classicalsteve I'll begin this review by saying I've always enjoyed Peter Ustinov. But Ustinov as Hercule Poirot?? This was definitely not a casting choice made in Heaven. However, the rest of the cast is no less than superb which only makes the choice of Ustinov appear weak. Peter Ustinov was just about as diametrically opposite from David Suchet who will probably go down as the quintessential Poirot. This film was shot not long after "Murder on the Orient Express" and it seems like it would have been fairly easy to get Albert Finney to reprise his role, although maybe the producers had asked him and he declined. For audiences who had just seen Finney as Poirot, Ustinov as the Belgian sleuth was probably a let-down.The other problem with the film concerns Poirot confronting each of the suspects of the murder. Poirot interviews the suspects in "Murder on the Orient Express" in a similar fashion. However, the filmmakers decided to show endless "hypothetical" scenarios in which each suspect engages in the murder. When the final solution is eventually revealed and the real events are shown, it's somewhat anticlimactic. Seeing Angela Lansbury grabbing the gun and almost dropping it caused me to fall down and roll over on the floor. The actual story and events which lead up to the murder definitely rank as one of Christie's better offerings. We meet Jacqueline de Bellefort (Mia Farrow in an outstanding performance), a nice middle-class young woman and her fiancé Simon Doyle (Simon MacCorkindale). We learn Bellefort works for a filthy-rich heiress, Linnet Ridgeway (Lois Chiles). After engagement announcements, Doyle meets Ridgeway and he seems more enthralled with her than his fiancé. The film then cuts to later events. Doyle and Ridgeway have married, Bellefort having been dumped by Doyle. The honeymooners are on holiday in Egypt, and Bellefort has been following them, desiring to disrupt the newlyweds' enjoyment before they return to day-to-day living back in Britain. When they're observing one of the giant pyramids and having an intimate moment, Bellefort appears out of nowhere and offers them a history lesson. The couple then board a boat to tour the Nile with other passengers. Bellefort also becomes a passenger on the same boat (not surprising).In true Christie style, it turns out just about everyone on the boat hates Linnet Ridgeway now Linnet Ridgeway Doyle. Several have direct and indirect connections to her, including her uncle Andrew Pennington (George Kennedy) who just happens to be traveling in Egypt as well, and Salome Otterbourne (Angela Lansbury), a trashy novelist. A character in one of Otterbourne's books appears to be strikingly similar to Linnet, and she's suing for libel. So just about every character has a motive. When the murder occurs, everyone is a suspect, although the one suspect with the best motive has an unshakeable alibi. Hercule Poirot agrees to take the case with the help of Colonel Race (David Niven). Marie Van Schuyler (Betty Davis) had heard about the Nile tour and the rich cargo. She has eyes on Linnet's pearls.Without giving too much away, the night which leads up to the murder is one of the most compelling I've seen. If it weren't for the bad casting of Ustinov as Poirot and the endless "scenarios", this would have been nearly as good as "Murder on the Orient Express". So in other words, 90% of the cast works superbly with the one exception of Ustinov. If you could somehow take this movie and inter-splice David Suchet into the role it and get rid of the endless hypotheticals, it would be an amazing film.

eric-618-543264 Just. It's hard to agree with everyone calling it a "masterpiece", even rating it 9 or 10 stars. I rate this movie based on only the movie. Not having read the book, nor watched many of the other movies inspired by Agatha Christies books.So. Short review: Jackie is crazy (and has no eyebrows). Her guy is a douche. The victim is boring. Poirot is kinda sassy and gives no f#!ks. Snake guy professionally disposes of the snake (no doubt). I wouldn't really want to watch the whole thing again. The first... Hour? Is incredibly boring and honestly, focusing so much time on these characters made it painfully obvious who was going to die and pretty much gave away the killers. The welcome and "fun" surprises were the additional murders, and getting to know the (all of them) very weird and eccentric characters. Basically, the movie was fun after they finally get on the boat.Still, a mystery movie that is not really a mystery. Everyone testifying "He couldn't have done it! Neither could she!" doesn't make it true. It just makes these people stupid. Still, 6/10 for crazy people, snake-throwing and lots of sudden deaths.

