Dames at Sea: Agatha Christie’s “Death on the Nile” (1978)

The butler didn't do it! Then again, Dame Agatha Christie never wrote that tired cliche. Join us as we embark on a glamorous, deadly journey down the Nile as we dissect the 1978 adaptation of Dame Agatha Christie's masterpiece, "Death on the Nile", a film that perfectly balances humor, intrigue, and shocking violence against the breathtaking backdrop of Egypt.

Whether you're a mystery aficionado, a fan of classic Hollywood, or someone who appreciates the art of storytelling at its finest, this episode illuminates why Death on the Nile remains superior to modern adaptations and stands as one of the most entertaining entries in Christie's filmed legacy. Join us for an episode as rich in character as it is in murder.

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Episode Transcript

Clip (00:00):
Mr Doyle, I know who killed Louise Bourget.
What you say, you know whokilled Louise.
Ah, come not to shout you, fraAderborn, you cannot be here.
I forbid it.
My patient is resting, but Imust.
You see, it's vitally important.
You see, I know all.
All.
I tell you, mr Doyle.
I tell you that I, salomeOtterborn, have succeeded where

(00:21):
frail men have faltered.
I am a finer sleuth than eventhe great Hercule, mrs Otterball
, for God's sake calm down.
Now tell us the whole story fromthe beginning, Madam.
Do I understand that you haveevidence to show who killed Mrs
Doyle?
You do, and I have.
I saw who killed Louise Bourgetwith my own eyes.

(00:48):
Recontinue, madame.
I happened to be in the stern ofthe boat talking to one of the
crew who was showing me a mostintriguing sight A buffalo and a
camel yoked together tillingthe soil.
You saw this by moonlight, ofcourse, madame.
Yes, I did, I have amazinglygood eyesight.

(01:09):
Anyway, I left him and suddenly, as I rounded the corner, I
heard a scream.
It came from Louise Bourget'scabin.
Then I saw the cabin door open.
As the door opened wider, I sawthat it was

(01:36):
Hello, I'm film historian TonyMaietta.

Brad Shreve (01:39):
And I'm Brad Shreve , who's just a guy who likes
movies.

Tony Maietta (01:42):
We discuss movies and television from Hollywood's
golden age.
We go behind the scenes andshare our opinions too.

Brad Shreve (01:49):
And, of course, being the average guy, my
opinions are the ones thatmatter.

Tony Maietta (01:54):
As does your self-delusion.
Welcome to Going Hollywood.

Brad Shreve (02:00):
Tony, are you familiar with the rules of
mystery writing?

Tony Maietta (02:04):
The rules of mystery writing.
I have to say, Brad, that I amnot.
Please enlighten me.

Brad Shreve (02:11):
Well, you know, writing is like any kind of
creative outlet.
They say there's rules, but arethere really rules?
They're kind of more guidelines, but some of them I do adhere
to.
But in 1928, this is in AgathaChristie's era In 1928, ss Van
Dyne wrote the 20 Rules ofMystery Writing and then in 1929

(02:33):
, the next year, ronald Knoxwrote the Ten Commandments of
Detective Fiction.
Now their lists were prettysimilar.
They were basically saying hereis how you play fair with the
reader, and they included thingssuch as the criminal must is
how you play fair with thereader, and they included things
such as the criminal must be inthe early parts of the story.
It's not fair to bring thecriminal up at the last chapter.
The murder must be by naturaland no supernatural means.

(02:56):
Now there are supernaturalmysteries, but that's a
different genre.
If you have a secret passage ora doorway, you can only have
one per book.
The detective must declare anyclues he discovers openly to the
reader.

Tony Maietta (03:10):
Wow, lots of rules .
They're good rules, right, yeah, but lots of them.

Brad Shreve (03:13):
But two of my favorites.
One is one that Ronald Knoxwrote and his rule was no
Chinaman must figure in thestory.
He goes on to say why, and wewon't repeat that.
The other one was by SS VanDyne.
His role, said this, shows theera.

(03:41):
Servants such as butlers,footmen, valets and gatekeepers
and cooks must not be theculprit, because the culprit
must be a person who isworthwhile.

Tony Maietta (03:50):
These are terrible rules.

Brad Shreve (03:52):
So basically, the butler can't do it according to
these rules and contrary to whateverybody believes, Agatha
never said the butler did it.

Tony Maietta (04:01):
Well, my God, the butler was practically the only
one who didn't do it.
Agatha Christie.
Actually, she does have abutler that does it.

Brad Shreve (04:08):
She does.
Somebody disguised as a butler.

Tony Maietta (04:12):
Yes, exactly, yes, exactly.
I think in the three-actmurders.
Anyway, for people who don'tknow why that people are asking
themselves why the hell are wetalking about mysteries?
People are asking themselveswhy the hell are we talking
about mysteries?
Listener, today we are going totalk about from 1978, Death on
the Nile, Not the recent KennethBranagh travesty no, because

(04:35):
this is a classic Hollywoodpodcast.
And 1978, to me, classic year.
I'm very excited about this,Brad.
I wanted to do Death on theNile for many reasons.
I'm excited because it's ourfirst mystery and it's our first
British film, and this movie isa boatload of dames.
Let me just get that right fromthe beginning.

(04:57):
It's top-heavy, it's a boatloadof dames.
We got Dame Angela Lansbury,Dame Maggie Smith, Dame Betty
Davis, Dame Olivia Hussey and,of course, the biggest dame of
them all, putting them alltogether, Dame Agatha Christie.

Brad Shreve (05:15):
Oh, I thought you were going to say Peter Ustinov.

Tony Maietta (05:17):
Oh Dame Peter Ustinov.
And the reason why I gave upthat list is when we get later
into about Agatha Christie andher writing, that's when what I
just talked about will come intoplay.
Yeah, I'm excited.
I don't think I ever watchedthis movie.
I had watched Murder on theOrient Express from the 70s many

(05:37):
times.
And.

Brad Shreve (05:39):
I thought I watched Death on the Nile.
I watched the recent one and Ilike oh, this is shit uh.
So when you suggested the 70sone, I thought god, do we really
want to do this?
I'm like what the hell?

Tony Maietta (05:52):
I was pleasantly surprised can somebody please
stop kenneth brown on?
Can we just stop him in any way?

Brad Shreve (06:02):
I gotta say I think his murder on the oregon
express was better than the 70sversion well, but yeah, but he
becomes a superhero.

Tony Maietta (06:09):
Okay, hercule poirot is not a superhero.
He shouldn't be.
He shouldn't be dueling withmurderers on moving train.
Okay, I'm not gonna, I'm notgonna no, no, no, this is not
about.
This is about the 1978 uh emibrit British film Death on the
Night with an international cast, as I just mentioned.
We just talked about all thedames on board We've also got.

(06:31):
Are we going to say Ustinov orUstinov?

Brad Shreve (06:35):
I always say Ustinov, let's say Ustinov.

Tony Maietta (06:37):
Yeah, we have some .
There's some pronunciationshere.
We've got Peter Ustinov as theone, the only Hercule Poirot.
We've got Jane Birkin.
We've got Lois.
Are we going to say Chili's orChild's?
We'll say Chili's.

Brad Shreve (06:51):
That's what I heard last.

Tony Maietta (06:52):
You say Chili's, I'll say Child's.
Let's call the whole thing off.
We've got Dame Betty Davis,we've got Dame Mia Farrow, dame
Olivia Hussey, dame GeorgeKennedy, dame Angela Lansbury,
dame Maggie Smith, dame DavidNiven and the luscious Dame
Simon McCorkendale and Dame JackWarden.
It's funny because we've hadluscious every episode we've

(07:16):
done.
If we're going to count MelBrooks, we've had a luscious
leading man for every episode sofar this season.

Brad Shreve (07:23):
That we have and I'm all for that yeah, it's,
it's, it's wonderful.

Tony Maietta (07:27):
So I I love this movie.
Um, before we go into thechristy in the background, I
just want to say, you know this,it's so funny because I
remember seeing this movie as akid.
I didn't see this is.
I saw this first.
I hadn't seen a murder on theornate express, I hadn't seen
evil under the sun, I hadn'tseen any of it.
I saw this one first and and itstuck with me.
It was one of a number ofmovies that were on Showtime.

