Clip: 0:00

Mr Doyle, I know who killed Louise Bourget. What you say, you know who killed Louise. Ah, come not to shout you, fra Aderborn, you cannot be here. I forbid it. My patient is resting, but I must. You see, it's vitally important. You see, I know all. All. I tell you, mr Doyle. I tell you that I, salome Otterborn, have succeeded where frail men have faltered. I am a finer sleuth than even the great Hercule, mrs Otterball, for God's sake calm down.

Clip: 0:30

Now tell us the whole story from the beginning, Madam. Do I understand that you have evidence to show who killed Mrs Doyle? You do, and I have. I saw who killed Louise Bourget with my own eyes.

Clip: 0:48

Recontinue, madame.

Clip: 0:50

I happened to be in the stern of the boat talking to one of the crew who was showing me a most intriguing sight A buffalo and a camel yoked together tilling the soil. You saw this by moonlight, of course, madame. Yes, I did, I have amazingly good eyesight. Anyway, I left him and suddenly, as I rounded the corner, I heard a scream. It came from Louise Bourget's cabin. Then I saw the cabin door open. As the door opened wider, I saw that it was

Clip: 1:36

Hello, I'm film historian Tony Maietta.

Brad Shreve: 1:39

And I'm Brad Shreve, who's just a guy who likes movies.

Tony Maietta: 1:42

We discuss movies and television from Hollywood's golden age. We go behind the scenes and share our opinions too.

Brad Shreve: 1:49

And, of course, being the average guy, my opinions are the ones that matter.

Tony Maietta: 1:54

As does your self-delusion. Welcome to Going Hollywood.

Brad Shreve: 2:00

Tony, are you familiar with the rules of mystery writing?

Tony Maietta: 2:04

The rules of mystery writing. I have to say, Brad, that I am not. Please enlighten me.

Brad Shreve: 2:11

Well, you know, writing is like any kind of creative outlet. They say there's rules, but are there really rules? They're kind of more guidelines, but some of them I do adhere to. But in 1928, this is in Agatha Christie's era In 1928, ss Van Dyne wrote the 20 Rules of Mystery Writing and then in 1929, the next year, ronald Knox wrote the Ten Commandments of Detective Fiction. Now their lists were pretty similar. They were basically saying here is how you play fair with the reader, and they included things such as the criminal must is how you play fair with the reader, and they included things such as the criminal must be in the early parts of the story. It's not fair to bring the criminal up at the last chapter. The murder must be by natural and no supernatural means.

Brad Shreve: 2:56

Now there are supernatural mysteries, but that's a different genre. If you have a secret passage or a doorway, you can only have one per book. The detective must declare any clues he discovers openly to the reader.

Tony Maietta: 3:10

Wow, lots of rules. They're good rules, right, yeah, but lots of them.

Brad Shreve: 3:13

But two of my favorites. One is one that Ronald Knox wrote and his rule was no Chinaman must figure in the story. He goes on to say why, and we won't repeat that. The other one was by SS Van Dyne. His role, said this, shows the era. Servants such as butlers, footmen, valets and gatekeepers and cooks must not be the culprit, because the culprit must be a person who is worthwhile.

Tony Maietta: 3:50

These are terrible rules.

Brad Shreve: 3:52

So basically, the butler can't do it according to these rules and contrary to what everybody believes, Agatha never said the butler did it.

Tony Maietta: 4:01

Well, my God, the butler was practically the only one who didn't do it. Agatha Christie. Actually, she does have a butler that does it.

Brad Shreve: 4:08

She does. Somebody disguised as a butler.

Tony Maietta: 4:12

Yes, exactly, yes, exactly. I think in the three-act murders. Anyway, for people who don't know why that people are asking themselves why the hell are we talking about mysteries? People are asking themselves why the hell are we talking about mysteries? Listener, today we are going to talk about from 1978, Death on the Nile, Not the recent Kenneth Branagh travesty no, because this is a classic Hollywood podcast. And 1978, to me, classic year. I'm very excited about this, Brad. I wanted to do Death on the Nile for many reasons. I'm excited because it's our first mystery and it's our first British film, and this movie is a boatload of dames. Let me just get that right from the beginning. It's top-heavy, it's a boatload of 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 all together, Dame Agatha Christie.

Brad Shreve: 5:15

Oh, I thought you were going to say Peter Ustinov.

Tony Maietta: 5:17

Oh Dame Peter Ustinov.

Tony Maietta: 5:22

And the reason why I gave up that list is when we get later into about Agatha Christie and her writing, that's when what I just talked about will come into play. Yeah, I'm excited. I don't think I ever watched this movie. I had watched Murder on the Orient Express from the 70s many times.

Tony Maietta: 5:38

And.

Brad Shreve: 5:39

I thought I watched Death on the Nile. I watched the recent one and I like oh, this is shit uh. So when you suggested the 70s one, I thought god, do we really want to do this? I'm like what the hell?

Tony Maietta: 5:52

I was pleasantly surprised can somebody please stop kenneth brown on? Can we just stop him in any way?

Brad Shreve: 6:02

I gotta say I think his murder on the oregon express was better than the 70s version well, but yeah, but he becomes a superhero.

Tony Maietta: 6:09

Okay, hercule poirot is not a superhero. He shouldn't be. He shouldn't be dueling with murderers on moving train. Okay, I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna no, no, no, this is not about. This is about the 1978 uh emi brit British film Death on the Night with an international cast, as I just mentioned. We just talked about all the dames on board We've also got. Are we going to say Ustinov or Ustinov?

Brad Shreve: 6:35

I always say Ustinov, let's say Ustinov.

Tony Maietta: 6:37

Yeah, we have some. There's some pronunciations here. We've got Peter Ustinov as the one, the only Hercule Poirot. We've got Jane Birkin. We've got Lois. Are we going to say Chili's or Child's? We'll say Chili's.

Brad Shreve: 6:51

That's what I heard last.

Tony Maietta: 6:52

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 George Kennedy, dame Angela Lansbury, dame Maggie Smith, dame David Niven and the luscious Dame Simon McCorkendale and Dame Jack Warden. It's funny because we've had luscious every episode we've done. If we're going to count Mel Brooks, we've had a luscious leading man for every episode so far this season.

Brad Shreve: 7:23

That we have and I'm all for that yeah, it's, it's, it's wonderful.

