Death on the Nile (1978)

When murder victim leaves the restaurant to the time she is shot only about 10 minutes has passed (at the most).

However, she has removed her makeup, changed then gone to sleep.

How is this possible?

Why would you commit a crime in Egypt where you run the risk of a third-world justice system and third-world jails? But I guess the murderers were going for broke given the way things turned out.

I also loved this movie! I watched it after the Murder on the Orient Express film, and I much preferred Death on the Nile. I also greatly enjoyed the other Peter Ustinov Poirot film, Evil under the Sun. I wish he had made more Poirot films because he cracks me up. Ustinov is definitely my favorite Poirot!

We're waiting for the Buttocks Fan to present this for the seventh time.

R3 Interesting. Murder on the Orient Express (1974) is my favorite. It is the best made and best acted. However, Death on the Nile is a much more enjoyable film. Evil Under the Sun is the most entertaining for sure.

The director, a Frenchman named Yvon Jean Guillermin made such an odd variety of movies that I can't categorise them as good or bad, capable or boring.

There must be some camp sensibility in having some some of the particular hams in the cast (Maggie, Bette and Angela) but I guess that camp sensibility comes from the script by Anthony Shaffer whose playwriting career was going downhill.

[quote]I also loved this movie! I watched it after the Murder on the Orient Express film,

Sorry, I meant to say that I watched it after the Murder on the Orient Express thread. I love DL film threads. I've discovered so many great things that way. A bit of a derail, but last year I started a thread asking for recommendations for old movies and watched a whole bunch of them. Witness for the Prosecution was my favorite. Charles Laughton was so funny!

I LOVE this movie, especially the clothes

The Nile is so flat.

Was that steamer steaming southwards or northwards?

Angela Lansbury swanning around drunk and dancing with Hercules Parrot.

The look on Bette's face when the Egyptian children on the bank of the Nile moon her

"There are two things I can't abide. Heat and heathens."

R3

[quote] I wish he had made more Poirot films because he cracks me up. Ustinov is definitely my favorite Poirot!

He did make others as TV movies:

Thirteen at Dinner (1985). With Faye Dunaway. And David Suchet plays Inspector Japp.

Dead Man's Folly (1986). With Jean Stapleton as Ariadne Oliver.

Murder in Three Acts (1986). With Tony Curtis and Emma Samms.

Appointment With Death (1988). With Lauren Bacall, Carrie Fisher, John Gielgud, Piper Laurie, and Hayley Mills.

They are OK, but nowhere near as good as "Death on the NIle" and "Evil Under The Sun".

Great film

I saw it in Germany (yes, yes I know) and at the time I’d heard about different edits for different markets, ie nudity in a European version but in underwear in the US one. I’ve never seen it since but I remember a really gruesome scene when one of the characters is shot in the head. It was replayed a couple more times as Poirot went through the various scenarios. It was very realistic, gore and all. I can watch a lot of movie violence in Hollywood blockbuster movies, usually it’s somewhat removed, but this shocked me at the time.

R14 was it Lois Chiles or Angela Lansbury?

It must’ve been Lois Chiles. Sleeping, her head was on a pillow and turned over when she was shot.

This played endlessly on HBO back in the early 80s and I watched it pretty much every time. I didn’t quite understand the feelings at the time but was in adolescent lust with Simon MacCorkindale. The Branagh version was so boring and Armie Hammer didn’t have an ounce of Mac’s sexiness

Ustinov's Poirot absolutely sucks. Great cast though.

Bump

It IS Death on the Nile!

Eric Porter starred in a Christie adaptation 1980's "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?"

Angela Lansbury deserved at least an Oscar nomination for this film, if not the win! I haven't seen acting from anyone this good since Bedknobs and Broomsticks or The Manchurian Candidate or Mrs. Santa Claus on CBS!

Mia Farrow was annoying per usual. Lansbury and Ustinov were doing schtick. Niven and Bette were playing themselves. Locations were magnificent. Simon MacCorkindale made me cum in my pants.

Angela Lansbury was perfectly bonkers in this movie and I loved all of it

Other than the scene at Karnak the movie is rather pedestrian. Davis and Smith have a few moments and Farrow is unexpectedly winsome.

Great costumes and a wonderful score.

Is there anyone less likable than George Kennedy?

Murder on the Orient Express blows this out of the water.