(07:50):
Now, back in the day, do youremember this, when there were
only, you know, there was 3, 5,7, 9, 11, and 13 television
channel stations.
I heard about that era stations,I heard about that era Well
anyway, I think it must've beenin 1979, something amazing
happened and cable came to myhometown and children listening

(08:12):
out there.
What that meant was was thatyou got a box in the mail
shipped to you that you put onyour TV set and you would put
your TV set to channel four andthere was a button on this box.
And you would put your TV setto channel four and there was a
button on this box and you wouldpush that button and it was
like Dorothy walking into Oz.
Suddenly there was a world ofunfiltered adult entertainment

(08:36):
at the ready and that's where Isaw first saw Death in the Nile,
first saw the Towering Inferno,first saw High Anxiety.
Anyway, it goes about saying isthat this movie, this movie had
an effect on me and everysubsequent Christie movie I've
seen and I love many of them,many of them I do not.
Um, this movie to me is stillnumber one because it's my first

(09:00):
.
It's my first one.

Brad Shreve (09:03):
I don't know when my first agatha christie movie
was.
I would think it's probablymurder on the orient express.
I remember watching it with mymom.
She was a lot of people and uhshe, um, I was okay with it.
I was excited because it was amystery and I, even as a little
kid I knew I was into mysteries.
But uh, I don't remember beingwowed.

Tony Maietta (09:23):
Really Okay.

Brad Shreve (09:24):
I remember the ending wowed me.
I remember being wowed, it wasvery untraditional but-.

Tony Maietta (09:29):
I remember being wowed by the violence.
There is a lot of violence Fora fairly-.
This film has a very humoroustone.
Okay, it's very much it's acomic film.
You have some comicperformances which we will get
into.
Angela Lansbury is peerless inthis film.
She's so wonderful, but there'sa lot of violence.

(09:50):
It's the best I've ever seenher.
It's a lot of violence, andthat's what's fascinating to me
about it.
But I think we need to dustsomething off Brad, because

(10:26):
hello, duh, we're talking aboutan Agatha Christie whodunit.
So, needless to say, this is ahuge spoiler alert to anybody
who hasn't seen any of theversions of Death on the Nile or
read Death on the Nile.
We're giving them all away here.
So if you haven't turn us off,go watch one of them.
Watch the David Suchet one.
He's brilliant.
Watch this one.
Read the book and then comeback and listen to us.
The chambermaid did it.
But before we get, before weget on this cruise, before we
jump on the uh, board the car,mac, why don't you tell us a
little bit about the woman whothe, the woman that this
incredible, all these incrediblemysteries came out of, the mind

(10:46):
of that's an awkward sentencethe woman whose mind this came
out of?

Brad Shreve (10:53):
okay.
So the movie is based on thebook by agatha christie, who we
all have heard of and know.
I, as a mystery writer, I ameternally grateful for agatha,
who really sprung forward themystery novel to the masses.
I mean, she is the best-sellingnovelist in history.
She has sold four billioncopies of her books.

Tony Maietta (11:14):
Behind Shakespeare , though right Isn't she behind
Shakespeare?

Brad Shreve (11:16):
Yeah, Shakespeare and the Bible are the only two
before Shakespeare's.

Tony Maietta (11:19):
really not novel.
Okay, third billing not so bad.

Brad Shreve (11:21):
So you have the Bible, Shakespeare and Agatha
Christie, and she's also famousfor writing Mousetrap, which
opened in 1952.
And I'm sure you know, Tony,that was the longest running
play.
It only ended in 2020 becauseof COVID.

Tony Maietta (11:38):
Yeah, no, she wrote the longest running play
in the history of theater.

Brad Shreve (11:44):
Yeah, yeah, this woman is astounding, astounding
yeah, she's got a few accoladesunder her belt she does, now she
does to kind of give an ideawhere I'm not gonna go get too
much in the weeds here aboutmysteries, or maybe I will to
kind of give people an idea ofwhat akitha christie did.
The very first mystery novelcame out in 1841.
It was written by edgar allenpoe.
It's called Murders on the RueMoirgue.

(12:05):
I'm not very good at French.
And then Sherlock Holmes, whowe all are familiar with, came
out in 1887.
A lot of people think Agathaand Sherlock were at the or
Agatha and Arthur Conan Doylewere at the same time.
But no, sherlock's first novelcame out about almost 40 years,

(12:26):
almost 50 years before.

Tony Maietta (12:27):
Agatha's first novel, she created Hercule
Poirot as kind of like an answerto Sherlock Holmes.
Right.

Brad Shreve (12:33):
Yes, and Hercule Poirot.
One of his novels was her veryfirst novel.
It was published in 1920.
It was called the MysteriousAffair at Stiles.
It has controversy because alot of people think she doesn't
play fair with the reader inthat book.
I, that's my challenge withagatha in general, which we'll
talk about yeah um, but youstart right in 1920.

(12:56):
Uh, agatha lived until 1976, Ithink it is yeah um yeah she was
born in 1890.

Tony Maietta (13:04):
She lived long enough to see murder on the
Orient express.
The Albert Finney version,which was the catalyst for all
of these Agatha Christie filmsthat came out because it was a
colossal hit.
But it was the only one she hada grudging respect for, because
Hollywood as Hollywood doessurprise can screw up your story

(13:26):
Really.
She was so tired of Hollywoodscrewing up her stories.
She was very reluctant, but shedid have a reluctant respect
for Murder on the Orient Expressand she also really appreciated
Albert Finney as Poirot, eventhough he's nothing like he's
described in her books.
So it's great that she livedlong enough to see at least one

(13:51):
adaption of her stories.
Although there's some of theadaptions of and Then there Were
None from the 40s and 50s arepretty good.
But anyway, I interrupted, youGo ahead.

Brad Shreve (14:00):
No, that's quite all right.
My challenge with SherlockHolmes is I never felt he played
fair with the reader, and thereason is sometimes, when he
came to his conclusion at theend, he would say the mud on his
boots yeah, his mud.
You can only find on on the topof hereford's hill or something
of that nature.
Like like how the hell wouldyou know this?
And you know and that's partwhy the rules were written to

(14:23):
tell mr writers.
Here's the rule.
Here's the thing with mysterywriters, with mystery novels.
The readers are absolutelydying to figure out who done it
before the end of the novel.
At the same time, they'reabsolutely furious if they do
Right.
But because they want to, youhave to at least play fair with

(14:44):
them.
And, as I said, I don't thinkSherlock Holmes was fair and I
really don't think AgathaChristie played fair with the
readers, and it's one reason whyI'm not a big fan of hers is
her first book.
Definitely she did not playfair with the readers.
If you break down these storiespiece by piece, you can see
that she did.

(15:04):
But she does.
She tosses so much out there tohide the clues that I think she
obscures them too much, likeshe'll describe a hundred things
in a drawer and you're supposedto remember the pen.
You know that was in there youknow so I have an issue with
agatha in that sense, but, likeI said, I do respect what she
does, and here's also where Irespect her.

(15:24):
This is my really respect forher Marshall Thornton, who's a
great mystery writer.
He writes LGBTQ mystery novels.
Highly recommend him.
I was talking to Marshall oneday and he said no matter how
well you try to mask whodunit,people will figure it out.
So what's important is, becausethere will be people who figure

(15:47):
out, you need to make sure youwrite and I'm paraphrasing here
you need to make sure you writea damn good story that they like
the characters and the story aswell as the mystery.
Right, and that is what she did.
She really sherlock holmes?
Yeah, he had some personalitytraits, but he really didn't
know who he was.
Um, um, oh, what's her name?
The, the old miss marple, missmarple, miss marple.

(16:10):
You kind of knew a little bitmore about her, even though she
came after uh bro bro, you knewquite a bit he, yes, yeah, he
was pretty well-rounded, uh, andthat was kind of a new thing.
It actually developed more andmore as uh the last century
continued that people want toknow as much about the detective
as they did about the mystery,because in the past it wasn't
that.
So she kind of started thatpath and that's where I really

(16:32):
appreciate what she did, becausewhen it comes to reading and
writing, it's all aboutcharacters.
To me I have the most funwriting characters.
I'll put up with any badwriting if I like the character
well.
I can't say that, but I will putup with a lot.
I put up a lot if I really likethe characters and they make me
like them or hate them the wayI'm supposed to, so I'm very

(16:54):
grateful for her for that.
So you know she's.
She wrote 79 mystery novels, 14short story collections, uh
amazing and plays.