Tony Maietta: 7:27

So I I love this movie. Um, before we go into the christy in the background, I just want to say, you know this, it's so funny because I remember seeing this movie as a kid. I didn't see this is. I saw this first. I hadn't seen a murder on the ornate express, I hadn't seen evil under the sun, I hadn't seen any of it. I saw this one first and and it stuck with me. It was one of a number of movies that were on Showtime. Now, back in the day, do you remember this, when there were only, you know, there was 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13 television channel stations.

Tony Maietta: 8:01

I heard about that era stations, I heard about that era Well anyway, I think it must've been in 1979, something amazing happened and cable came to my hometown and children listening out there. What that meant was was that you got a box in the mail shipped to you that you put on your TV set and you would put your TV set to channel four and there was a button on this box. And you would put your TV set to channel four and there was a button on this box and you would push that button and it was like Dorothy walking into Oz. Suddenly there was a world of unfiltered adult entertainment at the ready and that's where I saw first saw Death in the Nile, first saw the Towering Inferno, first saw High Anxiety. Anyway, it goes about saying is that this movie, this movie had an effect on me and every subsequent Christie movie I've seen and I love many of them, many of them I do not. Um, this movie to me is still number one because it's my first. It's my first one.

Brad Shreve: 9:03

I don't know when my first agatha christie movie was. I would think it's probably murder on the orient express. I remember watching it with my mom. She was a lot of people and uh she, um, I was okay with it. I was excited because it was a mystery and I, even as a little kid I knew I was into mysteries. But uh, I don't remember being wowed.

Tony Maietta: 9:23

Really Okay.

Brad Shreve: 9:24

I remember the ending wowed me. I remember being wowed, it was very untraditional but-.

Tony Maietta: 9:29

I remember being wowed by the violence. There is a lot of violence For a fairly-. This film has a very humorous tone. Okay, it's very much it's a comic film. You have some comic performances which we will get into. Angela Lansbury is peerless in this film. She's so wonderful, but there's a lot of violence. It's the best I've ever seen her. It's a lot of violence, and that's what's fascinating to me about it. But I think we need to dust something off Brad, because hello, duh, we're talking about an Agatha Christie whodunit.

Tony Maietta: 10:28

So, needless to say, this is a huge spoiler alert to anybody who hasn't seen any of the versions 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 come back and listen to us. The chambermaid did it. But before we get, before we get 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 who the, the woman that this incredible, all these incredible mysteries came out of, the mind of that's an awkward sentence the woman whose mind this came out of?

Brad Shreve: 10:53

okay. So the movie is based on the book by agatha christie, who we all have heard of and know. I, as a mystery writer, I am eternally grateful for agatha, who really sprung forward the mystery novel to the masses. I mean, she is the best-selling novelist in history. She has sold four billion copies 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 famous for writing Mousetrap, which opened in 1952. And I'm sure you know, Tony, that was the longest running play. It only ended in 2020 because of 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 accolades under her belt she does, now she does to kind of give an idea where I'm not gonna go get too much in the weeds here about mysteries, or maybe I will to kind of give people an idea of what akitha christie did. The very first mystery novel came out in 1841. It was written by edgar allen poe. It's called Murders on the Rue Moirgue. I'm not very good at French. And then Sherlock Holmes, who we all are familiar with, came out in 1887. A lot of people think Agatha and Sherlock were at the or Agatha and Arthur Conan Doyle were at the same time. But no, sherlock's first novel came out about almost 40 years, almost 50 years before.

Tony Maietta: 12:27

Agatha's first novel, she created Hercule Poirot as kind of like an answer to Sherlock Holmes. Right.

Brad Shreve: 12:33

Yes, and Hercule Poirot. One of his novels was her very first novel. It was published in 1920. It was called the Mysterious Affair at Stiles. It has controversy because a lot of people think she doesn't play fair with the reader in that book. I, that's my challenge with agatha in general, which we'll talk about yeah um, but you start right in 1920. Uh, agatha lived until 1976, I think 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 films that came out because it was a colossal hit. But it was the only one she had a grudging respect for, because Hollywood as Hollywood does surprise can screw up your story Really. She was so tired of Hollywood screwing up her stories. She was very reluctant, but she did have a reluctant respect for Murder on the Orient Express and she also really appreciated Albert Finney as Poirot, even though he's nothing like he's described in her books. So it's great that she lived long enough to see at least one adaption of her stories. Although there's some of the adaptions of and Then there Were None from the 40s and 50s are pretty good. But anyway, I interrupted, you Go ahead.

Brad Shreve: 14:00

No, that's quite all right. My challenge with Sherlock Holmes is I never felt he played fair with the reader, and the reason is sometimes, when he came to his conclusion at the end, he would say the mud on his boots yeah, his mud. You can only find on on the top of hereford's hill or something of that nature. Like like how the hell would you know this? And you know and that's part why the rules were written to tell mr writers. Here's the rule. Here's the thing with mystery writers, with mystery novels. The readers are absolutely dying to figure out who done it before the end of the novel. At the same time, they're absolutely furious if they do Right. But because they want to, you have to at least play fair with them.

Brad Shreve: 14:44

And, as I said, I don't think Sherlock Holmes was fair and I really don't think Agatha Christie played fair with the readers, and it's one reason why I'm not a big fan of hers is her first book. Definitely she did not play fair with the readers. If you break down these stories piece by piece, you can see that she did. But she does. She tosses so much out there to hide the clues that I think she obscures them too much, like she'll describe a hundred things in a drawer and you're supposed to remember the pen.

Brad Shreve: 15:15

You know that was in there you know so I have an issue with agatha in that sense, but, like I said, I do respect what she does, and here's also where I respect her. This is my really respect for her Marshall Thornton, who's a great mystery writer. He writes LGBTQ mystery novels. Highly recommend him. I was talking to Marshall one day and he said no matter how well you try to mask whodunit, people will figure it out. So what's important is, because there will be people who figure out, you need to make sure you write and I'm paraphrasing here you need to make sure you write a damn good story that they like the characters and the story as well as the mystery. Right, and that is what she did. She really sherlock holmes? Yeah, he had some personality traits, but he really didn't know who he was. Um, um, oh, what's her name? The, the old miss marple, miss marple, miss marple.

