Death on the Nile (1978)

“He was her man, but he was doin' her wrong!” 

            Murder mystery stories are some of my favorites when reading a book or watching a movie. Some of literature’s best murder mysteries have been written by Agatha Christie. Her most famous novels are those containing the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. I had always heard of Christie and her famous stories but it was not until three years ago that after watching the movie version of Murder on the Orient Express that I began to read her novels. Each of her stories are so interesting with several twists and turns. Of her novels I have read that have been turned into films I have only seen Orient Express and not too long ago Death on the Nile. Death on the Nile has a very good plot and very good twists.

            Jackie de Bellefort (Mia Farrow) brings her fiancé Simon over to see her best friend Linnet Rideway’s mansion to see if she can find him a job on her estate. But when Simon and Linnet meet it is love at first sight and after a whirlwind romance they marry. While on their honeymoon they are plagued by Jackie who has followed them no matter where they go. Jackie cannot get over the fact that Simon left her so she has taken to stalking them.

            Once the couple reaches Egypt Jackie’s stalking becomes worse. More and more people are becoming witnesses to her outbursts and the couple’s pleas to leave them alone. As the trip progresses we come to find that Linnet has many enemies for several different reasons: an author by the name of Salome Otterbourne (Angela Lansbury) based a character in her latest racy novel off Linnet and now Linnet wants to sue for libel; she wants to have a psychologist whom she believes killed her friend to have his license taken away; a Miss Bowers was once an heiress but her family’s fortune as taken away by the Ridgeway family; a Mrs. Van Shuyler (Bette Davis) has been coveting Linnet’s jewels; Linnet’s lawyer has been cheating her out of money and other things when he has her sign papers; her maid is extremely upset because Linnet will not give her her pay so she can marry after Linnet found out the man the maid wants to marry is Egyptian and is already married.

            With the tour group and on the riverboat is the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. As usual he takes very care and notice of his surroundings. He sees that everyone is a bit hostile towards Linnet and each has a reason to hate to her. Jackie eventually catches up to Simon and Linnet and makes a great drunken scene late one night on the boat. That same night Linnet is found dead from a gunshot wound to the head. Poirot immediately takes over the case along with his English detective friend Col. Race (David Niven). He has a boat load of suspects to interview and investigate. Everyone had a motive for wanting Linnet but it is a challenge to figure out who really did.

            The ending is one I did not really see coming and I really liked that since so often than not I figure out the ending to mysteries.

            The cast was alright I was not too crazy about it as a whole. I cracked up the whole time with Bette Davis and Maggie Smith because Smith was supposed to be a companion/nurse for Davis and she just kept saying the funniest things to Davis. Davis’s character was such a pain in the rear. In one scene she tells Smith to move along the boat was beginning to look like a mortuary and Smith replies “Thank God you'll be in one yourself before too long you bloody old fossil!”. Angela Lansbury as Salome Otterbourne was the highlight of the movie. The character was totally eccentric and she played her to perfection. It is odd seeing Lansbury act so crazy but she was just so good. David Niven did a good job as Race, I am not a big fan of his but I found him alright. Mia Farrow has got to be the most annoying person on the face of the planet. The first time I ever saw her was in The Great Gatsby and I could not take her then and I fully remember why. I could not believe how much she sounds like her mother Maureen O’Sullivan though, it was so scary how much they sound alike. Farrow just ruined the movie whenever she was in a scene she was so bad.

            All in all I have to say Death on the Nile was an alright movie. The story and plot as I said was very good with a great twist at the end but I was not that crazy about it. I think I was comparing it the whole time to Murder on the Orient Express because I love it so much. The cast is Orient Express is one of the best I have ever seen in a movie and I think that is why I did not like the cast too much here. I am so used to Albert Finey as Poirot that Peter Ustinov fell flat. At the end of the movie this Poirot mentions to Mrs. Van Schuyler that next time they meet he has to tell her about his case on the Orient Express. 

            Death on the Nile is worth a viewing at least once for the story and the twist. 

