Review of Evil Under the Sun (1982) by Sunil J — 02 Sep 2011
Agatha Christie's books got a new lease of life in the 1970's and 80's, and this was the second one to star Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot after Murder on the Nile (1978), it's a good adaptation with all the main cast hamming it up without a care in the world.
But it captures the era well, and it has a good mystery at the centre of it. Poirot (Ustinov) is asked to check out an insurance claim on a diamond belonging to Sir Horace Blatt (Colin Blakely), the diamond is a fake and Blatt believes he knows who took it.
A woman he courted in New York, who is now holidaying on a hotel on a small island in the west of the Mediterranean. The hotel is ran by Daphne Castle (Maggie Smith), and the guests include theatre producers Odell (James Mason) and Myra Gardener (Sylvia Miles), critic Rex Brewster (Roddy McDowall), young couple Patrick (Nicholas Clay) and Christine Redfern (Jane Birkin) and Kenneth Marshall (Denis Quilley) and his wife Arlena (Diana Rigg).
As the guests mingle, one afternoon, Arlena turns up dead on a remote beach, and now Poirot has to use to his "little, grey cells" to find out whodunnit, but nothing is what it seems, and the guests seem to be changing their stories everytime Poirot makes his enquiries.
It's a good murder mystery, and it has a good period score with the music of Cole Porter. Ustinov makes a good Poirot too, likeable and intelligent, and it has good, colourful support all having a good time.
Oh, and the locations in Majorca are beautiful.
This review of Evil Under the Sun (1982) was written by Sunil J on 02 Sep 2011.
Evil Under the Sun has generally received positive reviews.
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