No Holiday for Hercule

In anticipation of the October 23 release of Death on the Nile, Kenneth Branagh’s adaptation of Agatha Christie’s 1937 novel of the same title, I recently re-watched David Suchet’s fine version of that Hercule Poirot mystery, shown in 2004 as an episode of the ITV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot. I also hope sometime soon to watch the 1978 big-screen version of Death on the Nile, starring Peter Ustinov.

However, neither of those previous renderings of Christie’s knotty yarn—which finds brilliant Belgian sleuth Poirot investigating the slaying of a young heiress aboard a cruise ship as it sails through Egypt upon the Nile River—was as “steamy” as Branaugh’s film promises to be. As Literary Hub observes of the “top drawer teaser” for this picture: it is positively studded with sexy, smoldering, and possibly sinister stars in period garb.” Judge for yourself here.

This is the second time Branaugh will portray a prodigiously mustachioed Poirot. Three years ago he directed and starred in 20th Century Fox’s Murder on the Orient Express.