Mystery Movie Review-A Haunting in Venice vs Hallowe'en Party

A Haunting in Venice (2023) is very loosely inspired by the 1969 book Halloween Party by Agatha Christie, her 31st novel to feature Hercule Poirot.  The only other adaptation/filming of the book was for the Hercules Poirot series in 2007-released 2010 (Season 12 episode 2).

What's It About:

In 1947, post-World War II Venice, Poirot, now retired and living in his own exile, while employing ex–police officer Vitale Portfoglio to act as a bodyguard. On Halloween, mystery writer Ariadne Oliver convinces Poirot to attend a Halloween party and séance at the palazzo of famed opera singer Rowena Drake and to expose Joyce Reynolds, a World War I army nurse turned medium, as a fraud. The palazzo itself is claimed to be haunted by the spirits of children who, when the palazzo was an orphanage, were locked up and left to die when a plague swept through the city, with rumors that the spirits torment any nurses and doctors who dare to enter.

Rowena has hired Joyce to help her commune with her daughter Alicia, who reportedly died by suicide after her fiancé, chef Maxime Gerard, broke off their engagement. Among the guests in attendance are Maxime, Rowena's housekeeper Olga Seminoff, Drake family doctor Leslie Ferrier and his son Leopold, and Joyce's Romani assistant Desdemona Holland.

Director:  Kenneth Branagh

Writers: Michael Green and "Agatha Christie"

Stars:

Kenneth Branagh as Hercule Poirot

Michelle Yeoh as Joyce Reynolds

Jamie Dornan as  Dr. Leslie Ferrier

Kelly Reilly (Pride & Prejudice) as  Rowena Drake

Jude Hill as Leopold Ferrier

Tina Fey as  Ariadne Oliver

Dylan Corbett-Bader as  Baker

Amir El-Masry as Alessandro Longo

Riccardo Scamarcio as Vitale Portfoglio

Fernando Piloni as Vincenzo Di Stefano

Reviews:  Rotten Tomatoes: 76% 

The film received generally positive reviews from critics.

"The film resonates with qualities found in classics of the genre by Alfred Hitchcock and Orson Welles, and is simultaneously reminiscent in its aggressive theatrical approach to Branagh’s own neo-noir thriller “Dead Again” from 1991." Lee Zumpe of Tampa Bay Newspapers

"A Haunting in Venice is an adequate mystery, with shadows, mystique and a plot with twists and turns." Marie Asner of Phantom Tollbooth

"It's beautifully shot, perfectly set, and filled with great actors - and it's even mercifully under 2 hours. So if you want a good pre-Halloween snack with some chills and thrills but isn't too much, this is a fun one for you."  Paul Salfen of AMFM Magazine

Trivia 

The film had its red carpet premiere at the Odeon Luxe Leicester Square at the West End London on September 11 with none of the cast members in attendance due to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike.

Clinched No. 1 on its opening weekend in the UK, Spain and Italy, but not in the USA.

Filmed on location in Venice. Branagh wanted to use as many physical sets possible for filming.

Released on September 15, 2023, Dame Agatha Christie's 133rd birthday.

Michelle Yeoh dropped out of The Electric State (2024) to star in this movie.

As of November 2023, this is the least successful Poirot movie by Kenneth Branagh on the box office world wide.

Sir Kenneth Branagh worked with the technical department to cause surprises for the cast. The actors were not warned about lights going out suddenly, or gusts of wind and slamming doors on the sets in which they worked, causing genuine confused and startled reactions from the actors to appear in the film. Kelly Reilly confirmed that filming the seance scene was a terrifying experience saying in an interview, "It scared the bejesus out of me."

Dr. Farrier mentions that medical staff accidentally killed the starving concentration camp prisoners they had liberated with milk. This is actually possible, and is caused by a condition known as "Refeeding Syndrome."

Bergen-Belsen, mentioned as the source of Dr. Farrier's trauma, was a real concentration camp during WW2, and was the camp Anne Frank died in.

Jamie Dornan and Jude Hill previously played father and son in Belfast (2021), also directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh.

