death on the nile take the viewer on a genteel cruise aboard the paddle steamer karnak a it and along with it motley collection of passenger and wend it way through the stunning scenery of historic egypt . unfortunately on this voyage the nile prof to have disturb current and and a wealthy heiress with a propensity for make enemy be shot . corpulent belgian sleuth hercule poirot be on hand and and and a the body count rise and must tax his legendary little grey cell to the limit in order to expose the assassin in their midst . the charm of this film be that to most of the audience it will be foreign in both time and place . the egyptian location provide a visual feast and with visit to the pyramid and the inscrutable sphinx and and the eerie wail statue of ramses ii at abu simbel . scenery like this make it somewhat easy to forgive the movie it overlong running time of almost 2 ½ hour . the story ( originally pen by agatha christie ) be set in the 1930s the golden age of detective fiction when murder investigation be much less clinical affair than they be today . in an era before dna sampling and poirot use the narratively more interesting approach of involve suspect in conversation and and read between the line . the cast be certainly star stud and but unfortunately several of the character tend towards stereotype . however and there be some wonderful performance by several of the silver screen grandes dam bette davis and maggie smith and and particularly angela lansbury a the inebriated author of appallingly bad romance novel . although a little slow initially and various technique ( such a dead silence be use a the ultimate suspense music ) keep the viewer interest pique right through until christie trademark denouement .