Brad Shreve: 16:10

You kind of knew a little bit more about her, even though she came after uh bro bro, you knew quite a bit he, yes, yeah, he was pretty well-rounded, uh, and that was kind of a new thing. It actually developed more and more as uh the last century continued that people want to know as much about the detective as they did about the mystery, because in the past it wasn't that. So she kind of started that path and that's where I really appreciate what she did, because when it comes to reading and writing, it's all about characters. To me I have the most fun writing characters. I'll put up with any bad writing if I like the character well.

Brad Shreve: 16:44

I can't say that, but I will put up with a lot.

Brad Shreve: 16:47

I put up a lot if I really like the characters and they make me like them or hate them the way I'm supposed to, so I'm very grateful for her for that. So you know she's. She wrote 79 mystery novels, 14 short story collections, uh amazing and plays.

Tony Maietta: 17:03

She, yeah, she's just amazing life. That's the thing I think is the most amazing thing about dame agatha christie. What a life. And I don't know if you, if listeners out there, are familiar with uh lucy worsley, but she just did a. She's a british, uh british personality. She's also a investigator. She just did a fabulous show on brit box called uh lucy worsley Investigates Agatha Christie. And if you haven't watched it, watch it because it's fascinating.

Tony Maietta: 17:31

This woman's life, this woman was such an incredible adventurer I mean, this is early 20th century Now. She was fortunate because she came from money so she could do these things. But this woman's life, she loved to travel. She had such a well-rounded, incredible, adventurous life that all seeped into her stories. That's why they're so rich in character and atmosphere. It's because Agatha Christie has been all these places. Agatha Christie loved Egypt. Agatha Christie took a cruise on a barge, very much like the Karnak in Death, on the Nile. So she was writing from her experience, which, as a mystery writer, you know. You know that. But unless you're, you know you're Jessica Fletcher and there's been a murder every other day in your life. I don't know how you do that. Her imagination was so rich from 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.

Tony Maietta: 18:32

And she loved to go with her second husband. Yes, she loved to go with him and it made her very fascinated by archaeology, which also shows up in her novels, including this one.

Tony Maietta: 18:40

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. She had a couple Murder in Mesopotamia. This one Appointment with Death takes place in an archaeological dig, so she's really fascinating, you know.

Tony Maietta: 18:49

Oh, dig so she's really fascinating.

Tony Maietta: 18:50

The thing is that she based our hero of today's story, hercule Poirot. She was a nurse during World War I and she worked in the pharmacy where she developed a great interest in potions and poisons and medicines and lethal properties of various plants. So this is where this fascination with poison came in for her, and if you've ever read a Christie novel, this film is unusual. This story is unusual in that it's so violent with the knifing and the guns. Usually, poison plays a huge part in Agatha Christie stories Not in this one, though.

Tony Maietta: 19:30

Not in this one but when she was a nurse, there were refugees from Belgium who came to England because of the war and she became very close with some of these people and this is where she got the idea, for her air quotes Sherlock Holmes, who was this fastidious man with an egg-shaped head and an unusually curly mustache who really loved to eat and who really appreciated the finer things in life, and his name was Hercule Poirot. Now, as I said to you before, you know, she was looking at Sherlock Holmes and she's like how do I make the anti-Holmes? How do I make someone different? So obviously he couldn't be English. That's what he meant Short, eggheaded, and she was originally going to make him French. Did you know that? And then she thought no, no, no, no, no. Two on the nose Belgian. And that's why he always insists 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 and his 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 of the nth degree. So, as Brad said, she created this character. Hercule Poirot so, as Brad said, she created this character.

Tony Maietta: 21:05

Hercule Poirot and his first novel was the Mysterious Affair at Stiles, as Brad just talked about. And Brad, let me ask you who is your favorite interpreter of Hercule Poirot? I think it's Peter Ustinov. Is it really? Ustinov was okay. He was better than the movie itself, so I take it you have never watched.

Tony Maietta: 21:14

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 90s until 2010. No, I never watched the series. He did every single. If you get the chance, he did every single. No, I never have a soft spot in my heart for Ustinov, simply because this is the first Agatha Christie film I ever saw and he will have. But he's very different. If anybody knows anything about Peter Ustinov, two-time Academy Award winner, he's very different in that we just talked about the physical description of Christie's. Poirot is, as I said, egg-shaped head, bald, short, round. That ain't.

Tony Maietta: 22:14

Peter.

Tony Maietta: 22:15

Ustinov. Peter Ustinov is a big guy, beautiful head of gray hair. He's nothing like Christie's version of Poirot, and Ustinov's take was look, creating this character was a process of elimination for Agatha Christie. She's like well, he can't be English, so he's going to be Belgian. He can't be tall, so he's going to be short. He's like so I can make compromises too. It doesn't really matter. The point is is the spirit, and that is what Ustinov gets to me. He has the spirit of Hercule Poirot, and this was his first time playing Hercule Poirot because, as you just mentioned, murder on the Orient Express, which preceded this film and was a tremendous success, hercule Poirot was played by Albert Finney, and Albert Finney was originally offered this film and he turned it down because he said he didn't want to go through the torturous makeup sessions that he had to go through on Murder on the Orient Express.

Tony Maietta: 23:12

And personally I'm not a big. I love Albert Finney in other things. I'm not crazy about him as Poirot. 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.

Tony Maietta: 23:26

Orient Express. I'm not a huge fan of Murder on the Orient Express, I got to confess. It's got a wonderful cast. It's got Lauren Bacall and Michael 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 Nile and I much prefer Peter Ustinov, and so did audiences, because until David Suchet came along, Peter Ustinov was the definitive Poirot. He played Poirot five more times before he relinquished the role to David Suchet in the Poirot series. I think he's perfection in this film.

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 the film 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, so why don't you talk about that?

Tony Maietta: 24:15

Well, yeah, what's interesting is okay. So the book Death on the Nile was first published in 1937. And what they term Egypt mania originally began in the 19th century during Napoleon's Egyptian campaign. Now Egypt mania is obviously mania for Egypt. Egypt took the world. The world was fascinated by everything, 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 with the 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 look far to see Egyptian influences in the 20s and that bled into the 30s. So Christy traveled to Egypt, as I said, in the early 30s and stayed on a barge very similar to the Karnak and that's what inspired in her this story Death on the Nile because she experienced something very similar. So what happened in the 1970s with King Tut was revived by the King Tut exhibit the treasures of Tutankhamun with artifacts from the tomb. It toured six cities from 76 to 79, and it captivated the public once again. Do you remember that? Do you remember the whole King Tut 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 his Egyptian.