Tony Maietta (17:03):
She, yeah, she's just amazing life.
That's the thing I think is themost amazing thing about dame
agatha christie.
What a life.
And I don't know if you, iflisteners out there, are
familiar with uh lucy worsley,but she just did a.
She's a british, uh britishpersonality.
She's also a investigator.
She just did a fabulous show onbrit box called uh lucy worsley

(17:25):
Investigates Agatha Christie.
And if you haven't watched it,watch it because it's
fascinating.
This woman's life, this womanwas such an incredible
adventurer I mean, this is early20th century Now.
She was fortunate because shecame from money so she could do
these things.
But this woman's life, sheloved to travel.

(17:45):
She had such a well-rounded,incredible, adventurous life
that all seeped into her stories.
That's why they're so rich incharacter and atmosphere.
It's because Agatha Christiehas been all these places.
Agatha Christie loved Egypt.
Agatha Christie took a cruiseon a barge, very much like the

(18:06):
Karnak in Death, on the Nile.
So she was writing from herexperience, which, as a mystery
writer, you know.
You know that.
But unless you're, you knowyou're Jessica Fletcher and
there's been a murder everyother day in your life.
I don't know how you do that.
Her imagination was so richfrom her varied, incredible life
.

Brad Shreve (18:27):
And she was very into archaeology because of her
husband was an archaeologist.

Tony Maietta (18:31):
Right, her second husband.
And she loved to go with hersecond husband.
Yes, she loved to go with himand it made her very fascinated
by archaeology, which also showsup in her novels, including
this one.
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.
She had a couple Murder inMesopotamia.
This one Appointment with Deathtakes place in an
archaeological dig, so she'sreally fascinating, you know.
Oh, dig so she's reallyfascinating.
The thing is that she based ourhero of today's story, hercule

(19:01):
Poirot.
She was a nurse during WorldWar I and she worked in the
pharmacy where she developed agreat interest in potions and
poisons and medicines and lethalproperties of various plants.
So this is where thisfascination with poison came in
for her, and if you've ever reada Christie novel, this film is
unusual.
This story is unusual in thatit's so violent with the knifing

(19:23):
and the guns.
Usually, poison plays a hugepart in Agatha Christie stories
Not in this one, though.
Not in this one but when she wasa nurse, there were refugees
from Belgium who came to Englandbecause of the war and she
became very close with some ofthese people and this is where

(19:43):
she got the idea, for her airquotes Sherlock Holmes, who was
this fastidious man with anegg-shaped head and an unusually
curly mustache who really lovedto eat and who really
appreciated the finer things inlife, and his name was Hercule
Poirot.
Now, as I said to you before,you know, she was looking at

(20:06):
Sherlock Holmes and she's likehow do I make the anti-Holmes?
How do I make someone different?
So obviously he couldn't beEnglish.
That's what he meant Short,eggheaded, and she was
originally going to make himFrench.
Did you know that?
And then she thought no, no, no, no, no.
Two on the nose Belgian.
And that's why he alwaysinsists when people call him a
Frenchman, not Frenchy, belgy.

Brad Shreve (20:32):
That's actually from Murder by Death, but anyway
I'll use it for this one andhis drug.
Rather than Sherlock Holmes,his drug is food.

Tony Maietta (20:35):
Yes, yes, absolutely, absolutely.
He appreciates the fine food,fine wines, fine food.
He's just, he's an epicurean ofthe nth degree.
So, as Brad said, she createdthis character.
Hercule Poirot so, as Brad said, she created this character.

(21:05):
Hercule Poirot and his firstnovel was the Mysterious Affair
at Stiles, as Brad just talkedabout.
And Brad, let me ask you who isyour favorite interpreter of
Hercule Poirot?
I think it's Peter Ustinov.
Is it really?
Ustinov was okay.
He was better than the movieitself, so I take it you have
never watched.
have you watched David Suchet,Because he's pretty much the
definitive Hercule Poirot?

Brad Shreve (21:20):
I don't think so.

Tony Maietta (21:23):
So Poirot is the British series.
He did it for like from the 90suntil 2010.
No, I never watched the series.
He did every single.

(21:52):
If you get the chance, he didevery single.
No, I never have a soft spot inmy heart for Ustinov, simply
because this is the first AgathaChristie film I ever saw and he
will have.
But he's very different.
If anybody knows anything aboutPeter Ustinov, two-time Academy
Award winner, he's verydifferent in that we just talked
about the physical descriptionof Christie's.
Poirot is, as I said,egg-shaped head, bald, short,

(22:13):
round.
That ain't.
Peter.
Ustinov.
Peter Ustinov is a big guy,beautiful head of gray hair.
He's nothing like Christie'sversion of Poirot, and Ustinov's
take was look, creating thischaracter was a process of
elimination for Agatha Christie.
She's like well, he can't beEnglish, so he's going to be

(22:35):
Belgian.
He can't be tall, so he's goingto be short.
He's like so I can makecompromises too.
It doesn't really matter.
The point is is the spirit, andthat is what Ustinov gets to me
.
He has the spirit of HerculePoirot, and this was his first
time playing Hercule Poirotbecause, as you just mentioned,
murder on the Orient Express,which preceded this film and was

(22:56):
a tremendous success, herculePoirot was played by Albert
Finney, and Albert Finney wasoriginally offered this film and
he turned it down because hesaid he didn't want to go
through the torturous makeupsessions that he had to go
through on Murder on the OrientExpress.
And personally I'm not a big.
I love Albert Finney in otherthings.

(23:17):
I'm not crazy about him asPoirot.
He kind of gives me the willies.

Brad Shreve (23:22):
I get kind of.

Tony Maietta (23:23):
I get serial killer vibes from him in Murder
on the.
Orient Express.
I'm not a huge fan of Murder onthe Orient Express, I got to
confess.
It's got a wonderful cast.
It's got Lauren Bacall andMichael York and oh my god, and
Ingrid Bergman won an Oscar.
So it's a wonderful cast.
I'm not crazy about the story.
I much prefer Death on the Nileand I much prefer Peter Ustinov
, and so did audiences, becauseuntil David Suchet came along,

(23:47):
Peter Ustinov was the definitivePoirot.
He played Poirot five moretimes before he relinquished the
role to David Suchet in thePoirot series.
I think he's perfection in thisfilm.

Brad Shreve (24:01):
I agree, he was Poirot.

Tony Maietta (24:04):
So should we talk a little bit about the
background of the book and thefilm and how this all came
together?

Brad Shreve (24:10):
Yeah, I know you know more about the transition
from the book to the movie, sowhy don't you talk about that?

Tony Maietta (24:15):
Well, yeah, what's interesting is okay.
So the book Death on the Nilewas first published in 1937.
And what they term Egypt maniaoriginally began in the 19th
century during Napoleon'sEgyptian campaign.
Now Egypt mania is obviouslymania for Egypt.
Egypt took the world.

(24:36):
The world was fascinated byeverything, by pharaohs and by
the pyramids.

Brad Shreve (24:43):
That's when people were buying mummies and putting
them up in their living room.

Tony Maietta (24:45):
Yeah, exactly, it was a phenomenon that's creepy
and it was revived in 1922 withthe discovery of King Tut's tomb
.
And when you think about it,the 20s were all about Egypt in
American culture.
I mean, you don't have to lookfar to see Egyptian influences
in the 20s and that bled intothe 30s.

(25:06):
So Christy traveled to Egypt,as I said, in the early 30s and
stayed on a barge very similarto the Karnak and that's what
inspired in her this story Deathon the Nile because she
experienced something verysimilar.
So what happened in the 1970swith King Tut was revived by the

(25:29):
King Tut exhibit the treasuresof Tutankhamun with artifacts
from the tomb.
It toured six cities from 76 to79, and it captivated the
public once again.
Do you remember that?
Do you remember the whole KingTut thing in the 70s?

Brad Shreve (25:45):
How could anybody have missed it?
It was nonstop.

Tony Maietta (25:50):
Tut, tut, tut tut.
I remember Steve Martin and hisEgyptian.

Brad Shreve (25:51):
I mean it's crazy, I was wondering when Walk Like a
Magician, walk Like a wellactually that was the.
King Tut dance by Steve Martin.
It's crazy.

