Death On The Nile (1978), Evil Under The Sun (1982) If you throw in 1974's "Murder On the Orient Express and 1988's "Appointment With Death",, you could think of these films as the Agatha Christie/Hercule Poirot quartet..
Albert Finney, the 'Orient Express' Poirot, sported such an elaborate make-up design for his character, he passed on slathering on the pomade and ornate wax mustache for the brutally hot Egyptian location shoot of "Death On The Nile".
The role fell to the multi-talented actor-writer-director Peter Ustinov, who relied more on his gift for sly humor and his natural roly-poly girth to bring Poirot to life..
How much you enjoy these murder mystery outings depends entirely on how entertained you are by the Agatha Christie formula, a structure rigidly adhered to in all these films......
Each story presents a thoroughly loathed character just itching to be offed by any of the multiple people he or she has wronged, insulted, humiliated, bankrupted and otherwise destroyed in various ways.
To nobody's surprise, the Hated One gets bumped off within the first hour of each film, leaving Ustinov's Poirot to sort out the suspects and their motives......(which usually eats up another hour of running time.
At last, Ustinov declares that through the use of his "little gray cells", he's arrived at the murderer's identity and assembles the cast for a step by step flashback breakdown of the crime
As all the usual suspects sit at attention, the intercut flashbacks reveal the killer depended on an astoundingly perfect display of precision clockwork timing, distraction, clever duplicity and even a few magic tricks or special effects.to complete their lethal plot.
And there, we've now described to you the storylines of both 'Nile' and 'Evil'.......only the casts are different.....
Yes, of course it's as far from real life as anything in 'Star Wars' but that's part of the charm of Christie-World, a never-never land where the British Empire still reigns over the Third World.
Perhaps that's why, in an ever increasingly cruel and violent real world, audiences flocked to these all star jewel box whodunnits.
We did, however find some differences between the two films. Ustinov's portrayal in "Nile" creates a more serious, subtle Poirot......just as well, since the film quickly racks up a very high body count for a Christie story,
For, 'Evil' he seems to be having a much better time and he's more like the Peter Ustinov the world came to know and love.....throwing off barely audible asides and bits of physical tomfoolery....(his attempt at swimming is priceless).....
And his second outing as Poirot benefits from a sharper funnier script from playwright Anthony Shaffer (of "Sleuth" fame) with plenty of zippy lines for Maggie Smith and the all time love of our life, Diana Rigg.
So you'll either find these films comfortably charming or simply laborious, talky or ridiculous in their elaborate descriptions of impossibly concocted crimes.
Call us old fashioned, but we vote for 'comfortably charming'......3 stars (***) for each film. And after viewing the '78 'Death Of The Nile', we can't wait to compare it with Kenneth Branagh's upcoming remake.....(but only after vaccinations......)
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