Brad Shreve: 25:51

I mean it's crazy, I was wondering when Walk Like a Magician, walk Like a well actually 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 when Murder on the Orient Express was a tremendous success, they were like, okay, what are we going to make next? And they didn't have to look too far, because Egypt mania was at a peak again to Death on the Nile. And that's where the idea of adapting Death on the Nile into the next film in this series of films that's where it came from. There were five Um, that's where it came from. There were five um. These producers, who, who did death on the Nile? Uh, john Brabourne and Richard Goodwin. This is number two in the series. Death on the Nile. There was after this, there was appointment with death. There was another one of my favorites evil under the sun. And there were a couple. It was a couple more. So that's how that all came about. It was a response to the Egypt Egypt 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 do nearly as well. Well, it was a big drop from Murder on the Orient Express. Yeah, I know this one got good accolades. What about Murder on the Orient Express? What were the critical?

Tony Maietta: 27:10

reviews on that Because I'm wondering if that's what deterred people from seeing this. One love Margaret Rutherford and Murder. At the Gallop and Murder she Said there's a wonderful 60s series of Miss Marple films starring Margaret Rutherford, who Christy loved her, not the movies, but she loved Rutherford as Marple and they're very swinging 60s. They got these really fun little swinging 60s bossa nova beats and they're a lot of fun. But this was the first time that these films were. They were designed with international casts in glamorous locations. After death on the nile, as I said, evil under the sun also has maggie smith, it has james mason, it has sylvia miles, it has jane birkin. It has another international cast, fabulous location. So this was why this was kind of new. And murder on the Orient Express was a tremendous success. Yes, it was a tremendous success. As I said, ingrid Bergman won Best Supporting Actress for her performance. This one not so much, but it was 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 as significant.

Tony Maietta: 28:27

And it was bigger in Europe. Death on the Nile was bigger in Europe than it was in the United States and I think that, as I said, I prefer Death on the Nile just because I love this cast. I love this story. This story blew me away. Blew me away the first time I saw it. 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 all came together. Brad, I want to stop for a moment and say how excited I am 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 episodes scheduled for this year.

Tony Maietta: 29:22

We should. In fact, you just did. But what you didn't do is tell people that really enjoy the show, to tell their friends about us.

Brad Shreve: 29:32

And what do you know? You just did that. See how that works. Yes, so please tell your friends and rate and review us, and you can even send us a message at goinghollywoodpodcast at gmailcom. They should do that, right. They can even suggest a movie or 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's interactive Right. Well, I think that covered all our bases. Let's get back to the show. So Death on the Nile was directed 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've never heard of, or you like a couple of movies that you know of that are really bad. This guy does not have a good history. Actually, Towering Inferno is the one good one.

Tony Maietta: 30:26

Right, exactly that I can see. It's so funny because when I saw that I can see, I was so funny because when I saw that I thought of you and I know how you, what you feel about King Kong, 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 if you were able to forget that film. And, uh, everything else on the list is just like oh my God, how did he put this book movie out? I guess everybody gets lucky once. God, how did he put?

Tony Maietta: 30:51

this movie out. I guess everybody gets lucky once. Well, according to his actors, gillerman was. He was a British director. He began in television. He was what was called a screamer. According to producer Richard Goodwin, he was a terrifying man. However, he was one of these old guys, was a heavy drinker, you know what I mean? 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 way he saw them and he did not brook any kind of contradictions.

Tony Maietta: 31:25

Now, that being said, by all accounts, this was a very easy shoot for these people. I mean, come on, let's think about this for a minute. Let's talk about some of these egos here Betty Davis, angela Lansbury, maggie Smith, peter Ustinov, david Niven they all got along beautifully Because and this is what Richard Goodwin said is, when you have so many egos on a set, it seems to go a lot better, because everybody is going to outdo the other one in being the most cooperative, the most professional. It's when you have one person on 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 love Towering Inferno, aren't I love tower inferno? But these aren't great, great films. So it's interesting, but he made this film. He made this film very romantic. This is a very old-fashioned looking 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 for and one was costume design and it was well deserved. Yeah, you felt like you were there. You felt you didn't feel like you were watching, but you felt like you stepped back in time and were there.

Tony Maietta: 32:37

Yes, Sir Anthony Powell.

Brad Shreve: 32:38

The setting was great. Everybody played their parts beautifully. You didn't feel like anybody was acting their part.

Tony Maietta: 32:44

It's a definite time machine movie. It really is. You do feel like you're stepping back in time into this fabulous era. I mean, how many? In a minute I would go back to Cruise Down the Nile. In a minute I would be on the Orient Express Hopefully there wouldn't be any murders, but that's okay, I'm still there.

Tony Maietta: 32:59

Costumes and what's amazing about his incredible costumes is is they're very, and all good costume designers will tell you this. All costume designers design good ones, design for the character. They're indicative of the character and what's great about Sir Anthony Powell's costumes is that they not only tell you about the character and tell you the story of the character you know. The clothing reveals the inner life of the character. So when you have a character like Mrs Otterborn, played by the peerless Angela Lansbury in this film, you know she's like she's 10 times crazier than Nancy Mame. So we kind of get what Angela Lansbury would be like had she actually gotten to do the movie version of the musical Mame, because Salome Audubon is just pretty much Mame at the end of a very long cocktail party.

Tony Maietta: 33:57

She's just a little crazy and drunk and nuts, but wonderful, and so that's what's really wonderful about his costumes. And in addition to the costumes, we have the glorious cinematography of Jack Cardiff. Jack Cardiff is a legendary cinematographer in Hollywood. We just talked about Greg Toland last year. Cardiff is right up there. Cardiff worked in color mostly, and all you got to do is watch a little film called the Red Shoes or a little film called Black Narcissus, or a little film called the African Queen, black narcissist, or a little film called the African Queen, and you'll see what I'm talking about. Sons and Lovers. He was an expert at color photography, and the photography in this also lends to that very romantic feeling, along with the score by Nina Rota, who also scored the Godfather. So you have an incredible support behind the cameras. To give this incredible support to the people in front of the cameras, do you want to give a little background about what this film is about, and then we can talk about some of the behind the scenes stuff? I just want to say before you start, though, that and this is very important, and this is why I love this movie. This is what is called in my and correct me if I'm wrong about this because you're the mystery writer expert.

