annoyed by being mistaken for a Frenchman as he is Belgian, saying, "I am not a 'Frenchie'...I am a 'Belgie'." Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) parodies another Dashiell Hammett character, The Maltese Falcon's hardboiled Sam Spade, and is a caricature of Humphrey Bogart in his Casablanca character. He is accompanied by his long-suffering, hard-boiled, sexy but needy secretary Tess Skeffington (Eileen Brennan), whom he continually denigrates and mistreats. Tess Skeffington's name is a riff on Spade's secretary Effie Perine. Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) parodies Christie's Miss Marple. In the film, Marbles appears as hearty, robust and tweed-clad, wheeling a frail, ancient-looking, seemingly senile companionher ancient "nurse" Miss Withers (Estelle Winwood), for whom she is now caringwho everyone initially assumes is Miss Marbles. Production The film was shot entirely at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, California, then named "The Burbank Studios". Charles Addams, creator of The Addams Family, drew the art and caricatures displayed at the beginning, during the end credits, and on the poster. Deleted scenes An additional scene, not in the theatrical version but shown in some television versions, shows Sherlock Holmes (Keith McConnell) and Doctor Watson (Richard Peel) arriving as the other guests are leaving. Author Ron Haydock states that an early draft of Neil Simon's script featured Holmes and Watson actually solving the mystery, but their roles were reduced to a cameo appearance and finally deleted, as the lead actors felt they were being "upstaged". There were three other scenes deleted from the film: En route to the Twain mansion, the Charlestons nearly run down Tess Skeffington, who is returning to Sam Diamond's car with gasoline; instead of giving her a lift, they apologize and drive on. Upon arriving at the Twain mansion, Jessica Marbles' London cabbie lets her know the fare. After Twain's murder, Willie Wang claims to have found a clue in the dead man's hand that was overlooked by the great detectives; the clue, a note from "Lionel Twain, deceased", turns out to only be a reminder to the milkman to stop delivery. Novelization A novelization based on Neil Simon's script was written by H.R.F. Keating and published in the United States by Warner Books () and by Star Books in the United Kingdom. The novelization contains the deleted Tess Skeffington and Willie Wang scenes, as well as a totally different ending in which Bensonmum is revealed to be still alive and Twain admits that