Mort sur le Nil

Holds up well, even after multiple viewings. The violence for a PG rated movie is affectively brutal. A slew of great actors fleshing out memorable characters; what more do you need? One of the better movie adaptions of Christie's extensive library, even with a few of its more detailed threads reduced in film form. (It rarely hurts the story)

This contains one of Mia Farrow's best performances.

I had read DEATH ON THE NILE (probably Christie's best novel, superior to the overrated MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS) before I saw the movie, so I was sure there would be no real suspense. But, to the everlasting credit of everyone involved, the movie does manage to hold the book's air of mystery throughout. It's not as faithful to the book as it could have been--a whole major subplot is given just a few small scenes; several characters who were more substantial in the book are reduced to barely more than window dressing--but it is remarkably true to the main story, sticks to it nicely, and allows both Poirot and the viewer to come to such a completely logical conclusion about the murder that you will wonder on repeat viewings how you could have possibly missed the clues the first time.

The real gems in this film are not the leads and big names, but the smaller parts--Simon MacCorkindale as Doyle, Lois Chiles as Linnet, Jane Birkin as Louise. In particular, Simon MacCorkindale (more familiar to American audiences from MANIMAL, FALCON CREST, and COUNTERSTRIKE) is a criminally underused actor, and he does a spectacular job here in this, his first movie role, playing the hopeless and hapless Simon Doyle, caught between two captivating women (Lois Chiles and Mia Farrow--wow, what a choice to have) and ultimately driven by greed as he chooses between them.

This film is finally out in DVD, and widescreen at that, so if you like good murder mysteries and old-fashioned costume dramas, pick yourself up a copy and prepare to be entertained.

This movie was the first and best of Peter Ustinov's performances as Hercule Poirot. Though physically not very accurate to Agatha Christie's description of the little Belgian detective, for this one movie everything worked and the discrepancy was not a problem. The film is well-paced, with all the plot turns and clues coming with perfect timing, not too fast to be confusing, but not too slow to strain the rather flimsy fabric of the story. The whole cast is very good, especially Bette Davis as a malevolent old spider of a woman, gleefully tormenting her long-suffering companion, Maggie Smith. The scene where she smiles indulgently at a group of Egyptian children waving at her on the river bank, only to sink into mortified disgust as they turn around and moon her, is a highlight of the movie. The climax of the film is quite surprising, and unlike many mysteries, does not cheat the viewer by withholding vital information until the last moment. We feel the pleasure of being honestly fooled throughout, and the conclusion is thoroughly satisfying.

Having just watched the mess of a 2022 film of the same name I thought I would go back and see what this 1978 version was like.

It is much better and follows more closely the original plot.

I watched this film when it was broadcast on channel four last Christmas and I was so blown away by it that I had to buy the movie on DVD. Coming from a true fan of murder mystery TV shows with my all-time favourite series being Midsomer Murders, I can tell you this has to be one of the best detective dramas ever to be adapted from one of Agatha Christie's novels. Peter Ustinov gives a wonderful performance as Christie's world famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, who along with his sidekick has to solve three violent shootings on a luxury cruise ship sailing off the coast of Egypt. The story is full of red herrings, great and really well acted characters and lots of fantastic humour. It is also very gripping with a crime that is forever tricky to work out and a truly unpredictable killer gives the film a perfect ending. I would suggest to all fans of classic British Murder Myestries to see this 1970's Agatha Christie tale but you will have to be prepared to be blown away by it. I overall give Death on the Nile 8/10 stars.

ONE OF THE BEST DETECTIVE STORIES EVER WRITTEN!