Big City Blues (1932)

Big City Blues is a good example of early classic cinema. The sound was not full of hissing and static (sure it has been cleaned up most likely but sometimes there are those films that still sound terrible) and the voice was clear, the direction by Mervyn LeRoy was excellent, and the plot was alright. The story is not too great but along the way there are some racy Pre-Code things going on underneath.

             A young man named Bud Reeves (Eric Linden) from Indiana has just come into money. He decides to go to New York City. The train station master lets Bud know that the city is really rough that when he went there as a young man he had jobs up and down all the boroughs. Bud is young and naïve but he sees the city as a great place full of opportunity and fun (who DOESN’T see that even today?). The station master and one of the workers makes a bet that Bud will be back in ten days.

            Bud has a cousin named Gibboney- Gibby for short. Gibby is a man about town with much money and much influence. In the lobby of the hotel that he is staying Bud is introduced by Gibby to two chorus girls one of them being Vida Fleet (Joan Blondell) who Bud takes an instant liking to. That night Gibby throws a little party in Bud’s hotel room. Vida is there along with some other people one of them being Shep Adkins (Humphrey Bogart). During the party a fight breaks out between Shep and another man. The lights go out during the fight but when the lights come on a girl named Jackie is found dead from being hit in the head with a glass bottle. Everyone runs even Gibby leaving Bud to take the blame.

            Now Bud is the prime suspect and he is on the run. Nobody is coming forward about the crime and the police are at all the stations, bus and train, keeping their eyes out for him.

            Eventually Bud is cleared and he goes back home after only seventy-two hours of leaving for New York City.

            The story was not too bad I think I would have liked it more if Eric Linden had not been the lead. His acting got on my nerves something fierce after a while. I know he was supposed to be an innocent guy naïve to big city life and partying but I did not like him at all. I found him more whiney and annoying than anything else. Joan Blondell and the rest of the cast was perfect. Blondell was a very good actress the more I see of her the more I enjoy her and the more she becomes to me the epitome of a Pre-Code actress. Humphrey Bogart had a very small part as Shep Adkins and he is not even credited. I liked him in his small scene you can tell he was on his way to becoming one of the best tough guys.

            There are several aspects of this film that make it a Pre-Code. At the party in Bud’s room a girl is reading a line from the lesbian themed book Well of Loneliness by Radclyff Hall. The book was heavily censored and caused a big sensation when it was released. Prohibition was still going on so Gibby had to get bootleg booze and several club scenes were speakeasies. At the end the real killer is found hanging in his closet after he killed himself. You do not the guy hanging in entirety you just seen his hands and feet, scenes like this would not be shown for a very long time in films after the Hayes Code was enforced.

            Big City Blues is not a bad Pre-Code but it definitely was not the best I have seen. I did like how Bud looked at New York City because so many millions of people look at it the same way: full of opportunity and new adventures and fun. I go to New York City all the time and every time I go it is so exciting. I guess if I lived there and really experienced it I would not feel that way and I would be let down much like Bud was … just without the murder charges. There are some points in the film that drag while others keep you entertained especially when Bud arrives and meets up with his cousin for the first time. Big City Blues is a good example of Pre-Code films in the 1930s and keeps up with Warner Bros’ reputation for releasing gritty films during the decade. 

This is the Night (1932)

While trolling TCM’s line up over the summer I found This is the Night with Cary Grant. I love Cary Grant I will sit through just about any film he was in especially his early films. I do not believe I have seen a Cary Grant Pre-Code film before so I had to see it and it is one I never heard of before. Not very long into the film I found myself completely enjoying it especially the acting.

            The film begins with a lavish party in Paris. Anyone who is to be known and seen pulls up. Claire Mathewson (Thelma Todd) steps out of a car only for the chauffer to close the door and rip her dress off! All she had on is her underwear and a fur coat. Claire is married to Stephan (Grant) but she has been seeing a man named Gerald Gray (Roland Young). The two almost get caught (or what they believe is almost) by Stephan when Gerald’s friend Bunny (Charlie Ruggles) comes by to bring them tickets to Venice. To get them out of a jam Bunny lies to Stephan telling him that the tickets are for Gerald and his wife… Gerald is not married. Stephan is not fooled he knows there is no wife but he goes along with their lie and decides to go along with Gerald and his “wife” to Venice along with Claire.

