Word: niven
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...said mystery-adventure stories are perennial favorites, with books by P.D. James, Robert Ludlu and Larry Niven most in demand...
...same cruise, as have the novelist Salome Ottoban and her daughter. When Linnet's cheating lawyer (George Kennedy) hears of her marriage, his shady schemes are jeopardized and he sets off for Egypt to protect himself. Ridgeway's English lawyers are watching him, and they dispatch David Niven to the scene. Simultaneously, the Viennese doctor is trying to persuade Ridgeway not to go on trying to ruin his clinic, which has caused her friend to die, and the Marxist and Poirot are on the same boat. Small world...
...actors play their parts well, some more than others. Ustinov is fine as the supersleuth, but you wish he'd stop taking offense so often for being called French, not Belgian. Still, that's the screenwriter's fault more than Ustinov's. Niven is the quintessential unflappable Englishman, Bette Davis is right at home as a rich old bitch, and Chiles is a fine wealthy corpse. Mia Farrow is convincingly half-crazy, as usual. Some of the characters are drawn a little woodenly, and the script is nothing much to speak of. But then, neither is the Christie original...
...develops, just about everyone in first class has both motive and opportunity to do her in. Naturally, one does not imagine that Dame Agatha's immortal detective, Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov), pulled any triggers, and one can only spare the odd suspicious thought for Colonel Rice (David Niven), who assists him in his investigation. But that leaves plenty of others: Bette Davis as a dowager with a taste for pearls of the sort the late-lamented sported; Maggie Smith as her nurse-companion...
...pursue. The guest list, first intended to include family friends only, read like a compendium of the Almanack de Gotha and Variety. Among those invited: two ex-Kings (Umberto II of Italy and Michael of Rumania), the Aga Khan, Grand Duke Vladimir of Russia and Frank Sinatra, David Niven and Cary Grant. (Britain's Prince Charles, otherwise engaged, sent regrets...