Appointment with Death (1988)

Before the will can be read, Emily Boynton (Piper Laurie) blackmailed the family lawyer, Jefferson Cope (David Soul) into using an older will that gave her complete control over the estate.  She was the 2nd Mrs. Boynton and step-mother to all but one of the Boynton children, all of whom were adults.  They mostly knew there had been a new will but could not prove it.  Soon afterwards, the family went on a world tour and everyone pondered how to kill Emily Boynton.  On a cruise from Trieste to the Levant, the family revealed all unwittingly in earshot of the eminent Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov).

While on a day trip to an archeological site in Palestine, Mrs. Boynton was discovered to be dead!  Poirot quickly deduced that it was murder!  But who could it be?

Was it Lennox Boynton (Nicholas Guest), the oldest of the Boynton children who was forced to live with his step-mother despite being married?

Could it be Nadine Boynton (Carrie Fisher), Lennox's wife?  She was Mrs. Boynton's nurse and had met Lennox by way of that occupation.  She was tired of her oppressive mother-in-law.

Maybe it was Jefferson Cope the lawyer who was having an affair with Nadine.

Perhaps Raymond Boynton (John Terlesky) killed her so he could run off with Dr. Sarah King (Jenny Seagrove).  Speaking of Dr. King, maybe she killed the old bat to clear the way to marrying Raymond.

Then there is Carol Boynton (Valerie Richards), who had plotted with Raymond while on the cruise ship.

Of course, there is no reason at all to suspect Lady Westholme (Lauren Bacall) who just happened to be on the same trip and has an alarming amount of screen time for a character with no link to the plot.  Really, it is a complete mystery why she is even included.  What possible motive could she have?

The story is half-baked but the scenery is great and the acting passable.  The cast is impressive.  In addition to the above, John Gielgud played the local military commander, Colonel Carbury, Hayley Mills appeared as an archeologist.

Just okay.  Fun to see Ustinov in his final appearance as Poirot.

Debbie Reynolds

The day after her daughter died, Debbie Reynolds is gone.  It has been a very difficult two days for Todd Fisher and Billie Lourd.  Debbie Reynolds' career peaked in the 50s and 60s.  As I look at her body of work on IMDb, I recognize only a handful that I have seen, many of those where she only had a supporting role.  Of her films, three stand out in my memory.

 

The Unsinkable Molly Brown (1964): I saw this a couple of times, the most recent of which would be more than 30 years ago.  Though Molly is famed for surviving the Titanic, that is a small part of the film.  I was reminded of Beverly Hillbillies when I saw the movie, where Molly is mostly rejected by the established aristocrats.  I should see this again and test my memory of it.

 

Mother (1996): I have rarely found Albert Brooks funny but this movie was an exception.  I think that can mostly be attributed to Debbie Reynolds' role as his mother.  I particularly enjoyed her going out on a date and telling him not to wait up or something like that.  Brooks was his normal hapless self, which worked in this movie.

 

Singin' in the Rain (1952): The greatest musical ever made.  Not long after my father bought a VHS, he taped this movie.  My brother and I watched this and Star Wars (I didn't know that Kathy Selden was Princess Leia's mom back then) almost weekly.  Her takedown of Don Lockwood's (Gene Kelly) ego might have served as a model for Leia's scruffy-looking nerf-herder comments to Han Solo 28 years later.  The movie is a joy from start to finish, full of song, dance, and humor.

 

Carrie Fisher

When Carrie was two years old, her father, Eddie Fisher, left her mother, Debbie Reynolds, for Elizabeth Taylor.  Carrie smoked, drank, did drugs, and had a wreck of a personal life.  Her only marriage lasted a year.  She had a daughter with a man who left her for another man.  Children of celebrities often have difficult lives because they are in the spotlight.  Carrie's life was more difficult than most.  In this day and age, 60 is entirely too young to die.

 

I was 16 when Return of the Jedi came to theaters and Carrie Fisher rocked it as Slave Leia.  Interestingly, her strangling of Jabba was her best moment in a movie where her character was otherwise mushy and mostly besotted with an increasingly inept Han Solo.  Leia was at her best in the first movie and just diminished from there.  Even in her return in The Force Awakens, she has lost the fire that made Leia so striking.  Consider how Leia reacts when brought before Tarkin on the Death Star:

Governor Tarkin, I should have expected to find you holding Vader's leash. I recognized your foul stench when I was brought on board.

Completely at the mercy of her enemies and still full of fire, showing nothing but contempt.  She and Han instantly have a hostile relationship during the rescue:

This is some rescue! You came in here, but didn't you have a plan for getting out?

And the hits kept coming:

Someone has to save our skins. Into the garbage chute, fly boy.

I don't know who you are or where you came from, but from now on you'll do as I tell you, okay?

Will someone get this big walking carpet out of my way?

You came in that thing? You're braver than I thought.

What happened to this Leia?  In The Empire Strikes Back, her hostility toward Han continues but is just an increasingly transparent device to deny that she is in love with a scoundrel.  By Return of the Jedi, she was softened to where she is left sitting on a log with a cute teddy bear.  However, it is revealed that she is Luke's sister and should also be strong in the force.  Though her son, Kylo Ren, is strong in the force, Leia appears to have developed no talents in the intervening decades.  The character had so much promise at the start and, so far as we know, it came to naught.

 

Sadly, Leia is Carrie's acting career.  She had a couple of forgettable movies but, like Mark Hamill, never became a star outside of Star Wars.  Her best non-Leia role was undoubtedly the Mystery Woman in The Blues Brothers.  She had this sweet girl-next-door face combined with the homicidal fury of the scorned woman.  Awesome!

 

Considering her appearance at the end of Rogue One, Carrie Fisher's Princess Leia may live on as a CGI character.  It reminds me of one of her witty comments regarding Star Wars merchandising:

 

I signed my likeness away. Every time I look in the mirror, I have to send Lucas a couple of bucks.

 

RIP