            Now Gerald is a bind and has to find a wife. He decides to hire an actress but the actress he wanted did not take the role for fear her boyfriend would hurt the guy. She gives the role to a young actress named Germaine (Lily Damita). Germaine desperately wants a job she needs the money. She is not the type of girl Gerald was looking for he tells her he wanted someone “spectacular”. Well Germaine gives Gerald something spectacular alright, she goes behind a changing screen and removes her clothes then she comes out from behind the screen and wraps herself around some curtains and prances around really sexily.

            Once both the couples get to Venice the fun and jealousy and love begin. Germaine and Gerald sleep in separate rooms since they are not really married. All night Gerald could not sleep so many things were keeping him awake. Claire sees that her lover is tired and she gets jealous thinking he was up with Germaine all night. To keep up the front that they are married Germaine gives Gerald a big kiss which she pretends makes her dizzy and she goes inside. Claire has had it already and tells Gerald to get rid of the girl. When he tells Germaine she has to go she throws a fit and starts speaking rapid French. She refuses to go and does not.

            Since Stephan knows what is going on he tells Germaine (without giving away that he knows) that they should console each other since both their spouses are cheating on them. Germaine looks over from the table she and Stephan are sitting and sees Gerald. To make her fake husband jealous she takes the other man’s hand. Gerald gets really jealous then he and Bunny proceed to get drunk all afternoon.

            The situation for Germaine does not go very well for a while. Gerald is really in love with her, Stephan is chasing after her to get back at his wife, and Bunny has very drunkenly professed his love for her by climbing to her balcony from a ladder.

            This is a classic Pre-Code through and through. There were so many hints of subtle sexuality such as Germaine’s little striptease, Gerald telling Germaine to stop breathing a certain way because it sounds immoral, and the running joke of Claire’s dresses constantly being ripped off by the chauffer and she stands in nothing but her under garments. Even the storyline is racy with a married woman going around with a man and her husband winds up wanting to cheat with Germaine.

            The beginning of the film starts out as a sort of little musical. When Claire’s dress rips all the people around her sing “Madame has lost her dress” and soon all of Paris is singing it as well. Even Cary Grant gets a little singing action when he asks Bunny for a key.

            I loved the cast all except for Roland Young. Compared to the suave and very young Cary Grant and the hysterical Charlie Ruggles he was not that great. Grant was so handsome. This is when he looked his best besides his roles in the 1940s and early 1950s. This was his first film he ever made and you can see already how much incredible talent he had he played the jerky husband to perfection and made it look to effortless. Charlie Ruggles is perfect as the blundering assistant. He just got funnier as the film went on.

            I have never seen Lili Damita in a film before this. Sure I have heard her name before and seen her in pictures because she was married to Errol Flynn but I had never seen her act. I thought she was fantastic especially the part where she does that little striptease for Gerald. Damita had a very thick French accent but that made her all the more appealing and adorable. I cracked up when she got angry and yelled in rapid French. Damita’s comedic timing was perfect she was so fantastic in all her scenes the way she was able to be really funny and then pull off being dramatic and sad.

            I have also never seen Thelma Todd in a film before, heck I never even knew who she was. I liked her she did not play her character to the extent that she was annoying which could have so easily happened. I will say she was a trooper for having to get her dresses ripped off a lot and that she was very sexy.

            The direction by Frank Tuttle is in the style of Ernst Lubitsch where it is a comedy that takes place in Paris and is very racy. Tuttle was not a very inspiring director his camera angles are not mind blowing or anything to brag about and he did not get as much as could have been gotten out of his actors even though they were quite perfect it still felt like there was something more underneath them that could have come out. He was not terrible he just was not the best.  I went ballistic with the blue tint at the beginning and whenever there was a night scene. It just did not flow at all with the black and white scenes.

            This is the Night would probably not even be remembered today had it not been for the fact that this was Cary Grant’s first film role. Forget that fact though if you ever see the film because it is an excellent Pre-Code with saucy, racy lines. This is the Night one of the best comedies I have seen since I started watching classic films, there are so many funny scenes and the cast delivers them perfectly. This is definitely a film to see if you love Pre-Code comedies.