Tony Maietta (26:01):
So, yes, it became the whole King Tut thing just
blew open the 70s, and so whenMurder on the Orient Express was
a tremendous success, they werelike, okay, what are we going
to make next?
And they didn't have to looktoo far, because Egypt mania was
at a peak again to Death on theNile.
And that's where the idea ofadapting Death on the Nile into

(26:23):
the next film in this series offilms that's where it came from.
There were five Um, that'swhere it came from.
There were five um.
These producers, who, who diddeath on the Nile?
Uh, john Brabourne and RichardGoodwin.
This is number two in theseries.
Death on the Nile.
There was after this, there wasappointment with death.
There was another one of myfavorites evil under the sun.
And there were a couple.

(26:43):
It was a couple more.
So that's how that all cameabout.
It was a response to the EgyptEgypt mania, which was revived
in the 70s because of King Tut.

Brad Shreve (26:54):
I didn't know that and I'm curious if you have the
answer to this question.
I know this movie did not donearly as well.
Well, it was a big drop fromMurder on the Orient Express.
Yeah, I know this one got goodaccolades.
What about Murder on the OrientExpress?
What were the critical?

Tony Maietta (27:10):
reviews on that Because I'm wondering if that's
what deterred people from seeingthis.
One love Margaret Rutherfordand Murder.
At the Gallop and Murder sheSaid there's a wonderful 60s

(27:34):
series of Miss Marple filmsstarring Margaret Rutherford,
who Christy loved her, not themovies, but she loved Rutherford
as Marple and they're veryswinging 60s.
They got these really funlittle swinging 60s bossa nova
beats and they're a lot of fun.
But this was the first timethat these films were.
They were designed withinternational casts in glamorous

(27:56):
locations.
After death on the nile, as Isaid, evil under the sun also
has maggie smith, it has jamesmason, it has sylvia miles, it
has jane birkin.
It has another internationalcast, fabulous location.
So this was why this was kindof new.
And murder on the OrientExpress was a tremendous success
.
Yes, it was a tremendoussuccess.
As I said, ingrid Bergman wonBest Supporting Actress for her

(28:18):
performance.
This one not so much, but itwas still a hit.
It still made money.

Brad Shreve (28:23):
Yeah, yeah, I didn't mean that it didn't do
well, it just was not assignificant.

Tony Maietta (28:27):
And it was bigger in Europe.
Death on the Nile was bigger inEurope than it was in the
United States and I think that,as I said, I prefer Death on the
Nile just because I love thiscast.
I love this story.
This story blew me away.
Blew me away the first time Isaw it.

(28:48):
I could not believe the ending,which we're going to talk about
.
We're going to talk about it,but let's talk a little bit more
about Christie and how this allcame together.
Brad, I want to stop for amoment and say how excited I am

(29:14):
to be back for our second season.

Brad Shreve (29:17):
Me too, tony, and we should tell people that we
have many exciting new episodesscheduled for this year.

Tony Maietta (29:22):
We should.
In fact, you just did.
But what you didn't do is tellpeople that really enjoy the
show, to tell their friendsabout us.

Brad Shreve (29:32):
And what do you know?
You just did that.
See how that works.
Yes, so please tell yourfriends and rate and review us,
and you can even send us amessage at goinghollywoodpodcast
at gmailcom.
They should do that, right.
They can even suggest a movieor TV show for us to talk about.

Tony Maietta (29:48):
Oh, I like that it's interactive Right TV show
for us to talk about.
Oh, I like that it'sinteractive Right.
Well, I think that covered allour bases.
Let's get back to the show.
So Death on the Nile wasdirected by John Gillerman.

Brad Shreve (30:08):
Can I say something about Gillerman?

Tony Maietta (30:09):
Please say something about Gillerman.

Brad Shreve (30:12):
Folks, if you know Gillerman, it's because you like
a lot of bad movies that you'venever heard of, or you like a
couple of movies that you knowof that are really bad.
This guy does not have a goodhistory.
Actually, Towering Inferno isthe one good one.

Tony Maietta (30:26):
Right, exactly that I can see.
It's so funny because when Isaw that I can see, I was so
funny because when I saw that Ithought of you and I know how
you, what you feel about KingKong, and he directed the
Jessica Lange King Kong.

Brad Shreve (30:34):
He did the 1976 King Kong which, uh, you may
remember and, uh, I bless you ifyou were able to forget that
film.
And, uh, everything else on thelist is just like oh my God,
how did he put this book movieout?
I guess everybody gets luckyonce.
God, how did he put?

Tony Maietta (30:51):
this movie out.
I guess everybody gets luckyonce.
Well, according to his actors,gillerman was.
He was a British director.
He began in television.
He was what was called ascreamer.
According to producer RichardGoodwin, he was a terrifying man
.
However, he was one of theseold guys, was a heavy drinker,
you know what I mean?

(31:11):
He, just he was.
He was like John Ford.
He just he was curmudgeonly,although he was a young guy.
He just he saw things the wayhe saw them and he did not brook
any kind of contradictions.
Now, that being said, by allaccounts, this was a very easy
shoot for these people.
I mean, come on, let's thinkabout this for a minute.
Let's talk about some of theseegos here Betty Davis, angela

(31:35):
Lansbury, maggie Smith, peterUstinov, david Niven they all
got along beautifully Becauseand this is what Richard Goodwin
said is, when you have so manyegos on a set, it seems to go a
lot better, because everybody isgoing to outdo the other one in
being the most cooperative, themost professional.

(31:56):
It's when you have one personon the set that it's kind of a
bitch.

Brad Shreve (31:59):
But anyway, yeah, it makes sense.

Tony Maietta (32:00):
Gillerman yeah, towering Inferno Shaft in
America, king Kong, I mean.
So yeah, these aren't I loveTowering Inferno, aren't I love
tower inferno?
But these aren't great, greatfilms.
So it's interesting, but hemade this film.
He made this film very romantic.
This is a very old-fashionedlooking romantic film.
Did you find that?

Brad Shreve (32:20):
yeah, I, I love the look, I mean it, just I I won
the one oscar was nominated forand one was costume design and
it was well deserved.
Yeah, you felt like you werethere.
You felt you didn't feel likeyou were watching, but you felt
like you stepped back in timeand were there.

Tony Maietta (32:37):
Yes, Sir Anthony Powell.

Brad Shreve (32:38):
The setting was great.
Everybody played their partsbeautifully.
You didn't feel like anybodywas acting their part.

Tony Maietta (32:44):
It's a definite time machine movie.
It really is.
You do feel like you'restepping back in time into this
fabulous era.
I mean, how many?
In a minute I would go back toCruise Down the Nile.
In a minute I would be on theOrient Express Hopefully there
wouldn't be any murders, butthat's okay, I'm still there.
Costumes and what's amazingabout his incredible costumes is
is they're very, and all goodcostume designers will tell you

(33:13):
this.
All costume designers designgood ones, design for the
character.
They're indicative of thecharacter and what's great about
Sir Anthony Powell's costumesis that they not only tell you
about the character and tell youthe story of the character you
know.
The clothing reveals the innerlife of the character.

(33:33):
So when you have a characterlike Mrs Otterborn, played by
the peerless Angela Lansbury inthis film, you know she's like
she's 10 times crazier thanNancy Mame.
So we kind of get what AngelaLansbury would be like had she
actually gotten to do the movieversion of the musical Mame,
because Salome Audubon is justpretty much Mame at the end of a

(33:55):
very long cocktail party.
She's just a little crazy anddrunk and nuts, but wonderful,
and so that's what's reallywonderful about his costumes.
And in addition to the costumes, we have the glorious
cinematography of Jack Cardiff.
Jack Cardiff is a legendarycinematographer in Hollywood.
We just talked about GregToland last year.

(34:16):
Cardiff is right up there.
Cardiff worked in color mostly,and all you got to do is watch
a little film called the RedShoes or a little film called
Black Narcissus, or a littlefilm called the African Queen,
black narcissist, or a littlefilm called the African Queen,
and you'll see what I'm talkingabout.
Sons and Lovers.
He was an expert at colorphotography, and the photography

(34:37):
in this also lends to that veryromantic feeling, along with
the score by Nina Rota, who alsoscored the Godfather.
So you have an incrediblesupport behind the cameras.
To give this incredible supportto the people in front of the
cameras, do you want to give alittle background about what

(34:58):
this film is about, and then wecan talk about some of the
behind the scenes stuff?
I just want to say before youstart, though, that and this is
very important, and this is whyI love this movie.
This is what is called in myand correct me if I'm wrong
about this because you're themystery writer expert.
A closed circle mystery thoseare my favorite.
That Christie does.