Tony Maietta: 35:14

A closed circle mystery those are my favorite. That Christie does. And what a closed circle mystery is is that everybody is in one place. They're not out and about, you know, living their lives, running around. They're all assembled in one place for some reason or another. So you think about Murder on the 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. And then there were none they're all on an island. In some versions they're in a mansion, a mansion which is out in the middle of nowhere. So what I love about that is that you don't have so many freaking options of who the murderer could be. You have a set group of people, and that's, I think, why I love this film is it's a closed circle mystery. So even though there are not all these millions of options, the ending still stuns you, in my opinion.

Brad Shreve: 36:09

Yeah, agatha's known for writing the cozy mysteries and when you picture a cozy mystery you think of a little English village and an old lady like Miss Marple. But really these movies fall under that category because even though they're not in a little village in England, it is all your people in one place. It's a cozy environment, they're all there together and there is not a lot of violence in a cozy mystery. Now the movie's extended a little 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 this movie and they're all very violent no, there are murders in her murder mysteries.

Brad Shreve: 36:53

There has to be. But in her book she doesn't describe the gore and it says no, it's he was shot or he was stabbed. And that's you pretty much can fill in the blanks from there, yes, yes, yes. No, it's not a slasher so if you heard the word cozy, you wouldn't think of this, because they're on the nile in egypt, but it is still a cozy mystery or, as you said, a closed circle.

Tony Maietta: 37:14

Yeah, closed circle mystery. Why don't you tell us a little bit about the maybe not too much, but tell us a little bit about the 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 that are the simplest. We had Lynette Ridgway Doyle, who is played by Lois Chiles, and we also had Simon Doyle, who is played by Simon McCorkindale, and they are newly married Now. Simon was dating Mia Farrow's character, jacqueline de Belfort. 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 in this yeah, there are a lot. So anyway, mia Farrow is the stalker. She is so hurt that Simon had married her friend that while they were on this honeymoon she is stalking them. They're on the pyramids and she shows 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 going where she thought they were going to go, they decide to take a cruise on the Nile. Well, it just so happens to be the 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 so he says. Yeah, exactly. On top of that we have other long cast of characters, as is typical in a mystery novel, and the bride is found murdered in her cabin. So of course, the Mia Farrow character, of course the Mia Farrow character. Let me get this again, and you don't have to cut that the Mia Farrow character is the prime suspect. Except there's no way she could have done it based on where she was and where people knew she was, or so we think.

Tony Maietta: 39:14

Well, she shoots, simon. They come to a head there. So Jacqueline de Belfort which is how Hercule Poirot says her name has been following them, has been stalking them throughout Egypt. I love it. They climb up this huge pyramid and they're out of breath and they're sitting there leaning against the pyramid and suddenly here comes Mia Farrow, not out of breath.

Tony Maietta: 39:34

She's just there giving him the history of the pyramid. It's very funny. It's very funny. So yeah, she's been stalking them through this entire time. They think they're finally alone on the car, neck on the barge, but no, she's there with this other cast of characters and she gets so worked up that one night she shoots Simon in the leg and she's an hysterical mess. So Simon has a wounded leg. She gets taken off and is being watched by Maggie Smith's character, who's a nurse. And that's the night that Lynette Ridgway Doyle, who is an heiress, is murdered. So Jacqueline cannot be the killer and neither can Simon, because they're both incapacitated at the time of the murder.

Brad Shreve: 40:21

And that is the quandary that Hercule Poirot finds himself in, and typical of a mystery where you have a strange coincidence, like a woman that lives in New England town, where 75% of the people have been murdered at one point or another. Everyone on this boat who could that be? Everyone on this boat has a motive. They don't all even know each other, but they all have a motive.

Tony Maietta: 40:44

So as in murder on the Orient Express, they all have murders, Exactly as with most murders.

Brad Shreve: 40:49

You know, a friend of mine was at a university giving a speech and his murders they're all done at a university and one of the college professors has to solve the murder. And one of the students raised his hands and said don't you think it's ridiculous that there would be so many murders at a university? He goes no.

Brad Shreve: 41:09

Of course.

Brad Shreve: 41:14

I mean, if people added up the number of people that have been murdered at Oxford University, so yeah, murder mysteries are ridiculous and that's fine, we love them anyway. So yeah, would all these people happen 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 really have to think about this woman. That death stalks every single day. How many people in that damn Cabot Cove? And then she leaves Cabot Cove Anyway.

Brad Shreve: 41:45

Well, the BBC did a calculation to determine that Cabot Cove, where Jessica Fletcher lived, had a higher murder rate than Nicaragua, and I 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 is found dead and, as I said, the two main suspects could not have done 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 of which is Jane Birkin's character, louise Bourget, who is Lois Child's maid. She ends up with her throat slit.

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 out who the murderer is. She saw someone and just as she's about to reveal who it was, she saw boom right between the eyes and falls over, and that was the death. That shocked me. I was like no, no, not angela Lansbury.

Brad Shreve: 42:56

It was shocking. I think I was sad for the other one 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 Lansbury created 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 so controlled. Her performance it's so broad but it's so controlled. It's way out there, but just enough. So it's not too much. And that's the brilliant thing about Angela Lansbury. I love what she calls Proro. She can't call him Hercule Proro. 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 hercules porridge. I feel like I didn't watch the movie, that I didn't catch that and, as we know about angela lansbury, 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 Auntie Mame, 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 to play Mame on film. Unfortunately, as I said, she gets it between the eyes when she's just about to reveal who the murderer is. But that's all right, because Poirot has figured it out. And indeed another hallmark of these Christie films and of many of these whodunits, there is a trial air quotes scene at the end where the detective whether it be Poirot or Miss Marple or Sherlock Holmes explains what happened. It's called the trial scene, and in the trial scene, hercule Poirot reveals that the murderer of Lynette Doyle is indeed Simon Doyle, her husband, and, in cahoots with Jacqueline de Belfort, mia Farrow. Well, how is that possible? How in the world did these two people, 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 it out through my head.

Tony Maietta: 45:06

I'll tell you right now because, yes, please, I can remember it, but it's gonna take me I will.

Brad Shreve: 45:12

typical. I shook my head because I'm like this required everything to be spot on, but go on, that's okay.

