I'm Here for the Cruising: Death on the Nile and the Opulent Poirotisms

Every couple of years I end up re-watching my fave set of Agatha Christie film adaptation from the brief golden years of these big screen murder mysteries (1974-1982). I don't know why these adaptations dropped out of favor by the mid-80s. Maybe it was too much focus on blockbusters, Tom Cruise, and Reagan-era stupidity.

But for a short window, these opulent ("You own EVERYTHING!"), lush, luxe, and plush British-made productions were all the rage. Starting with the most famous, 1974's Murder on the Orient Express. With a cast of Oscar-winning actors and the famed Sidney Lumet directing, it was a hit and opened the door for the next production, Death on the Nile.

Bette Davis, Maggie Smith (never been young, but always been fabulous), demure Olivia Hussey, Angela Lansbury (OTT, draggy, and brilliant here), melancholic Jane Birkin, chilly Lois Chiles, and flittery, nervous Mia Farrow doing her flittery, nervous best in one of the lead roles, the women of Nile are the true shining stars of the movie. The men just recede into the background, save for the stellar Peter Ustinov, probably the best Hercule Poirot I've seen yet.

Lansbury serving looks:

Forget the twitchy, mannered, and grotesquely painted Albert Finney as Poirot in Orient Express, supremely capable but also completely off-putting. Ustinov has a lightness of touch and a sunnier disposition in Nile, which he carries over into the next and last 20th century big-screen adaptation, the wonderful Evil Under the Sun (1982)  

Come for the mystery, stay for the costumes, set design, period details, bombastic score, and scenery chewing. Oh, and Simon MacCorkindale.

Just when we thought Agatha Christie was bound for an afterlife of only stuffy, stodgy, slow-moving BBC TV adaptations, word is that there is a new big screen Hollywood adaptation coming this November. Once again, going back to the big leagues, Murder on the Orient Express will be remade, under the direction of Kenneth Branagh. He will also star as Poirot and lead a cast including Johnny Depp, Michelle Pfieffer, Penelope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, and Judi Dench.

Can't wait. And there better be a movie poster, a hand-drawn illustration with all of the lead cast's floating heads. We expect that. We deserve it. In the opulent world of Christie, we own everything.