'Death on the Nile' trivia and fun facts
Sharing a (small) dressing room
Because of space constraints aboard, Bette Davis, Maggie Smith and Angela Lansbury shared a small cabin as a dressing room, which only allowed one to dress at a time, while the other two had to be laying on a lateral bed.
The beginning of the Hercule Poirot saga
'Death on the Nile' was the first of six movies in which actor Peter Ustinov played detective Hercule Poirot from Agatha Christie's novels.
A chaotic shooting
The production of the movie in Egypt was a chaos, because not enough hotel rooms were reserved for the crew. A lot of workers had to change hotels frequently, even on a daily basis.
Albert Finney rejected it by laziness
Albert Finney, who was Hercule Poirot in the successful 'Murder in the Orient Express' four years earlier was the logic choice to keep on playing the detective. However, he didn't want to undergo the make up process for his character everyday under the Egyptian heat, so he rejected the role.
Bette Davis's suitcase
Bette Davis took her own make-up, with her own mirrors and lights to the filming, just in case they didn't have of those in Egypt.
Angela Lansbury took 40 years to see the film
Angela Lansbury confessed to never have seen the finished version of the movie until she assisted to a screening on the 40th Anniversary of the film on November 9th, 2018.
Betty Davis wasn't very fond of shooting on location
While today shooting in real natural sceneries is seen as something positive, Bette Davis wasn't very fond of the idea of traveling to Egypt. "In the older days, they'd have built the Nile for you. Nowadays, films have become travelogues, and actors stuntmen". The production wasn't easy because temperatures reached 54 degrees (130 Fahrenheit) during the day, and they started working at 4 am to take advantage of the lower temperatures.