatable goiters don't count!). Of course, the reason why the transvestite robber Claude Russo died, like I said before is because he was shot by Douvier's men before Cato's car crashed and exploded. So if even Cunny, who's not a major character, can survive and explosion, than so can M. and Mdm. Ballon and their staff.
So there you have it.
To explain Henri's death even further, M. Ballon must have shot him where he could have a fatal A-Type spinal cord injury, "A" meaning it's a complete spinal cord injury, which could result in death. And it did.
shareVery nice! I only picked out the first bit before everyone rambled on all at the same time and I couldn't catch anything else.
shareHowever, do you know the motive of each murder?
The first one is obvious, but why would Mdm Lafarge kill Georges because he was having an affair with Mdm Ballon (unless Mdm LaFarge was having an affair with Georges as well).
For the 3rd, were Simone and Dudu both having an affair with Pierre?
For the 4th, why did Mr Ballon kill Henri?
I'm betting you probably understand it all better than I! After I repeated the opening scene, it was clear as day what happened (Mr Ballon hiding in the closet, Mdm Ballon charging in and then shooting) but to find out about the rest of the murders I would probably have to watch the whole movie a few times over again! I barely remember the minor characters' names and faces.
It never really mattered to me. The movie was a vehicle for Sellers, and the fact that they all jumped in the car at the end was good enough for me.
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