(35:19):
And what a closed circlemystery is is that everybody is
in one place.
They're not out and about, youknow, living their lives,
running around.
They're all assembled in oneplace for some reason or another
.
So you think about Murder onthe Orient Express, they're all
on the train, death in the Nile,they're all on this barge Evil
Under the Sun.
They're all on a resort.

(35:42):
And then there were nonethey're all on an island.
In some versions they're in amansion, a mansion which is out
in the middle of nowhere.
So what I love about that isthat you don't have so many
freaking options of who themurderer could be.
You have a set group of people,and that's, I think, why I love
this film is it's a closedcircle mystery.

(36:04):
So even though there are notall these millions of options,
the ending still stuns you, inmy opinion.

Brad Shreve (36:09):
Yeah, agatha's known for writing the cozy
mysteries and when you picture acozy mystery you think of a
little English village and anold lady like Miss Marple.
But really these movies fallunder that category because even
though they're not in a littlevillage in England, it is all
your people in one place.
It's a cozy environment,they're all there together and

(36:32):
there is not a lot of violencein a cozy mystery.
Now the movie's extended alittle bit more than christy did
.

Tony Maietta (36:38):
Well, but uh, not, you're not talking about this
movie.
This movie is a bloodbath.
I'm sorry.
There are five murders in thismovie and they're all very
violent no, there are murders inher murder mysteries.

Brad Shreve (36:53):
There has to be.
But in her book she doesn'tdescribe the gore and it says no
, it's he was shot or he wasstabbed.
And that's you pretty much canfill in the blanks from there,
yes, yes, yes.
No, it's not a slasher so ifyou heard the word cozy, you
wouldn't think of this, becausethey're on the nile in egypt,
but it is still a cozy mysteryor, as you said, a closed circle
.

Tony Maietta (37:14):
Yeah, closed circle mystery.
Why don't you tell us a littlebit about the maybe not too much
, but tell us a little bit aboutthe plot of Death on the Nile
Brad?

Brad Shreve (37:24):
Okay, we've got some different directions that
we come from.
I'll stick with the ones thatare the simplest.
We had Lynette Ridgway Doyle,who is played by Lois Chiles,
and we also had Simon Doyle, whois played by Simon McCorkindale
, and they are newly married Now.
Simon was dating Mia Farrow'scharacter, jacqueline de Belfort

(37:50):
.
Jacqueline de Belfort.

Tony Maietta (37:51):
Jacqueline de Belfort.

Brad Shreve (37:53):
Okay, so I'm trying to do this without getting too
complicated.
There are so many characters inthis yeah, there are a lot.
So anyway, mia Farrow is thestalker.
She is so hurt that Simon hadmarried her friend that while
they were on this honeymoon sheis stalking them.
They're on the pyramids and sheshows up.
Wherever they go, she shows up.

Tony Maietta (38:12):
Yeah, it's amazing .

Brad Shreve (38:13):
So they decide they're going to trick her and
get away, and rather than goingwhere she thought they were
going to go, they decide to takea cruise on the Nile.
Well, it just so happens to bethe cruise that Peter.

Tony Maietta (38:30):
Hercule Platho.

Brad Shreve (38:40):
Oh, thank you that Herr Kroppro is going on to
relax and take a vacation, or sohe says.
Yeah, exactly.
On top of that we have otherlong cast of characters, as is
typical in a mystery novel, andthe bride is found murdered in
her cabin.
So of course, the Mia Farrowcharacter, of course the Mia
Farrow character.

(39:01):
Let me get this again, and youdon't have to cut that the Mia
Farrow character is the primesuspect.
Except there's no way she couldhave done it based on where she
was and where people knew shewas, or so we think.

Tony Maietta (39:14):
Well, she shoots, simon.
They come to a head there.
So Jacqueline de Belfort whichis how Hercule Poirot says her
name has been following them,has been stalking them
throughout Egypt.
I love it.
They climb up this huge pyramidand they're out of breath and
they're sitting there leaningagainst the pyramid and suddenly
here comes Mia Farrow, not outof breath.
She's just there giving him thehistory of the pyramid.

(39:36):
It's very funny.
It's very funny.
So yeah, she's been stalkingthem through this entire time.
They think they're finallyalone on the car, neck on the
barge, but no, she's there withthis other cast of characters
and she gets so worked up thatone night she shoots Simon in
the leg and she's an hystericalmess.
So Simon has a wounded leg.

(39:58):
She gets taken off and is beingwatched by Maggie Smith's
character, who's a nurse.
And that's the night thatLynette Ridgway Doyle, who is an
heiress, is murdered.
So Jacqueline cannot be thekiller and neither can Simon,

(40:19):
because they're bothincapacitated at the time of the
murder.

Brad Shreve (40:21):
And that is the quandary that Hercule Poirot
finds himself in, and typical ofa mystery where you have a
strange coincidence, like awoman that lives in New England
town, where 75% of the peoplehave been murdered at one point
or another.
Everyone on this boat who couldthat be?
Everyone on this boat has amotive.
They don't all even know eachother, but they all have a

(40:42):
motive.

Tony Maietta (40:44):
So as in murder on the Orient Express, they all
have murders, Exactly as withmost murders.

Brad Shreve (40:49):
You know, a friend of mine was at a university
giving a speech and his murdersthey're all done at a university
and one of the collegeprofessors has to solve the
murder.
And one of the students raisedhis hands and said don't you
think it's ridiculous that therewould be so many murders at a
university?
He goes no.

(41:09):
Of course.
I mean, if people added up thenumber of people that have been
murdered at Oxford University,so yeah, murder mysteries are
ridiculous and that's fine, welove them anyway.
So yeah, would all these peoplehappen to be on Sparge at the
same time?

Tony Maietta (41:25):
No, it's part of your suspension of disbelief.

Brad Shreve (41:28):
You have to you know Exactly, I think.

Tony Maietta (41:29):
Angela Lansbury said one time about Jessica
Fletcher that someday you reallyhave to think about this woman.
That death stalks every singleday.
How many people in that damnCabot Cove?
And then she leaves Cabot CoveAnyway.

Brad Shreve (41:45):
Well, the BBC did a calculation to determine that
Cabot Cove, where JessicaFletcher lived, had a higher
murder rate than Nicaragua, andI love the theory that Jessica
was a mass murderer.

Tony Maietta (41:59):
But anyway, go on, so anyway.
So this is what happened.
So Lynette Ridgway Doyle isfound dead and, as I said, the
two main suspects could not havedone it because they both have
airtight alibis.
They were both incapacitated,so we don't want to give away
too much of the plot.
There are more deaths, one ofwhich is Jane Birkin's character

(42:23):
, louise Bourget, who is LoisChild's maid.
She ends up with her throatslit.

Brad Shreve (42:31):
I was really sad for her.

Tony Maietta (42:32):
I liked her well, I was really sad for angela
lansbury, for salome autoborn,because salome autoborn takes it
right between the eyes.
Angela lansbury has figured outwho the murderer is.
She saw someone and just asshe's about to reveal who it was
, she saw boom right between theeyes and falls over, and that
was the death.
That shocked me.
I was like no, no, not angelaLansbury.

Brad Shreve (42:56):
It was shocking.
I think I was sad for the otherone because she was the most
down-to-earth character.

Tony Maietta (43:00):
And Salome Audubon is a romance novelist and this
character that Angela Lansburycreated let me just talk about
this character for a minute,because there's no top to her
performance.
It's so broad but it's socontrolled.
Her performance it's so broadbut it's so controlled.
It's way out there, but justenough.

(43:20):
So it's not too much.
And that's the brilliant thingabout Angela Lansbury.
I love what she calls Proro.
She can't call him HerculeProro.
What does she call him Brad?
Oh, I don't remember.
She calls him Hercules Porridge.

Brad Shreve (43:33):
I don't remember that at all.
I didn't catch that.
You must, you must be herculesporridge.
I feel like I didn't watch themovie, that I didn't catch that
and, as we know about angelalansbury, angela lansbury was
never young.