Tony Maietta: 45:17

Yeah well, it's an amazing plot Because when the incident happens which incapacitated Simon, jacqueline did not really shoot Simon, she pretended to shoot Simon. He falls over, she's a mess. They take her away. He gets up because he ain't shot folks. He runs across the other side, he takes his shoes off, pitter patter, pitter patter the other side of the ship, shoots his wife, comes back in and then actually shoots himself in the leg, which I'm just like wow, he does all this in five minutes, okay, so he's really shot. So by the time they come back to take care of him, after they've taken care of jacqueline de belfort, mia farrow, he's indeed shot.

Tony Maietta: 46:00

And then mia farrow, aka jacqueline, commits the other murders. She slits the throat of louise bourget uh. She shoots, uh, salome autoborn uh, right between the eyes. And in the end, when hacule perot reveals they're the murderers, at first they fight. They're like no, no, no, this is crazy, you're crazy, as they always do. You'll never get, you'll never do this. And then he gives them this ridiculous story about a test that that police can do with wax to find gunpowder residue on their fingers, which fools them and they confess this never would have held in court, but hello. So rather than take their punishment. In the film version and this is different from the book in the film version, jacqueline pulls out the gun, shoots Simon and shoots herself. So there's five bodies at the end of this very funny movie, but incredibly, incredibly dark and violent film.

Brad Shreve: 47:00

Well, it wouldn't have held up in court, but he was just trying to get a confession out of them. Right, exactly, that's all he was trying to do and he did succeed that way and in the book and 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 Jacqueline tells Poirot you know, first of all he doesn't have the trial scene. In the book Simon is not there. He goes to Simon on his own and Simon confesses. And she says to Poirot if Simon hadn't confessed there's no way this would have held up in court. But Simon is simple. He's simple, simon, and he screwed it up. So in the end she also shoots Simon and and herself. But it's as they're leaving the barge. It's not in front of everybody during 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, and this is something I strive to make sure I do, because it drives me crazy. I've seen this broken down where it shows okay, if you figured this out, you may have been able to figure out the story. I'm sorry. No, the fact that a guy is going to run from one end of the boat to the other hoping that nobody happens to walk into that room while he's gone, kill his wife, run back then shoot himself again, still hoping that nobody sees what walks in the room at that particular time, it's just ludicrous. It's just ludicrous. Five minutes, it drove me a little crazy, but it wasn't just that, because, like I said, in mystery, you got to accept some. Yeah, you have to suspend your disbelief yeah, you have to suspend disbelief.

Brad Shreve: 48:30

Yeah, that part bothered me now, the trial part that you're talking about, where the detective brings everybody into a room that never happens, just like when they read a will. Very rare do they bring all the family in together to read a will, but those are dramatic and done well for movies and sometimes in books, so I have no issues 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 I like the characters, I like the setting, but that pissed me off and 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, who can't move he shot himself in the leg from his sickbed in Dr Bessemer's cabin to the lounge for this last reveal. I mean, come on, it's a bit much. In the Suchet adaption the trial, the reveal, actually happens in Simon's room, but in this film version they obviously carried simon into the lounge so he's laying on the sofa.

Tony Maietta: 49:39

Well, there's more room there yes, when this all happens and they're all seated in a semi-circle, as hakuporo explains everything. So, yeah, you have to, you have to suspend your disbelief, but it's so much fun, and I think one of the reasons why it's so much fun again is this cast. These films were famous for their international all-star cast. So, in addition to some of these people we've mentioned, I'll just go through them again peter ustinov we talked about david niven, who we haven't talked about, plays colonel race, who appears in four christy books and in this one he's just pretty much uh, ustinov sidekick. You know he's, he's he's in the army.

Tony Maietta: 50:15

He's. They're friends, they've known each other. They run into each other, air quotes, um, before they get on the barge. We later find out why you, why niven was really there. Um, it wasn't, they didn't just run into each other, um, but it's kind of wonderful because you know they knew each other. Ustinov and niven had a relationship during world war ii. Uhstinov was what they termed a Batman. Do you know what that is, brad? Because I found this fascinating. He was basically a Batman. In a war is a soldier or airman who's assigned to a commission officer as a personal servant. So Peter Ustinov was David Niven's servant during the war. Isn't that interesting?

Tony Maietta: 50:58

So they knew each other they knew each other.

Tony Maietta: 51:01

We have, as I said, the luscious Simon McCorkindale who plays Simon Doyle. We have Lois Childs who plays Lynette. Now the first choice for Lynette Lynette, first of all, is an American heiress in this film, not in the book. In this film she's an American heiress. She has British ties, obviously because she's living in the British countryside. The first choice to play Lynette was Sybil Shepard, but Sybil Shepard didn't want to do it, so Lois Charles was cast. Lois Charles was cast. Lois Charles was pretty green. At this point she had done the Way we Were, she had done the Great Gatsby opposite Mia Farrow, and she would go on to become a Bond girl in Moonraker. And I shudder to tell you her name Brad in Moonraker. You know how they did this. Her name was Holly Goodhead. I can't, that's all I gotta say about that. You know how they did this. Her name was Holly Goodhead. I can't, that's all I got to say about that. I mean, how did they get away with these names?

Brad Shreve: 51:59

Well, to go off on a tangent of the Great Gatsby. That movie was horrendous, and Moonraker is my least favorite pun film, so she doesn't rank high on my book, except for this movie. How would you like to work your entire life and not'd be your? Your claim to fame is your holly goodhead. I just all right, moving on, moving on. I, I, george kennedy yeah now he was the american lawyer and he is so out of place in this movie and I wonder if that was on purpose.

Tony Maietta: 52:32

Well, he's your typical American. He's Christie's dig at a typical American lawyer. He is Lynette's lawyer, who again accidentally run into. But we find out later in the film that it was no accident. He came there on purpose because he's been embezzling from her and now that she's married she comes into her fortune and he's got to make sure that he gets a power of attorney before she comes into her fortune and he's got to make sure that he gets a power of attorney 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 an oscar winner, I know this, but he's never been one of my favorites and he is kind of out of place you know, great fire chief, police detective, whatever, but I I don't like him as a leading man.

