A little over 20 years ago, my wife and I spent about 10 days in Paris over the winter holidays. We stayed in our friend Paco’s apartment while he was visiting family in Spain. It was a tiny one-bedroom place. Paco had no television or radio, and this was before smartphones. Each day, we’d get up early and wander around the city taking in all the sights. Paris is a lovely city to walk around in, and walk we did. We probably walked 20 miles every day. We’d come home in the early evening utterly exhausted. But without a TV or anything else to do, we’d spend the rest of the evening reading books.
Buy Death on the NileI quickly exhausted the few books I had packed, so we found a bookstore with English-language books, and I grabbed a few, including two Agatha Christie novels – Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. I’d never read a Christie novel at that point, nor had I seen any of the many cinematic adaptations of her stories. But I knew her name, of course, and I’d at least heard of those two stories, and I dove right in. I loved both of them. Christie was an absolute master at creating puzzle-box mysteries. Some of her best stories have a large cast of characters in an exotic, isolated space where a murder is committed. Everyone has a motive and yet everyone seemingly has a perfect alibi. Then her detective (in both of those cases it is Hercule Poirot,) must put the pieces back together and solve the case.
There is a reason the two books I chose remain two of her most popular mysteries—they both encapsulate what I’m talking about to perfection. That’s also why those two stories have been adapted more times than just about any other book in the English language.
EMI Films had a smash hit adapting Murder on the Orient Express in 1974. Naturally, they wanted to make a sequel. Naturally, the best choice for that sequel was Death on the Nile. Albert Finney quickly bowed out as he had to wear a lot of makeup to portray Poirot in Murder on the Orient Express, and the idea of doing this in the Egyptian heat was too much for him. Going in a completely different direction, they chose Peter Ustinov to play the famed detective. Much like with Murder on the Orient Express, they then hired an incredible all-star cast and shot much of the film on location.
Death on the Nile was a moderate box office success. EMI would go on to make one more Poirot adaptation with Ustinov, Evil Under the Sun (you can read my review of that film). Ustinov would play the detective four additional times under various production companies, to lesser success.
I don’t think it counts as a spoiler to say that it is heiress Linnet Ridgeway (Lois Chiles) who finds herself the story’s first murder victim. The film spends its first hour introducing all the other characters and why they have reason to hate her, envy her, or otherwise wish she was dead.
Jacqueline de Bellefort (Mia Farrow) was once Linnet’s friend, but when Linnet stole her fiancé Simon Doyle (Simon McCorkindale) and married him, well, let’s say their friendship took a turn for the worse. The Doyles are honeymooning in Egypt, and Jacqueline keeps showing up just to annoy (and possibly murder) them.
When Linnet’s American lawyer, Andrew Pennington (George Kennedy), who has been embezzling from her trust, learns that she’s gotten married (which relinquishes his control over her trust), he immediately heads to Egypt in hopes of getting her to sign a power of attorney over to him allowing him to cover up his misdeeds (and failing that he might have to murder her).
Famed novelist Salome Otterbourne (Angela Lansbury) is being sued by Linnet because one of her latest novel’s characters quite resembles Linnet, and that in a most undistinguished manner. This also gives Salome’s daughter, Rosalie (Olivia Hussey), reason for murder. And as Poirot reminds us, one cannot be sued for libel if one is dead.
Marie Van Schuyler (Bette Davis) covets Linnet’s pearl necklace and was overheard saying she’d give everything to have it. Marie’s nurse, Miss Bowers (Maggie Smith), believes Linnet’s father’s unsavory business dealings helped ruin her father. Dr. Ludwig Bessner’s (Jack Warden) medical practice would be saved from Linnet exposing his unorthodox treatments if she was silenced forever. Even Linnet’s maid (Jane Birkin) has reason to kill her, as Linnet promised the girl a dowry when she wished to marry but now is refusing to relinquish her from service.
Seriously, there is hardly a character with a speaking part who doesn’t want Linnet dead for one reason or another. Yet when she winds up dead, every single one has an alibi. It will be up to Poirot and his faithful friend Colonel Johnnie Race (David Niven) to discover who the murderer really is. Before they do, there will be a couple of additional murders which helps give them clues (or at least narrow the number of suspects down.)
The trouble with having such a large, star-studded cast is that there is hardly enough time to give each of them something to chew on. Even with a runtime of 2 hours and 20 minutes, Death on the Nile struggles to give each actor one good scene. Poor Bette Davis has very little to do, and Jack Warden has to try a ridiculous German accent to make his mark. David Niven’s Colonel only exists to have someone for Poirot to bounce plot points off of. Maggie Smith gets off some wonderfully cutting lines, and Angela Lansbury is delightful as the boozy author. The film truly belongs to Peter Ustinov, who easily slides into Poirot’s large mustache, and Mia Farrow shines as the scorned lover.
The film drags a bit in its second half, which is ironically when the murders happen. The first half is spent introducing our wonderful cast of characters and having them explore the landmarks of Egypt (the Pyramids, the Sphinx, and the great temples at Abu Simbel and Karnak). But once Linnet is murdered, all the action remains on the boat, and while that is relatively large and luxurious, it isn’t particularly visually interesting. It is also a bit cramped, causing the filmmaking to be rather static. To help with this, the film is constantly flashing back to how the murder might have occurred. Every time Poirot has a theory, we are shown how that theory might have unfolded. That is interesting, the first couple of times, but after watching several different versions of the same murder take place, I got bored.
But these are really minor complaints. I’m an absolute sucker for this type of story. Give me a twisty mystery, a great cast, and some exotic scenery, and I’m all yours. In my review of Evil Under the Sun, I noted that it was my favorite of the Ustinov films, and I think that remains true, but this is a very close second.
Here’s the spec and extras list for this Kino Lorber release.
DISC 1 (4K UHD):
- Brand New HDR/Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative
- Audio Commentary by Film Historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson
- Triple-Layered UHD100 Disc
- Optional English Subtitles
DISC 2 (BLU-RAY):
- Brand New HD Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative
- Audio Commentary by Film Historians Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson
- The Making of Death on the Nile
- Archival Interview with Peter Ustinov
- Archival Interview with Jane Birkin
- Theatrical Teaser and Trailer
- Dual-Layered BD50 Disc
- Optional English Subtitles
If you are a fan of Agatha Christie and the myriad of cinematic adaptations of them, Death on the Nile is an absolute must-own.