Tony Maietta (43:47):
I mean, she was born at 45 and she stayed 45 for
most of her career.
She's so brilliant in this film, as I said, she's kind of like
the extreme version of AuntieMame, had she been able to do.

Brad Shreve (44:00):
Mame, that's exactly what I was going to say.
She reminded me of Auntie Mame.

Tony Maietta (44:04):
She was.
So she finally in a way got toplay Mame on film.
Unfortunately, as I said, shegets it between the eyes when
she's just about to reveal whothe murderer is.
But that's all right, becausePoirot has figured it out.
And indeed another hallmark ofthese Christie films and of many
of these whodunits, there is atrial air quotes scene at the

(44:26):
end where the detective whetherit be Poirot or Miss Marple or
Sherlock Holmes explains whathappened.
It's called the trial scene,and in the trial scene, hercule
Poirot reveals that the murdererof Lynette Doyle is indeed
Simon Doyle, her husband, and,in cahoots with Jacqueline de

(44:50):
Belfort, mia Farrow.
Well, how is that possible?
How in the world did these twopeople, who were incapacitated,
commit these murders?
Brad?

Brad Shreve (44:59):
oh, a very convoluted, a very convoluted
scheme.
I have to sit here and work itout through my head.

Tony Maietta (45:06):
I'll tell you right now because, yes, please,
I can remember it, but it'sgonna take me I will.

Brad Shreve (45:12):
typical.
I shook my head because I'mlike this required everything to
be spot on, but go on, that'sokay.

Tony Maietta (45:17):
Yeah well, it's an amazing plot Because when the
incident happens whichincapacitated Simon, jacqueline
did not really shoot Simon, shepretended to shoot Simon.
He falls over, she's a mess.
They take her away.
He gets up because he ain'tshot folks.
He runs across the other side,he takes his shoes off, pitter

(45:38):
patter, pitter patter the otherside of the ship, shoots his
wife, comes back in and thenactually shoots himself in the
leg, which I'm just like wow, hedoes all this in five minutes,
okay, so he's really shot.
So by the time they come backto take care of him, after
they've taken care of jacquelinede belfort, mia farrow, he's

(45:59):
indeed shot.
And then mia farrow, akajacqueline, commits the other
murders.
She slits the throat of louisebourget uh.
She shoots, uh, salome autobornuh, right between the eyes.
And in the end, when haculeperot reveals they're the
murderers, at first they fight.
They're like no, no, no, thisis crazy, you're crazy, as they

(46:21):
always do.
You'll never get, you'll neverdo this.
And then he gives them thisridiculous story about a test
that that police can do with waxto find gunpowder residue on
their fingers, which fools themand they confess this never
would have held in court, buthello.
So rather than take theirpunishment.
In the film version and this isdifferent from the book in the

(46:44):
film version, jacqueline pullsout the gun, shoots Simon and
shoots herself.
So there's five bodies at theend of this very funny movie,
but incredibly, incredibly darkand violent film.

Brad Shreve (47:00):
Well, it wouldn't have held up in court, but he
was just trying to get aconfession out of them.
Right, exactly, that's all hewas trying to do and he did
succeed that way and in the bookand I want to talk about later
on.

Tony Maietta (47:08):
I want to talk about the differences between
the book and the film.
But in the book Jacquelinetells Poirot you know, first of
all he doesn't have the trialscene.
In the book Simon is not there.
He goes to Simon on his own andSimon confesses.
And she says to Poirot if Simonhadn't confessed there's no way
this would have held up incourt.
But Simon is simple.

(47:29):
He's simple, simon, and hescrewed it up.
So in the end she also shootsSimon and and herself.
But it's as they're leaving thebarge.
It's not in front of everybodyduring the trial scene.

Brad Shreve (47:42):
But this is a film, you gotta do it though and let
me go back to where I was saying, that I think the writer must
play fair with the reader, andthis is something I strive to
make sure I do, because itdrives me crazy.
I've seen this broken downwhere it shows okay, if you
figured this out, you may havebeen able to figure out the
story.
I'm sorry.
No, the fact that a guy isgoing to run from one end of the

(48:05):
boat to the other hoping thatnobody happens to walk into that
room while he's gone, kill hiswife, run back then shoot
himself again, still hoping thatnobody sees what walks in the
room at that particular time,it's just ludicrous.
It's just ludicrous.
Five minutes, it drove me alittle crazy, but it wasn't just
that, because, like I said, inmystery, you got to accept some.

(48:26):
Yeah, you have to suspend yourdisbelief yeah, you have to
suspend disbelief.
Yeah, that part bothered me now,the trial part that you're
talking about, where thedetective brings everybody into
a room that never happens, justlike when they read a will.
Very rare do they bring all thefamily in together to read a
will, but those are dramatic anddone well for movies and

(48:48):
sometimes in books, so I have noissues with those.

Tony Maietta (48:52):
Yeah, it's a device that's in all yeah it
makes it fun.

Brad Shreve (48:55):
I'm okay with that, but the the not giving the
reader a chance to figure it out, that will always drive me
crazy.
I enjoyed this movie because Ilike the characters, I like the
setting, but that pissed me offand it will always piss me off
in any mystery off my ios.
Well, yeah, and I?

Tony Maietta (49:12):
no, I agree with you, and it's kind of ludicrous
that they would carry Simon, whocan't move he shot himself in
the leg from his sickbed in DrBessemer's cabin to the lounge
for this last reveal.
I mean, come on, it's a bitmuch.
In the Suchet adaption thetrial, the reveal, actually
happens in Simon's room, but inthis film version they obviously

(49:36):
carried simon into the loungeso he's laying on the sofa.
Well, there's more room thereyes, when this all happens and
they're all seated in asemi-circle, as hakuporo
explains everything.
So, yeah, you have to, you haveto suspend your disbelief, but
it's so much fun, and I thinkone of the reasons why it's so
much fun again is this cast.
These films were famous fortheir international all-star

(49:56):
cast.
So, in addition to some ofthese people we've mentioned,
I'll just go through them againpeter ustinov we talked about
david niven, who we haven'ttalked about, plays colonel race
, who appears in four christybooks and in this one he's just
pretty much uh, ustinov sidekick.
You know he's, he's he's in thearmy.
He's.
They're friends, they've knowneach other.

(50:16):
They run into each other, airquotes, um, before they get on
the barge.
We later find out why you, whyniven was really there.
Um, it wasn't, they didn't justrun into each other, um, but
it's kind of wonderful becauseyou know they knew each other.
Ustinov and niven had arelationship during world war ii
.
Uhstinov was what they termed aBatman.

(50:38):
Do you know what that is, brad?
Because I found thisfascinating.
He was basically a Batman.
In a war is a soldier or airmanwho's assigned to a commission
officer as a personal servant.
So Peter Ustinov was DavidNiven's servant during the war.
Isn't that interesting?
So they knew each other theyknew each other.

(51:01):
We have, as I said, the lusciousSimon McCorkindale who plays
Simon Doyle.
We have Lois Childs who playsLynette.
Now the first choice forLynette Lynette, first of all,
is an American heiress in thisfilm, not in the book.
In this film she's an Americanheiress.
She has British ties, obviouslybecause she's living in the

(51:21):
British countryside.
The first choice to playLynette was Sybil Shepard, but
Sybil Shepard didn't want to doit, so Lois Charles was cast.
Lois Charles was cast.
Lois Charles was pretty green.
At this point she had done theWay we Were, she had done the
Great Gatsby opposite Mia Farrow, and she would go on to become
a Bond girl in Moonraker.

(51:43):
And I shudder to tell you hername Brad in Moonraker.
You know how they did this.
Her name was Holly Goodhead.
I can't, that's all I gotta sayabout that.
You know how they did this.
Her name was Holly Goodhead.
I can't, that's all I got tosay about that.
I mean, how did they get awaywith these names?

Brad Shreve (51:59):
Well, to go off on a tangent of the Great Gatsby.
That movie was horrendous, andMoonraker is my least favorite
pun film, so she doesn't rankhigh on my book, except for this
movie.
How would you like to work yourentire life and not'd be your?

(52:21):
Your claim to fame is yourholly goodhead.
I just all right, moving on,moving on.
I, I, george kennedy yeah nowhe was the american lawyer and
he is so out of place in thismovie and I wonder if that was
on purpose.