Brad Shreve: 53:12

I don't think he's that that talented. And uh, he just I I would say he was good in this role because he did really stand out like a sore 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 and this is our second week in a row I mean, we talk about her every week, so I really can't even say that. But but, of course, playing Mrs Van Schuyler, the American heiress, who's also a kleptomaniac, is the one and only Ruth Elizabeth Davis, Betty Davis and um, you know there's always stories about how difficult Betty is on sets and all that bullshit, and everyone to a T in this film said she was a dream, the utmost professional, the utmost. You know, if their call time was 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. So, anyway, so she doesn't have a lot to do in this film. She does. She plays an era. She plays an old heiress, Mrs Van Schuyler, who's yes, she's a kleptomaniac. In the film she's just greedy, but in the book she's a kleptomaniac.

Tony Maietta: 54:22

And Davis loved the idea of working with Ustinov. She loved the idea of Niven, Lansbury and Smith. She loved all these people and, by all accounts, as I said, she was a doll on the set. But there were, there were, a couple of issues. Uh, according to Anthony Powell, the costume designer, uh, when he first found out that she was going to be dressing her for this film, she called him to her Connecticut home. She sent a car for him. He said she was very magnanimous. She, you know she. Everything was wonderful. He got to the house and she greeted them in a robe. They walked inside, she turned around, she dropped the robe and she stood there naked in front of him and said this is what you have to work with.

Tony Maietta: 55:06

But he said that she was an absolute doll Once he showed her the sketches and she's like we think the same way. I agree with you, she was, was fine. She was also very close to mia farrow. She knew mia farrow since mia was a young girl and, um they, mia's father directed her in a movie called john paul jones in 59 I think, and mia was actually one of the people who came to betty's defense after the publication of my mother's keeper bd's book about her and said this is absolute bullshit. You know, I knew, I knew BD, I knew Betty. None of this is true. So along with Betty, we have the yin to her yang. We have the incredible Maggie Smith playing Bowers, who is Mrs Van Schuyler's companion nursemaid and is just one of Maggie Smith's funniest characterizations ever. 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 to read the book because they did act like a lesbian couple.

Brad Shreve: 56:08

Well, I don't know. I don't think they were a lesbian couple. They acted like a bickering couple Let me, I don't mean, they acted like a bickering couple.

Brad Shreve: 56:16

That's the only reason why I said they acted like a lesbian couple.

Brad Shreve: 56:17

Yes, they had a wonderful relationship. Maggie Smith has never looked so dour. We just talked about Maggie Smith in Murder by Death and how gorgeous she looked and beautiful, curvaceous body. No, she's very pallid complexion. She's usually in a tuxedo suit or some kind of version of a tuxedo suit. Christy had many lesbians in her books. I think it was in A Murderer's Announced there's a lesbian couple, so there were many lesbians in Christy's books. So yeah, bowers, you kind of get the feeling that she is a lesbian. And Betty said that she and Maggie talked about doing a sequel film just about Mrs Van Schuyler and Bowers, because they had so much fun making this film.

Brad Shreve: 57:02

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's hysterical.

Brad Shreve: 57:09

When she came on the screen I'm like, 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 about when they were filming. When they were making the film on the Carnac, they'd have to get up at 3 am Because they had to stop filming by early afternoon. It was just too hot, yeah.

Tony Maietta: 57:32

So they were on this luxurious hotel, she said, in the middle of the Nile, and they would get on a boat from the hotel and go to the Karnak, the barge, and there were two dressing rooms on the Karnak, one was for the men and one was for the women. And what they were were these big state rooms with bunk beds on both sides and then an open area in the center. And the open area in the center was where you got costumed. So can you imagine you're in this one room and you're in the middle getting costumed. Say, you're Olivia Hussey getting costumed, and to your right, lying on one bed, is Betty Davis, to your other side is Angela Lansbury, then above Betty Davis is Mia Farrow and above Angela Lansbury is Jane Birkin. Now it's your turn, angie. All right, let me get down there. I mean, it's just this is. I love this kind of stuff about these movies because it just you'll never see the likes of this again. You'll never see the likes of this again, you know. Did you know who jane birkin was?

Tony Maietta: 58:33

brad who plays um lois, child's maid who plays uh, louise bourget no one of the murder victims and I'm thinking now, I should know well, think about her name for a minute jane birkin. I'll tell you yeah, you put me on the spot.

Tony Maietta: 58:52

I don't know okay, she was a. Jane birkin was like an it girl of the 60s in London. She was born in London but she was in Blow Up. She was a big movie star in France in the 60s. She's also in Evil Under the Sun, but you might know her because of a certain bag that is very, 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 the Birkin bag. Jane Birkin was notorious for always carrying big straw baskets around instead of purses, wherever she went. She was on a plane seated next to the CEO of Hermes and the basket fell out of the overhead and Birkin complained she could never find a leather bag large enough that she liked. And in 1984, hermes created the Birkin bag, which became a notorious symbol of wealth and status. And it's funny because in 2015, she asked Hermes to remove her name from the bag because of the inhumane methods used to acquire the skins for the bag. So it kind of came back to bite, her, back to biter, um. But yes, jane birkin was, as I said, a big star in france and, you know, will live in infamy because of the birkin bag.

Tony Maietta: 1:00:20

Uh, we have jack warden as dr besner, who does a okay german accent. Um, jack warden was very, very working a lot. This time he had done shampoo. Heaven can wait. All the president's men, he was very active. Olivia hussey as Rosalie Otterborn, who was Angela Lansbury's daughter. One more, two more George Kennedy as the attorney, arthur Pennington, and, of course, the wonderful, fabulous Mia Farrow as Jacqueline de Belfort. Now, you told me when we were talking about Rosemary's Baby, that you really hadn't seen Mia in much. What did you think of her in Death on the Nile?

Brad Shreve: 1:00:58

I thought she was great for the role. Yeah, she was the least glamorous looking of all the other characters, which is really neither here nor there, but that really caught my eye. But I thought she was perfect for the role. She was irritating as hell, as she was supposed to be.

Tony Maietta: 1:01:18

I absolutely hated her guts. Well, here's the thing. I think it's one of her most underrated performances. I think it is a wonderful performance because Mia, you know, like I said, mia is so underrated she doesn't get enough credit for the really great actress that she is.

Tony Maietta: 1:01:29

She does so much with her body language 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, the way she dresses. She's so unassuming because she's trying to take us all in. You know, we think she's this poor, plain Jane. You know this poor Jacqueline.

