52. Death on the Nile

Air date: 12/04/2004
Published: 1937

A strong case can be made for claiming that Murder on the Orient Express is Agatha Christie's most famous Hercule Poirot novel. But if so, Death on the Nile is one of perhaps two or three stories that aren't far behind.

Christie produced a stage play version, which has probably helped cement this story of greed and money - set in the context of what seems to be a love triangle - in many people's consciousness. I've seen it in the theatre - and recall watching a delightful outdoor theatre production many years ago.

In 1978 it was the first story to be adapted during the Peter Ustinov years: a big screen version that boasted a strong cast, including the likes of David Niven, Mia Farrow, a veteran Bette Davis and Maggie Smith.

The story opens introducing us to Linnet Ridgeway, an incredibly wealthy young woman who generally gets her own way, and her friend Joanna Southwood (whose significance for one of the red herrings only becomes apparent later in the story). Then we meet Jackie de Bellefort, another friend, whose fiance Simon Doyle has recently lost his job. In a series of clever sticatto sections we are quickly introduced to the Allertons, Tim and his mother (who are related to Joanna); Miss Marie Van Schuyler from America, her nurse, Miss Bowers, and cousin Cornelia; Andrew Pennington, also in America; Mrs Otterbourne and her daughter Rosalie; and Jim Fanthorp, a lawyer in London. In the middle of all this we learn that Linnet has married Simon Doyle...

The action takes place in Egypt, where Hercule Poirot happens to be on vacation. The tension mounts as we discover Jackie 'stalking' Linnet and Doyle on their honeymoon, seemingly bitter that her former friend stole her fiance from her. We meet three more characters, Dr Bessner, Guido Richetti and Mr Ferguson, a somewhat strange cynic with apparent communist leanings (who turns out to be of landed gentry stock!).

The famous central scene takes place during the Nile cruise section of the vacation, and sees a drunken Jackie shoot Doyle in the leg in the ship's saloon. She is taken to a cabin by Fanthorp and Cornelia, before being attended to by Miss Bowers. Doyle is removed to Dr Bessner's cabin for treatment. The following morning Linnet is found dead, having been shot in the head while asleep. Her expensive pearls are also missing.The previous night's scene seems to put both Doyle and Jackie out of the picture.

Linnet's maid, Louise, is later found stabbed in her room, seemingly because she was trying to blackmail the murderer. Still later Mrs Otterbourne, an extravagant writer of sensual novels, is shot just as she is about to reveal Louise's killer.

Poirot is joined part way through by his old friend Colonel Race, who is investigating another matter, and they begin interviewing the suspects.

By my reckoning Death on the Nile is Christie's longest Poirot tale. There are a lot of characters, and a lot of red herrings. Poirot eventually unravels them all, of course. Tim Allerton is running a jewellery theft scam with the aforementioned Joanna, which involves stealing expensive jewels and replacing them with fakes. Richetti is the man Colonel Race was after. Pennington conveniently bumped into Linnet and Doyle on holiday because he needed her signature to some documents to cover up mismanagement of her money. Fanthorp was investigating Pennington. Mrs Otterbourne drinks (her novels are no longer selling) and the splash that some people heard on the fateful night was her daughter dumping her stash of booze in the river. Mrs Van Schuyler is a kleptomaniac who stole Linnet's pearls (except she didn't exactly: she stole the fake pearls after Allerton had done a swap).

As for the small matter of the murders: Jackie and Doyle set it all up. She didn't shoot him in the leg; he pretended she had done. When she dropped the gun he picked it up (while she was being led away) and ran and shot his wife. He then returned to the saloon and proceeded to shoot himself in the leg. The aim was to inherit Linnet's fortune. Perfect crime, perfect alibis for them both. Except it wasn't. Louise had seen him, and so had to be bumped off, by Jackie. Mrs Otterbourne saw Jackie go into Louise's cabin, so she had to go, too. In the finale, Jackie (who had two guns) shoots Doyle and herself. It seems Poirot had an idea she would.

Given all this detail the TV adaptation does an admirable job in adhering to most of the plotline. A few characters don't make the cut, of course. Ironically, two of them were involved in the story's central scene. Miss Bowers is left out (Cornelia does the night shift looking after Jackie) and so is Fanthorp (his involvement in the saloon scene being taken by Ferguson). Richetti is also omitted, which makes Colonel Race's decision to accompany Poirot on the boat trip less obvious.

For the second time in three episodes we suffered the gratutious interpolation of implied homosexuality. In Five Little Pigs Philip Blake is presented as being attracted to Amyas Crale, whereas in Christie's original he was attracted to Crale's wife Caroline. This actually put a totally different slant on the scene where Caroline had visited him in his room.

Now in Death on the Nile there is at least the suggestion that Allerton is a homosexual. In the original he and Rosalie Otterbourne become an item towards the end of the story. This resolves some of the side issues nicely, with Allerton returning the pearls, and Rosalie promised some happiness after enduring so much from her mother. Unfortunately, for TV she shows him some affection, to which he replies: "Barking up the wrong tree, I'm afraid." At that point his mother calls him from her cabin. I have heard the opinion that maybe he is having a relationship with the woman who may, or may not be his mother! This is a possible inference, but I think less likely. If we are meant to conclude he is homosexual - and this is the second such plot change in the same group of episodes - one might almost think someone on the production team had an 'agenda'...