My Thoughts:

Plot is nowhere near the same plot as Christie's book, things are so changed around that it is a different story all together than Agatha Christie and I don't think the changes made the mystery any better.  The characters may have had the same names but were completely changed and the motive and setups of murder and even killer were all different.  

The acting had some shining stars, in particular Michelle Yeoh as the medium and twelve-year-old Jude Hill as the boy Leopold Ferrier gave outstanding performances.  Jamie Dornan as  Dr. Leslie Ferrier and Kelly Reilly as Rowena Drake gave a good performances as well.  The music was particularly well done and added to the near horror mood.  Cinematography was dark (everything is dark, darker than the prior two) but intense and has the signature Branagh camera angles and style.

If I look at this as a mystery in the tradition of Christie only, I would consider it an entertaining and spooky movie, not necesarrily great, but enough.

Original "Halloween Party" Season 12 Episode 2 July 2007

During an English village's Hallowe'en party held in a mannor home, a young girl boasts of having witnessed a murder from years before. No one believes her tale until her body is found later on in the evening, drowned in the apple-bobbing bucket.

The popular author who was at the party contacts Poirot to rush to the village and solve the young girl's murder. He believes the girl's death is because she claimed to witness a murder several years prior and sets about to discover who was murdered years before (probably what was thought a suicide) and uncover who killed the young girl to keep the murder she claimed to witness quiet.  

David Sucket is the epitome of Christie's character and brings some humor to Poirot in this movie as well as his sensitivity to young people.  The story follows the book pretty closely.  The story is a little dark and has gothic/spooky touches but not bordering on horror atmosphere.  At no point in the story is Poirot disturbed by the deaths, mystery, or "haunted" by the spirits like the 2023 version.

Filmed at: Beckley Park, Beckley, Oxfordshire, England, UK (In particular: Topiary garden of the Drake residence) 

My Thoughts:

I really enjoy the original for its being close to the book.  It is a classic British mystery with plenty of twists upon twists in the plot.  David Suchet is the embodiment of Hercules Poirot-full stop. Although I enjoy Peter Ustinov's portrayals, David Suchet became Poirot completely and his acting is nuanced.  For this reason I always enjoy watching his portrayals of the greatest detective.  This version isn't as flashy or fast paced as Haunting, but I find it more entertaining since I enjoy British paced mysteries.  I will probably watch this version again and again, but not the 2023 Haunting.

DID YOU SEE BOTH?  What did you think of them?  Leave a comment please.

Mystery Movie Review - Death on the Nile 1978

Death on the Nile (Sept 1978) 2:20 minutes

This presents the 1978 adaptation of the Agatha Christy novel.  At the end I will compare it to the 2022 Kenneth Branagh version.  But I heartily believe the 1978 adaptation is the better movie.

WHAT IT'S ABOUT

The tranquillity of a cruise along the Nile is shattered by the discovery that Linnet Ridgeway, a controlling and spoiled heiress, has been shot through the head. She was young, obsenely wealthy, stylish, and beautiful.  Hercule Poirot is on vacation and proceeds to question suspects.  All of the passengers had reason to murder her. Poirot must solve the original and subsequent murders while on a steamboat on the Nile.

Rating: PG

Director: John Guillermin

STARRING

• Peter Ustinov as Hercules Poirot (humanizes Poirot without changing Christie's vision)
• Mia Farrow as Jacqueline De Bellefort-very different than the 2022 character, she is more a love-struck girl at the beginning who is dissillusioned and a shell through the rest.
• Angela Lansbury (Jessica Fletcher-Murder She Wrote) as Mrs. Salome Otterbourne alcohol-soaked erotic novelist
• Bette Davis (Hush, Hush, Sweet Charlotte) as Mrs. Van Schuyler stuffy and overbearing Washington socialite
• Maggie Smith (Professor McGonegal-Harry Potter) is Miss Bowers as Van Schuyler's bitter companion
• David Niven (The Guns of Navaronne, The Pink Panther) as Colonel Race perfectly plays nobility and has easy chemistry with Poirot
• Jack Warden (The Replacements) as Dr. Bessner, a hysterical Swiss physician
  

