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By
FRANK BEHRENS
After the high-budget 1978
"Death on the Nile" with Peter Ustinov playing
Agatha Christie's Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot, I
do not wonder that the makers of the David Suchet
"Poirot" series waited so long to reinterpret the
murder novel for television.
The older film, available on an Anchor Bay DVD, is
fun to watch with a large cast of American and
British stars chewing up the scenery -- Bette
Davis, Angela Lansbury, David Niven, et al. --
against whom the cast of the 2004 production might
seem to lack sparkle. But they are not, as you can
judge for yourself from this A&E DVD.
While lacking the huge location settings of the
film, this production creates a more
claustrophobic feeling on board the cruise vessel,
while Suchet is really better than Ustinov in
playing Christie's creation. Ustinov plays the
role with more humor, Suchet with more suppressed
emotions as the little gray cells do their thing.
As the alcoholic writer of sex novels, Frances de
la Tour matches Lansbury in creating a really
goofy Salome Otterbourne; and Judy Parfitt's Miss
Van Schayler more than matches that of Bette Davis
in the earlier version. I do miss her relation
with her "companion" as played by Maggie Smith in
the film, but this does not detract from the more
recent telling. And I prefer, I must admit, Mia
Farrow as the wronged fiancée, Jacqueline, to the
television version's Emma Malin, who is a bit
colorless.
But overall, this 2004 production has a good deal
going for it, and I will conclude by saying that
both versions are worth having in your collection. |
