Wednesday, May 11, 2022
My Musings - Favorite Historical Mystery Series Pt 3
Sunday, May 8, 2022
Review - Peril at Pennington Manner
Monday, May 2, 2022
Mystery Movie Review - Death on the Nile 1978
- 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
- 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 a 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.
Saturday, April 30, 2022
Spotlight - First Bite
Review - The Impossible Imposter
I began with the first book in this series and it quickly became one of my favorite historical mysteries. We are up to the seventh in the series now and Veronica never has a dull moment.
1. A Curious Beginning (click here)
3. A Treacherous Curse (click here)
4. A Dangerous Collaboration (click here)
5. A Murderous Relation (click here)
6. An Unexpected Peril (click here)
Author: Deanna RaybournCopyright: Feb 2022 (Berkley) 334 pgs
Series: 7th in Veronica Speedwell Mysteries
Sensuality: Innuendo, mild
Mystery Sub-genre: Historical Amateur Sleuth
Main Character: Veronica Speedwell is an amateur entomologist
Setting: 1889, London England
Obtained Through: Netgalley, publisher for honest review
Book Blurb: "London, 1889. Veronica Speedwell and her natural historian beau Stoker are summoned by Sir Hugo Montgomerie, head of Special Branch. He has a personal request on behalf of his goddaughter, Euphemia Hathaway. After years of traveling the world, her eldest brother, Jonathan, heir to Hathaway Hall, was believed to have been killed in the catastrophic eruption of Krakatoa a few years before.
But now a man matching Jonathan’s description and carrying his possessions has arrived at Hathaway Hall with no memory of his identity or where he has been. Could this man truly be Jonathan, back from the dead? Or is he a devious impostor, determined to gain ownership over the family's most valuable possessions—a legendary parure of priceless Rajasthani jewels? It's a delicate situation, and Veronica is Sir Hugo's only hope.
Veronica and Stoker agree to go to Hathaway Hall to covertly investigate the mysterious amnesiac. Veronica is soon shocked to find herself face-to-face with a ghost from her past. To help Sir Hugo discover the truth, she must open doors to her own history that she long believed to be shut for good."
Veronica is highly intelligent with a sharp tongue and wit that is put to the test in this book. Stoker (Mr. Ravelstoke Templeton-Vane) is her sleuthing partner. He is cranky and reclusive but perfect for her. This outing will test both Veronica and Stoker.
My Thoughts: Hathaway Hall is the location for part of the mystery, the rest of the story is in and around London. The man who reappears as Jonathan is definitely hiding something and Veronica is caught in the thick of things. When they return to London danger follows them. Veronica's past comes back to bite her and we learn more of her back story which disrupts the domesticity she has found with Stoker. The plot moves quickly with complications and twists. The climax is perilous with suprises. The wrapup drops another surprise that will reverberate into the next book. This is a book has significant events occur impacting Veronica and Stoker!
Rating: Excellent - Loved it! Buy it now and put this author on your watch list