• Simon MacCorkindale as Simon Doyle the newlywed husband of Lois
• Olivia Hussey (Romeo & Juliette 1968) as Rosalie Otterbourne, daughter to the lascivious author
• I.S. Johar as Manager Of The Karnak I.S. Johar provides some comic relief as the manager of the ship
• George Kennedy (Cool Hand Luke, The Dirty Dozen) as Andrew Pennington
• Lois Chiles as Linnet Ridgeway shows the calculating and vendictive side far better than the 2022 version
• Jon Finch as Mr. Ferguson, Marxist spouting young man who likes Rosalie
• Jane Birkin as Louise Bourget 

Bette Davis and Maggie Smith are great in their bickering and snappish dialog.  Angela Lansbury as a lascivious romance writer is humorous and a very different role than you think of for her.  Olivia Hussey (who played the ultimate Shakespear's Juliette in my opinion) brings dramatic intensity to a sweet character.

REVIEWS

"Death on the Nile is a clever, witty, well-plotted, beautifully-produced and splendidly acted screen version of Agatha Christie’s mystery. It’s old-fashioned stylized entertainment with a big cast and lush locations. Peter Ustinov is the fourth actor to play Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot." Variety Dec 31, 1977

 "Its a fun, if somewhat slow-moving murder mystery that favors glamor and drawing room banter over suspense, like a lavish version of a British TV mystery set in the 1930s."  Sean Axmaker - Stream on Demand

"The way the investigation plays out is more dynamic than that in Orient Express, with less of a focus on interrogation only and more twists and turns to come, and the ending is very satisfying." Kieron Moore - Starburst

THOUGHTS

Peter Ustinov is particularly good and captures a subtle dry humor in Poirot. He manages Poirot's complete awareness of his being the greatest detective and his being eccentric.  More approachable than other Poirot adaptations and even the books just in his manerisms and expressions. 

Poirot gives the audience how each suspect could have committed the murder which is brilliant.  Then he pulls out how it really happened, which is classic Poirot.  

Anthony Powell (whose costumes really transport you back to luxurious 30s) won an Oscar for the costumes in this movie!  He also did the costumes for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. 

Excellent use of camera work of the era for suspenseful effect.

Music (mysterious and forboding) was the same composer for the first two Godfather movies.

Filming locations: Hotel Pullman Cataract, Sharia Abtal El Tahrir, Aswan, Egypt as well as on a boat on the Nile.  I believe shooting the film on location made a big difference in the film.

INTERESTING TIDBITS (mostly from IMDB)

• Agatha Christie was inspired to write the film's source novel while on an extended 1937 Egyptian vacation, and the hotel scenes in ''Death on the Nile'' were shot at the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan where Christie stayed. 

• After the success of "Murder on the Orient Express", EMI studios picked "Death on the Nile" for the follow up movie rather than one of the 32 other Poirot books because the 70s had a resurgence of Egyptian fascination due to the tour of the "Treasures of Tutankhamun" to museums around the world.  Death on the Nile opened in theaters to coincide with Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY's Tut opening.

• Seven of the cast members account for a total of twenty-eight acting Oscar nominations with eight wins.

• During World War II, Major David Niven's batman (personal attendant) was Private Peter Ustinov.

• David Niven, who played MI5 agent Colonel Race, was author and British MI5 agent Ian Fleming's choice to portray James Bond. Niven was himself involved in British Intelligence operations during World War II, where he worked with Fleming on some projects.

• The character of Colonel Race, one of Agatha Christie's recurring characters, appeared in four novels: "The Man in the Brown Suit", (1924), "Cards on the Table" (1936), "Death on the Nile" (1937), and "Sparkling Cyanide" (1945).

• Colonel Race (David Niven) boards the S.S. Karnak wearing a straw boater hat with a "Royal Green Jackets" hat band. Later in the movie, he wears a "Royal Green Jackets" necktie. The Royal Green Jackets, formed in 1966, were descendents of David Niven's wartime regiment, the Rifle Brigade.