aramis-112-804880 After the success of "Murder on the Orient Express" its producers decided to continue reveling in Agatha Christie. They thought they found the formula: a cast studded with international stars playing a clump of potential murderers in a cramped but exotic locale. In "Murder on the Orient Express" it was a train. Here, it is a paddlewheeler cruising the Nile (what else?) As with "Orient Express" the cast is truly amazing. Albert Finny, unable or unwilling to reprise his Poirot, was transformed into Peter Ustinov. Ustinov bears no resemblance to the Poirot described by Christie; but while his Poirot is more clownish and idiosyncratic, Ustinov was a big name star at the time.For the rest of the cast, the always welcome David Niven checks in as Christie's Col. Race, brightening an otherwise thankless role as Poirot's assistant.The big casting coup (as with Lauren Bacall in "Orient Express") was motion picture grand dame Bette Davis; once a great star, in the years before "Nile" she was often relegated to horror movies. Joining Davis were Angela Lansbury, "Airport" veteran George Kennedy, Maggie Smith, Jack Warden, Harry Andrews, Bond girl Lois Chiles, Mia Farrow and the ethereally beautiful Olivia Hussey.But "Nile" has several things working against it.First, in "Orient Express" the murder victim was himself a vicious kidnapper/murderer (his story is based on the Lindbergh kidnapping case) so the sympathy was all with the murderer(s). In this case the murder is more tragic, which gives the story a less gay tone.Then, too, Paul Dehn, the script writer who gave "Orient Express" its wit and sparkle, condensing the book without losing Christie, was dead before "Nile." His replacement, Anthony Shaffer ("Sleuth") was more coarse in language and intent and seems unhappy with the confines of the original tale (in fact, his more delightful script for "Evil Under the Sun" a few years later was, for all intents and purposes, an original story).Whether due to Ustinov's radically unique Poirot, the glumness of the story, or the slightly tarnished cast, "Nile" did not do the business of "Orient Express" which, whatever its artistic triumphs, is ultimately more important in the movie business."Murder on the Orient Express" preceded "Star Wars" by a few years and the movies were still the movies as they had been since the silents: with glamor, charm and classy stars winning out. This is especially true in 1974, after the 1960s and early 70smovies went through a period of grittiness and experimentation that rubbed some people's fur the wrong way. Paul Dehn's "Orient Express" script was free from the sex and bad language and gave star turns to all its big names. "Orient Express" was murderous fun for the whole family."Murder on the Orient Express" also came at a time when all-star attractions were the rage. "The Towering Inferno" and "Earthquake" were released the same year as "Orient Express"; on the other hand, the last and least of the big-name disaster movies, "The Swarm," came out the same year as "Nile." Movies featuring big stars in little boxes on their posters were falling out of favor. "Star Wars" (1977) and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1978) were driving the last nails into the coffin of the glitz and glamour of old the Hollywood "Orient Express" and "Nile" tried to lovingly recapture.Though outwardly exotically similar to "Orient Express," "Nile" lacks its predecessor's sense of fun in its more unpleasant tale, where the murder is not justice or rightful retribution but simply a tawdry story in a handsome set of clothes.The most unbelievable thing about "Nile" is that Ustinov's flamboyantly un-Christie Poirot would reappear five more times, once in the movies (the delightful but unfaithful "Evil Under the Sun") and four more times on television reductions.The best things about "Nile": David Niven, the tango scene, the beauties of Egypt.

l_rawjalaurence Peter Ustinov's first outing as Hercule Poirot in the second of the Brabourne/Goodwin series of Christie adaptations turns out to be highly entertaining. While there are some awkward moments and risible dialog - especially at the end - John Guillermin's film is redeemed by some memorable individual sequences. The interplay between Poirot and Colonel Race (David Niven) is keenly illuminated - at one point Race raises his eyebrows in exasperation as he hears the Belgian detective self-importantly describing himself as "the great Hercule Poirot." The Colonel has a rather bad time of it; earlier on in the film he is forced to dance a grotesque tango with Mrs. Salome Otterbourne (Angela Lansbury), where he desperately tries and fails to keep up with her. Poirot tries his best to be polite in the company of others, but his patience is stretched to the limit by Mrs. Otterbourne's relentless obsession with sex and sexuality. At the end of one evening he is saddled with the onerous responsibility of taking her back to her cabin, while desperately trying to stop her collapsing to the floor in a drunken stupor. Bette Davis and Maggie Smith have a fine time trading insults as an elderly American dilettante and her full-time "companion"; Davis has one especially rich line as she suggests that she should take Smith for a "cooling break" in the Gobi Desert. Jack Cardiff's memorable cinematography shows the breathtaking beauty of the Egyptian landscapes, but suggests at the same time that they can be sinister - especially in the sequence taking place at the Karnak Temple, in which Linnet Ridgeway (Lois Chiles) is quite literally placed in mortal danger. Nini Rota's memorable theme-tune gives the film a stately feel as the boat plows its inexorable progress down the Nile. Even after thirty-five years, DEATH ON THE NILE is still highly watchable as much for the quality of the performances as for Christie's convoluted tale.