Tony Maietta (52:32):
Well, he's your typical American.
He's Christie's dig at atypical American lawyer.
He is Lynette's lawyer, whoagain accidentally run into.
But we find out later in thefilm that it was no accident.
He came there on purposebecause he's been embezzling
from her and now that she'smarried she comes into her

(52:52):
fortune and he's got to makesure that he gets a power of
attorney before she comes intoher fortune and he's got to make
sure that he gets a power ofattorney before she comes into
her fortune.
It's very complex, but yeah,george kennedy's never been one
of my favorites.
He's a good actor, he's anoscar winner, I know this, but
he's never been one of myfavorites and he is kind of out
of place you know, great firechief, police detective,
whatever, but I I don't like himas a leading man.

Brad Shreve (53:12):
I don't think he's that that talented.
And uh, he just I I would sayhe was good in this role because
he did really stand out like asore thumb, but I he was the
only one I felt was miscast.

Tony Maietta (53:24):
The rest were great yeah, well, someone who
definitely wasn't miscast andthis is our second week in a row
I mean, we talk about her everyweek, so I really can't even
say that.
But but, of course, playing MrsVan Schuyler, the American
heiress, who's also akleptomaniac, is the one and
only Ruth Elizabeth Davis, BettyDavis and um, you know there's

(53:47):
always stories about howdifficult Betty is on sets and
all that bullshit, and everyoneto a T in this film said she was
a dream, the utmostprofessional, the utmost.
You know, if their call timewas 3 am, Betty'd be there at 2
am.
That's a little early.
If their call time was 6 am,Betty'd be there at 5 am.

(54:07):
So, anyway, so she doesn't havea lot to do in this film.
She does.
She plays an era.
She plays an old heiress, MrsVan Schuyler, who's yes, she's a
kleptomaniac.
In the film she's just greedy,but in the book she's a
kleptomaniac.
And Davis loved the idea ofworking with Ustinov.
She loved the idea of Niven,Lansbury and Smith.

(54:31):
She loved all these people and,by all accounts, as I said, she
was a doll on the set.
But there were, there were, acouple of issues.
Uh, according to Anthony Powell, the costume designer, uh, when
he first found out that she wasgoing to be dressing her for
this film, she called him to herConnecticut home.
She sent a car for him.
He said she was verymagnanimous.
She, you know she.
Everything was wonderful.
He got to the house and shegreeted them in a robe.

(54:53):
They walked inside, she turnedaround, she dropped the robe and
she stood there naked in frontof him and said this is what you
have to work with.
But he said that she was anabsolute doll Once he showed her
the sketches and she's like wethink the same way.
I agree with you, she was, wasfine.
She was also very close to miafarrow.

(55:15):
She knew mia farrow since miawas a young girl and, um they,
mia's father directed her in amovie called john paul jones in
59 I think, and mia was actuallyone of the people who came to
betty's defense after thepublication of my mother's
keeper bd's book about her andsaid this is absolute bullshit.
You know, I knew, I knew BD, Iknew Betty.

(55:35):
None of this is true.
So along with Betty, we havethe yin to her yang.
We have the incredible MaggieSmith playing Bowers, who is Mrs
Van Schuyler's companionnursemaid and is just one of
Maggie Smith's funniestcharacterizations ever.

(55:57):
Do you think she's a lesbian,brad?

Brad Shreve (55:59):
Well, I know in the newer version they made her a
lesbian.
They certainly I'll have toread the book because they did
act like a lesbian couple.
Well, I don't know.
I don't think they were alesbian couple.
They acted like a bickeringcouple Let me, I don't mean,
they acted like a bickeringcouple.
That's the only reason why Isaid they acted like a lesbian
couple.
Yes, they had a wonderfulrelationship.

(56:19):
Maggie Smith has never lookedso dour.
We just talked about MaggieSmith in Murder by Death and how
gorgeous she looked andbeautiful, curvaceous body.
No, she's very pallidcomplexion.
She's usually in a tuxedo suitor some kind of version of a
tuxedo suit.
Christy had many lesbians inher books.
I think it was in A Murderer'sAnnounced there's a lesbian

(56:48):
couple, so there were manylesbians in Christy's books.
So yeah, bowers, you kind ofget the feeling that she is a
lesbian.
And Betty said that she andMaggie talked about doing a
sequel film just about Mrs VanSchuyler and Bowers, because
they had so much fun making thisfilm.
So she's a little bit wasted,but she's still so.
She's Maggie Smith.
You know what I mean.
No matter what she does, she'shysterical.

(57:09):
When she came on the screen I'mlike, oh, she's so young but she
looks so dour.
Yeah, she's very dour.

Tony Maietta (57:15):
Well, it's the character.
It's the character.
You know, it's very funny.
Angela Lansbury talked aboutwhen they were filming.
When they were making the filmon the Carnac, they'd have to
get up at 3 am Because they hadto stop filming by early
afternoon.
It was just too hot, yeah.
So they were on this luxurioushotel, she said, in the middle

(57:40):
of the Nile, and they would geton a boat from the hotel and go
to the Karnak, the barge, andthere were two dressing rooms on
the Karnak, one was for the menand one was for the women.
And what they were were thesebig state rooms with bunk beds
on both sides and then an openarea in the center.
And the open area in the centerwas where you got costumed.
So can you imagine you're inthis one room and you're in the

(58:01):
middle getting costumed.
Say, you're Olivia Husseygetting costumed, and to your
right, lying on one bed, isBetty Davis, to your other side
is Angela Lansbury, then aboveBetty Davis is Mia Farrow and
above Angela Lansbury is JaneBirkin.
Now it's your turn, angie.
All right, let me get downthere.
I mean, it's just this is.
I love this kind of stuff aboutthese movies because it just

(58:25):
you'll never see the likes ofthis again.
You'll never see the likes ofthis again, you know.
Did you know who jane birkinwas?
brad who plays um lois, child'smaid who plays uh, louise
bourget no one of the murdervictims and I'm thinking now, I
should know well, think abouther name for a minute jane
birkin.

(58:46):
I'll tell you yeah, you put meon the spot.
I don't know okay, she was a.
Jane birkin was like an it girlof the 60s in London.
She was born in London but shewas in Blow Up.
She was a big movie star inFrance in the 60s.
She's also in Evil Under theSun, but you might know her

(59:09):
because of a certain bag that isvery, very notorious these days
.
Have you heard of a Birkin bag?

Brad Shreve (59:17):
I don't know anything about fashion.

Tony Maietta (59:19):
You've never heard of a Birkin bag.

Brad Shreve (59:20):
I'm one of these guys that knows nothing about
fashion.

Tony Maietta (59:22):
Okay, never mind.

Brad Shreve (59:24):
Have you seen the way I dress?

Tony Maietta (59:25):
Yes, jane Birkin of the Birkin bag.
And here's the story behind theBirkin bag.
Jane Birkin was notorious foralways carrying big straw
baskets around instead of purses, wherever she went.
She was on a plane seated nextto the CEO of Hermes and the
basket fell out of the overheadand Birkin complained she could

(59:46):
never find a leather bag largeenough that she liked.
And in 1984, hermes created theBirkin bag, which became a
notorious symbol of wealth andstatus.
And it's funny because in 2015,she asked Hermes to remove her
name from the bag because of theinhumane methods used to
acquire the skins for the bag.

(01:00:08):
So it kind of came back to bite, her, back to biter, um.
But yes, jane birkin was, as Isaid, a big star in france and,
you know, will live in infamybecause of the birkin bag.
Uh, we have jack warden as drbesner, who does a okay german
accent.
Um, jack warden was very, veryworking a lot.
This time he had done shampoo.
Heaven can wait.

(01:00:28):
All the president's men, he wasvery active.
Olivia hussey as RosalieOtterborn, who was Angela
Lansbury's daughter.
One more, two more GeorgeKennedy as the attorney, arthur
Pennington, and, of course, thewonderful, fabulous Mia Farrow

(01:00:49):
as Jacqueline de Belfort.
Now, you told me when we weretalking about Rosemary's Baby,
that you really hadn't seen Miain much.
What did you think of her inDeath on the Nile?