• The location shoot in Egypt went for seven weeks, of which four were spent on the steamer riverboat "S.S. Karnak" and three filming in places such as Luxor, Cairo, Aswan, and Abu Simbel.

• Filming had to be stopped every day at noon for around two hours because temperatures reached around 130 degrees Fahrenheit. Make-up calls were scheduled for 4 a.m., and filming started at 6 a.m. Bette Davis once quipped, "In the older days, they'd have built the Nile for you. Nowadays, films have become travelogues, and actors stuntmen."

• Albert Finney was initially asked to reprise his role as Poirot from Murder on the Orient Express (1974). However, he had found the make-up he had to wear for the first movie very uncomfortable in the hot interior of the train, and on realizing that he would have to undergo the same experience, this time in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit, he declined the role.

• This was the first of Peter Ustinov's six performances as Hercule Poirot.

• Cybill Shepherd turned down the role of Linnet Ridgeway.

• Bette Davis, Maggie Smith, and Angela Lansbury all shared a small steamboat cabin as dressing room. While one actress dressed in the center of the cabin, the two others would lie on one of the beds on the left or right side.

• The only working collaboration of Peter Ustinov and Angela Lansbury despite the two having been in-laws - Ustinov was married to Lansbury's half-sister: stage actress Isolde Denham, from 1940 to 1950 - and they were longtime friends.

• This is Angela Lansbury's first appearance in an Agatha Christie murder mystery. She would play Miss Jane Marple in The Mirror Crack'd (1980). Both films gave her an image in the murder mystery genre, which led her to be cast in Murder, She Wrote (1984), where Lois Chiles and Olivia Hussey appeared as guest stars.

• Murder, She Wrote: Death 'N Denial (1995), which is set in Egypt, had a character called "Sally Otterburn".

• The film adapts the character of romance novelist Salome Otterbourne from the original novel. Salome is a thinly disguised version of real-life novelist Elinor Glyn (1864 - 1943) who wrote racey material for the time.  She was one of the most famous women screenwriters in the 1920s. She has 28 story or screenwriting credits, three producing credits, and two credits for directing.

• Maggie Smith appeared in Christie's Evil Under the Sun (1982). She also appeared with David Niven in Neil Simon's Murder by Death (1976).

• The interior scenes set at Linnet Ridgeway's mansion were shot at Compton Wynyates, a Warwickhire country estate.

TRAILER

COMPARED TO 2022 VERSION

The 2022 version made significant changes to the characters and story details from the book.

The 2022 beginning changes much of the story.  1978 version begins with the backstory of Linnet, Simon, and Jackie rather than the contrived beginning of 2022 movie. 

Even though there is a different actor from the 1974 Murder of the Orient Express, Peter Ustinov manages to stay true to the original Poirot while making the character more approachable. 

Whereas Kenneth Branagh is creating an entirely different character that only shares the same name.  Poirot has no scar on his face that he uses the mustache to cover, there is no tragic past love story etc.

Bouc isn't originally in this second story at all, he is used instead of the character Colonel Race.  So he and his mother are added and push out others.   Salome Otterbourne becomes a jazz/R&B singer rather than the shocking novelist which also changes a lot.  There were so many changes, in fact, I was concerned the 2022 version wouldn't even have the same killer and motive.  

Kenneth Branagh added more social/cultural correctness with representation of a gay couple, and more people-of-color which isn't a bad thing.  But he changed so much it almost isn't Christie's story anymore.  Branagh also makes the story darker (which he did to Orient Express too.)  Even the clothing is subdued and everything darker compared to 1978 version.

1978 movie was filmed on location, heat and all.  But the 2022 version, inspite of nearly 2x the budget than Orient Express, was filmed in Longcross Studios in Surrey, with only a few background scenes shot in Morocco and Egypt.  A life-size replica of the Abu Simbel temple and SS Karnak were all in Surrey and the Nile scenes were shot in Cotswold Water Park.  And it is obvious in some instances that green screens were used.  

It seems the most 2022 version had going for it was Gal Gadot and Dawn French, in my humble opinion.

Have you seen both versions?  Which do you like better?  Share your thoughts.