Tonight's Movie: Death on the Nile (1978) - A Kino Lorber Blu-ray Review

DEATH ON THE NILE (1978) is one of a trio of Agatha Christie mysteries recently released on Blu-ray by Kino Lorber.

Peter Ustinov stars as detective Hercule Poirot in both DEATH ON THE NILE and EVIL UNDER THE SUN (1982), while Angela Lansbury stars as Miss Marple in THE MIRROR CRACK'D (1980). I'll be reviewing the latter two films here at at future date.

David Niven costars as Colonel Race, who one might describe as Poirot's "Dr. Watson." The colonel assists Poirot to solve a series of murders as they cruise down the famed Nile River.

Among their fellow passengers are heiress Linnet (Lois Chiles), enjoying a honeymoon with her new husband Simon (Simon MacCorkindale); Jackie (Mia Farrow), Simon's jilted ex-fiancee; flamboyant author Salome Otterbourne (Angela Lansbury), who is being sued by Linnet for libel; Salome's daughter Rosalie (Olivia Hussey); Mrs. Van Schuyler (Bette Davis), who covets Linnet's jewels, and her hapless companion Miss Bowers (Maggie Smith); attorney Andrew Pennington (George Kennedy), who's trying to swindle his client Linnet; and a handful of others.

Bodies begin piling up until Poirot gathers the survivors into a single room, and in classic Christie fashion begins laying out who did what to whom.

This was a pleasant film, sumptuously filmed in Egypt by Jack Cardiff, with a good score by Nino Rota. John Guillermin directed.

My biggest complaint is that it was a very leisurely 150 minutes; I wasn't bored, but around the two-hour mark I did wonder when it was going to end and was surprised to realize there was still another 20 minutes to go! I think the editing (by Malcolm Cooke) could have been tighter; even reducing the length of some attractive establishing shots might have cut it down by at least a couple of minutes.

I was also a bit surprised by the level of gore in a 1978 PG film, although it wasn't so over the top as to interfere with my enjoyment; I simply looked away in some later shots where it was clear what would be coming.

Ustinov was fine, although I didn't find him any more interesting as the detective than Kenneth Branagh in the remake of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (2017), a film some like to criticize but which I quite enjoyed (other than Branagh's absurd mustache!). The release of the Branagh remake of DEATH ON THE NILE (2020), which had been slated for next month, has been postponed indefinitely, along with most other new films. (2022 Update: Here at long last is a review of Branagh's version of DEATH ON THE NILE, which I quite enjoyed.)

Among the large cast of this film I most enjoyed Niven, whose character serves as Poirot's helpful assistant; I wish he had also appeared in EVIL UNDER THE SUN. Chiles (MOONRAKER) was good as the feisty heiress, and it was fun to see MacCorkindale, familiar to me from TV's THE MANIONS OF AMERICA (1981) and FALCON CREST (1984-86), in a "big screen" film.

The rest of the cast of "names" was fun but no one particularly distinguished themselves; indeed, their characters either seemed to be quite over the top (Davis, Lansbury, Farrow, and Jack Warden) or so pallid they almost melt into the scenery (Hussey and Jane Birkin). One would think the film's long running time would allow more extensive character development, but that wasn't the case. While the plotting was intricate, the characters aren't revealed in more than a surface manner.

All in all, though, while I didn't find it especially noteworthy, the intriguing mystery and the cast of stars, served up in a nicely mounted film, did make for a pleasant evening's viewing.

The Kino Lorber Blu-ray looks and sounds quite nice. The disc includes an audio commentary by Howard S. Berger, Steve Mitchell and Nathaniel Thompson; a "making of" featurette; interviews with Peter Ustinov and Jane Birkin; a pair of trailers; and trailers for half a dozen additional films available from Kino Lorber. The case includes a choice of reversible cover art.

Thanks to Kino Lorber for providing a review copy of this Blu-ray.

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