Tony Maietta: 1:01:47

Her boyfriend leaves her for her much richer friend and then later on in the boat, if you notice, she really begins to come into her own. She becomes a little slinky and seductive. She really embodies the mystery of this character. She captures all the complex and there's a certain madness that's just inherent in Mia Farrow. We talked about this during Rosemary's Baby. There's a certain off-kilter quality Mia Farrow has and it fits this character perfectly when you find out in the end that she is the mastermind behind all of this. It's not Simon Simon's pretty, but he ain't too bright. Jacques Leline has created this entire thing of him marrying Lynette to get her money and then killing her. And that is what is so great about Mia's performance is, by the end, when she shoots Simon and then shoots herself, monsieur Poirot bang. You're like, wow, this woman totally took me in and she was the mastermind behind this whole series of murders.

Brad Shreve: 1:02:53

Yeah, I thought she was great. Like I said, I hated her, but you're supposed to hate her. Yeah, you are supposed to hate her. She was one of these people that you know that just won't give up and won't let go which was all part of her facade, but she played brilliantly.

Tony Maietta: 1:03:07

It's all part of the plan. It's all part of the plan. Okay, before I talk about the differences between the book and the film and I'm not going to go too much into it, because this is a film podcast, not a book podcast but I do want to have a couple of things Do you want to tell us a little bit about how this film performed when it was released?

Brad Shreve: 1:03:24

Yeah, as I said, it was only nominated for one Oscar and it won for that one Oscar, which was the costume design well-deserved, except I don't know what else was that year, but I'm going to say well-deserved. It had a budget of about $8 million and it grossed. I've seen different numbers around, but two of my sources had the same number, so I'm going to go with those and that was 18 million. Now, this was at the time. It's earned a lot more since then. So, $8 million budget, $18 million gross worldwide yeah, I growth worldwide.

Tony Maietta: 1:03:51

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, there were three more versions of Christie films, of Christie novels that were made into films, and I don't think we'll talk about Evil Under the Sun one day, but I love Evil Under the Sun. It's probably it's so close to this as my favorite, mostly because of Maggie Smith. Maggie Smith is much more colorful in Evil Under the Sun, but it's another wonderful. It's a wonderful adaptation.

Brad Shreve: 1:04:19

Now as far as how the critics go on this on Rotten Tomatoes, it has a critic score of 79% and the audience score is the exact same thing 79%. So pretty well.

Tony Maietta: 1:04:32

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 a couple differences with the book. Obviously, in the book there are many more characters. The most interesting character is a character, mrs Allerton and her son Tim, and they're jewel thieves and their relationship is very suddenly last summer. 're very sebastian venable and mrs venable. And I guess they thought you know what? We got too many characters here who can we get rid of easily. And they thought okay, the jewel thieves and what's interesting about? They're in the suchet adaption. So if you watch the david suchet version of this, they're in there. You'll see what I'm talking about, about the suddenly last summer. But what's? Because of the fact that they got rid of the jewel thieves, they also had to jettison a subplot about Lynette's jewels, lynette's pearls being fake, not important. I think one of the most interesting things is is that in the book Lynette, aka Lois Childs, is English. She's not American. So I'm thinking when they made this, maybe they just thought that Lois Childs really can't handle a British dialect. We better make her American. But so she's American. Interestingly, in the David Suchet adaption they kept her american but they cast a british actress and the british actress then had to do an american dialect. Now why don't you just cast an american? But you know why, you know who they cast. You know who played her in the david suchet adaption. If you're going to cast somebody, no, I didn't. Emily blunt in one of her, one of her very first roles and, like you know, she doesn't okay american dialect. She's not emma thompson, she can't do it, but she's, it's okay. But you're just like wow with her delicious british dialect. Why didn't you just keep her british anyway? Uh, mia farrow is half british, half american. Her mother is from South Carolina. In the book and you're told that Jackie is a crack shot. Her grandfather taught her how to shoot in South Carolina. So when she zeroes in on Salome Audubon you can see why she was able to do that. And also in the book Mrs Audubon's alcoholism is not quite played for the laughs that it's played for in this film. I mean, it's more of a serious issue in the book. And in the book her daughter actually drops her bottles off the side of the boat. So she's a suspect at one point. But so those are just some of the changes. So she's a suspect at one point. But so those are just some of the changes. You know they have to. They have to make some changes, otherwise that doesn't. You know. In the book Mrs Van Schuyler is traveling with her niece and Bowers. Simon is still just as stupid in the book as he is in the movie, but just as gorgeous. And in the book Poirot had seen Jackie and Simon before all of this began and he overhears a conversation they had before Jackie introduces him to Lynette. So that's just kind of an interesting thing. And the the movie she's her throat's slit. It's still very violent, by the way. But I think that those are some interesting differences between the book and the movie.

Brad Shreve: 1:08:01

The book and it's a reminder I want to give the listener please do not say the book was better than the movie. You can't compare. Say it was a good book, or and it 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 put it into a two-hour movie. It just can't be done. I respect that.

Tony Maietta: 1:08:24

No, c'est vrai. C'est vrai, mon ami. C'est vrai, you can't. I mean, there are two different animals two different entities, as I always like to say. Well, do we have anything more to say about 1978's Death on the Nile Brad?

Brad Shreve: 1:08:38

No, I think we've said it all. I got off my high horse about Mr Writing and gave a good rundown of the movie.

Tony Maietta: 1:08:48

This was fun. I'm glad we did this. I'm glad we talked about it. I love this film and I really urge people. If you're going to watch any version of Death on the Nile for a good time, I absolutely recommend the Suchet version, but watch this one because I mean, come on, how many dames in one place do you need? Jeez, it's an embarrassment of dames.

Brad Shreve: 1:09:06

I do have one thing to say before we go. Yeah, listener, if you've listened this far, we're going to tell you you're either a glutton for punishment or you like this show. So we're going to assume you like this show. So if you like this show, why don't you tell others? Let others know that you enjoy it, so that they can enjoy it and do a review on Apple podcast or on Spotify rate review and let others know. It would be most appreciated.

Tony Maietta: 1:09:34

That's absolutely true, absolutely true. Now that we're into our second season, it would be even more appreciated. So, brad, I guess there's only one thing left to say, but, in the spirit of our bon ami, I'm going to say it like this no, tony, I'm going to say it like this. No, Tony Dissing goodbye, care to mush.