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Date: 2/28/2022
In theaters:
“Death on the Nile”
Director, producer and actor Kenneth Branagh brings audiences a re-imagined version of the august Agatha Christie novel, “Death on the Nile.”
Written in 1937, the novel has been adapted several times, most notably in 1978 with Peter Ustinov playing the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.
This film is the second outing for Branagh playing the unflappable detective, having made “Murder on the Orient Express” in 2017.
Writer Michael Green and Branagh had collaborated on the previous film and are reunited for this production.
In this film, Green and Branagh give Poirot an origin story, perhaps a necessity these days of superhero movies. In a black and white prologue set during World War I in 1914, we learn why the detective sports a sizable mustache as well as why he seems a bit stand-offish.
In the books, by the way, all we know is the private detective was once a Belgian police officer. Purists may object to these changes, but I think Green and Branagh wanted to give Poirot motivations for his look and behavior.
In this adaptation, set in the mid-1930s, Poirot is on vacation in Egypt and runs into a friend named Bouc (Tom Bateman) and his mother Euphemia (Annette Bening). Through a loose turn of events, Poirot is invited by wealthy heiress Linnet (Gal Gadot) to accompany her and her friends on her wedding cruise on the Nile. She has recently married Simon (Armie Hammer), who had been engaged to one of Linnet’s close friends, Jackie (Emma Mackey).
Jackie turns up herself and doesn’t behave well.
In fact, several more of Linnet’s guests harbor reasons that might make them harmful to her.
Yes, there is much drama afoot. What else would you expect?
When the first murder occurs, Poirot must figure out who is the killer, but it’s not easy.
Despite some of the conventions of modern-day story-telling, this film is deliciously old-fashioned in many ways. If you were raised on moves from the 1930s and ’40s in which the intrepid detective gathered all of the suspects in one room at the conclusion of the film to announce who was the murderer, then chances are you will enjoy this move.
I certainly did.
As a director, Branagh keeps the story moving and he has assembled a very interesting cast, including British comic Russell Brand as one of Linnet’s former lovers and Jennifer Saunders and Dawn French, known to American audiences for their show “Absolutely Fabulous,” as a rich woman and her nurse. Sophie Okonedo is Salome, a jazz singer on the cruise with her niece Rosalie, played by Letitia Wright, who went to school with Linnet.
There is a scene after the story is concluded that might again bother purists but falls in line with Branagh’s interpretation of the character.
Filmed with a sense of luxury, “Death on the Nile” is a lot of fun.
On Blu-ray: “Double Door”
I hadn’t been to The Archives, the multi-media store run by Vinegar Syndrome in Bridgeport, in about eight weeks, so it was time for a visit. I try to go once a month.
As is my habit, I try to buy a film I know little about, and my choice was the new release of “Double Door,” a 1934 film made by Paramount.
Horror film fans are well aware of the classic horror films produced by Universal, but may not know much about Paramount’s contributions other than its production of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” but “The Island of Lost Souls” and “Murders in the Zoo,” showed that company was quite capable in this genre.
“Double Door” was based on a hit Broadway play, and Paramount brought two of the play’s stars to the screen version: Mary Morris and Anne Revere. Set in New York City in 1910, Morris plays Victoria, the head of the Van Brett family, wealthy and isolated in its outdated Manhattan townhouse. When the younger Van Brett Rip (Kent Taylor) wants to marry Anne (Evelyn Venable), Victoria releases the full power she has over the family members.
This film teeters between being a thriller and a psychological horror film with Morris, in her only film role, dominating the film as well as Boris Karloff and Bela Lugosi did in their movies.
My gamble paid off in discovering a film unknown to me that was a revelation.