The original Murder On the Orient Express is a great film. Don't even bother with the Branagh version, which is absolute shit.

Here is a clip of Angela presenting the Oscar to Peter.

Notice how she pronounces his name OO-stinov rather than YOU-stinov.

And, weren't they related by marriage?

Ustinov was married to Isolde Denham from 1940 to their divorce in 1950. Isolde was the half-sister of Angela Lansbury.

Just think, if that falling rock had got her first!

Watching movies like this makes me wish Egypt was still safe to visit, and that Fezes were still de rigeur.

Presenting three years later = some kind of booby prize for losing to Patty Duke.

Simon MacCorkindale was a stunner. Nile was his break out role. At one point he was considered for Bond. Died of colon cancer at only 58. Wonder why he didn't have a big screen career? Then remembered Manimal.

Brit Parker Stevenson.

Perhaps it was his RADA theatrical training but he tended to BELLOW every line.

Who?

[quote] Why would you commit a crime in Egypt where you run the risk of a third-world justice system and third-world jails?

Because when the story takes place Egypt was run by the British.

One of my all-time favorite Nino Rota scores--it so memorably evoked at once the churning wheel of a Nile steamship, the grandeur of the ancient Egyptian landmarks the ship visits, and the doom waiting to envelop the murder victims.

I always think this is one of Mia Farrow's absolute best performances (along with "Rosemary's Baby" and "The Purple Rose of Cairo"). She always keeps you off-kilter throughout the whole movie--you're never fully sure of what she wants.

quote [you're never fully sure of what she wants]

All that little bitch ever wanted was Simon's cock up her cooch!

Apologies for the formatting error, I've had a few Golden What-Have-Yous

[quote]Brit Parker Stevenson.

To whom was Simon giving the Big One every night?

Wasn't there one with Eve Plumb, Hermoine Baddeley and Esther Rolle?

This is a great film, The unfortunate remake from a few years back totally sucks, however.

Jane Birkin played Louise the Maid in "Death on the Nile" , but she was one of the murderous duo in "Evil Under the Sun"...the "dowdy" wife who appears as her "real" stylish self as she comes down the stairs to the lobby of the hotel in the finale.

The "Birkin Bag" was named for her. (See link below.)

R21

[quote] Eric Porter starred in a Christie adaptation 1980's "Why Didn't They Ask Evans?"

"Why Didn't They Ask Evans" is a completely different Christie book.

There was a "Poirot" episode of "Nile" with DL fave Emily Blunt.

The Nile is so polluted that it could kill off everyone who went for a swim in it.

Bette Davis bitched about how filthy and dirty Egypt was. She said she would've preferred that they shot on a soundstage in LA made to look like Egypt, like they did in the old days.

A lot of the classic Hollywood stars hated doing location work in their later careers, they preferred the old studio system ways.

I thought the worst was Faye Dunaway, until I went to Egypt!

Bette.

I actually fancied the Simon actor (JJ Feild) from the Suchet version more, and would have happily given him a bed-bath....with my tongue!

Mia reported that she observed that Bette was totally bald. Bette said all those years of wearing wigs at Warners had ruined her hair. However when Bette was interviewed in 1983 it appears she has her own hair. See 1.10.

That's definitely her own hair.

I think Mia wrote about Bette and the film in her book.

Lois Chiles left her acting career to become William Paley's mistress. She was quite beautiful but apparently had the brain of a boiled lobster.

[quote]Bette Davis bitched about how filthy and dirty Egypt was.

Still, it was rather rude for her to proclaim that the Nile "stinks worse than Lucille's cooter."

Jane Birkin doesn't make much of an impression in this. But her entrance down the stairs in Anthony Powell's black and white suit to Cole Porter's 'Just One of Those Things' is sheer movie magic.

R55 so was Nicholas Clay's ass!

Bette and Olivia Hussey reportedly feuded on set.

Bette thought Olivia was a stupid twat.

Mia was very good at playing the crazy spurned stalker bitch. Love when she pops out of hiding to recite facts about the monuments.

R55 and R56 - Those scenes are from "Evil Under the Sun".

From Olivias autobio captioning a cast photo where she was seated besides Bette.

[quote]This was the closest i dared to get to Bette Davis.She would´ve prefered , perhaps, that i sat in a dinghy tied to the back of the boat.

Bette on the other hand said all she did was ask Hussey to not play indian music in her dressing room at four o clock in the morning