Brad Shreve (01:00:58):
I thought she was great for the role.
Yeah, she was the leastglamorous looking of all the
other characters, which isreally neither here nor there,
but that really caught my eye.
But I thought she was perfectfor the role.
She was irritating as hell, asshe was supposed to be.

Tony Maietta (01:01:18):
I absolutely hated her guts.
Well, here's the thing.
I think it's one of her mostunderrated performances.
I think it is a wonderfulperformance because Mia, you
know, like I said, mia is sounderrated she doesn't get
enough credit for the reallygreat actress that she is.
She does so much with her bodylanguage in this film, you know,
she tells us so much.
She's awkward in the beginning,she's almost a child.
The way she holds herself, theway she dresses.
She's so unassuming becauseshe's trying to take us all in.

(01:01:41):
You know, we think she's thispoor, plain Jane.
You know this poor Jacqueline.
Her boyfriend leaves her for hermuch richer friend and then
later on in the boat, if younotice, she really begins to
come into her own.
She becomes a little slinky andseductive.
She really embodies the mysteryof this character.

(01:02:02):
She captures all the complexand there's a certain madness
that's just inherent in MiaFarrow.
We talked about this duringRosemary's Baby.
There's a certain off-kilterquality Mia Farrow has and it
fits this character perfectlywhen you find out in the end
that she is the mastermindbehind all of this.

(01:02:24):
It's not Simon Simon's pretty,but he ain't too bright.
Jacques Leline has created thisentire thing of him marrying
Lynette to get her money andthen killing her.
And that is what is so greatabout Mia's performance is, by
the end, when she shoots Simonand then shoots herself,
monsieur Poirot bang.

(01:02:44):
You're like, wow, this womantotally took me in and she was
the mastermind behind this wholeseries of murders.

Brad Shreve (01:02:53):
Yeah, I thought she was great.
Like I said, I hated her, butyou're supposed to hate her.
Yeah, you are supposed to hateher.
She was one of these peoplethat you know that just won't
give up and won't let go whichwas all part of her facade, but
she played brilliantly.

Tony Maietta (01:03:07):
It's all part of the plan.
It's all part of the plan.
Okay, before I talk about thedifferences between the book and
the film and I'm not going togo too much into it, because
this is a film podcast, not abook podcast but I do want to
have a couple of things Do youwant to tell us a little bit
about how this film performedwhen it was released?

Brad Shreve (01:03:24):
Yeah, as I said, it was only nominated for one
Oscar and it won for that oneOscar, which was the costume
design well-deserved, except Idon't know what else was that
year, but I'm going to saywell-deserved.
It had a budget of about $8million and it grossed.
I've seen different numbersaround, but two of my sources
had the same number, so I'mgoing to go with those and that
was 18 million.
Now, this was at the time.

(01:03:45):
It's earned a lot more sincethen.
So, $8 million budget, $18million gross worldwide yeah, I
growth worldwide.

Tony Maietta (01:03:51):
Yeah, I mean.
So that's.
You know that ain't potatoes.
I mean, that's still very good,very respectable.
So there were, as I said, therewere three more versions of
Christie films, of Christienovels that were made into films
, and I don't think we'll talkabout Evil Under the Sun one day
, but I love Evil Under the Sun.
It's probably it's so close tothis as my favorite, mostly

(01:04:11):
because of Maggie Smith.
Maggie Smith is much morecolorful in Evil Under the Sun,
but it's another wonderful.
It's a wonderful adaptation.

Brad Shreve (01:04:19):
Now as far as how the critics go on this on Rotten
Tomatoes, it has a critic scoreof 79% and the audience score
is the exact same thing 79%.
So pretty well.

Tony Maietta (01:04:32):
Yeah, I think that's pretty good.
Can't ask for more than that.
So let me go a little bit.
I'm just going to give you acouple differences with the book
.
Obviously, in the book thereare many more characters.
The most interesting characteris a character, mrs Allerton and
her son Tim, and they're jewelthieves and their relationship

(01:04:56):
is very suddenly last summer.
're very sebastian venable andmrs venable.
And I guess they thought youknow what?
We got too many characters herewho can we get rid of easily.
And they thought okay, thejewel thieves and what's
interesting about?
They're in the suchet adaption.
So if you watch the davidsuchet version of this, they're
in there.
You'll see what I'm talkingabout, about the suddenly last
summer.
But what's?
Because of the fact that theygot rid of the jewel thieves,

(01:05:16):
they also had to jettison asubplot about Lynette's jewels,
lynette's pearls being fake, notimportant.
I think one of the mostinteresting things is is that in
the book Lynette, aka LoisChilds, is English.
She's not American.
So I'm thinking when they madethis, maybe they just thought

(01:05:39):
that Lois Childs really can'thandle a British dialect.
We better make her American.
But so she's American.
Interestingly, in the DavidSuchet adaption they kept her
american but they cast a britishactress and the british actress
then had to do an americandialect.

(01:06:02):
Now why don't you just cast anamerican?
But you know why, you know whothey cast.
You know who played her in thedavid suchet adaption.
If you're going to castsomebody, no, I didn't.
Emily blunt in one of her, oneof her very first roles and,
like you know, she doesn't okayamerican dialect.
She's not emma thompson, shecan't do it, but she's, it's
okay.
But you're just like wow withher delicious british dialect.

(01:06:25):
Why didn't you just keep herbritish anyway?
Uh, mia farrow is half british,half american.
Her mother is from SouthCarolina.
In the book and you're toldthat Jackie is a crack shot.
Her grandfather taught her howto shoot in South Carolina.
So when she zeroes in on SalomeAudubon you can see why she was

(01:06:46):
able to do that.
And also in the book MrsAudubon's alcoholism is not
quite played for the laughs thatit's played for in this film.
I mean, it's more of a seriousissue in the book.
And in the book her daughteractually drops her bottles off

(01:07:09):
the side of the boat.
So she's a suspect at one point.
But so those are just some ofthe changes.
So she's a suspect at one point.
But so those are just some ofthe changes.
You know they have to.
They have to make some changes,otherwise that doesn't.
You know.
In the book Mrs Van Schuyler istraveling with her niece and
Bowers.
Simon is still just as stupidin the book as he is in the
movie, but just as gorgeous.

(01:07:30):
And in the book Poirot had seenJackie and Simon before all of
this began and he overhears aconversation they had before
Jackie introduces him to Lynette.
So that's just kind of aninteresting thing.
And the the movie she's herthroat's slit.
It's still very violent, by theway.

(01:07:56):
But I think that those are someinteresting differences between
the book and the movie.

Brad Shreve (01:08:01):
The book and it's a reminder I want to give the
listener please do not say thebook was better than the movie.
You can't compare.
Say it was a good book, or andit was a good movie, or vice
versa, but don't compare the two, because you can't take a
60,000 word or more book and putit into a two-hour movie.

(01:08:21):
It just can't be done.
I respect that.

Tony Maietta (01:08:24):
No, c'est vrai.
C'est vrai, mon ami.
C'est vrai, you can't.
I mean, there are two differentanimals two different entities,
as I always like to say.
Well, do we have anything moreto say about 1978's Death on the
Nile Brad?

Brad Shreve (01:08:38):
No, I think we've said it all.
I got off my high horse aboutMr Writing and gave a good
rundown of the movie.

Tony Maietta (01:08:48):
This was fun.
I'm glad we did this.
I'm glad we talked about it.
I love this film and I reallyurge people.
If you're going to watch anyversion of Death on the Nile for
a good time, I absolutelyrecommend the Suchet version,
but watch this one because Imean, come on, how many dames in
one place do you need?
Jeez, it's an embarrassment ofdames.

Brad Shreve (01:09:06):
I do have one thing to say before we go.
Yeah, listener, if you'velistened this far, we're going
to tell you you're either aglutton for punishment or you
like this show.
So we're going to assume youlike this show.
So if you like this show, whydon't you tell others?
Let others know that you enjoyit, so that they can enjoy it
and do a review on Apple podcastor on Spotify rate review and

(01:09:31):
let others know.
It would be most appreciated.

Tony Maietta (01:09:34):
That's absolutely true, absolutely true.
Now that we're into our secondseason, it would be even more
appreciated.
So, brad, I guess there's onlyone thing left to say, but, in
the spirit of our bon ami, I'mgoing to say it like this no,
tony, I'm going to say it likethis.

(01:09:57):
No, Tony Dissing goodbye, careto mush.