Evil Under the Sun (1982)
Directed by Guy Hamilton

Film Review

With three successful Agatha Christie adaptations under their belt - Murder On The Orient Express (1974), Death On The Nile (1978), The Mirror Crack'd (1980) - producers John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin were able to repeat the winning formula of a star-studded whodunit, this time adapting one of Christie's lesser known novels, Evil Under the Sun, first published in 1941.  The Devon location of the original novel is substituted for something a little more glamorous, the sunnier climes of Majorca, but most of the plot is retained, with one or two justifiable trims.  Once again, a stellar cast is assembled, with Peter Ustinov reprising his most famous role as Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot, having successfully played the part in Death On The Nile, which was also directed by Guy Hamilton.

Ex-Avenger Diana Rigg and a superb Maggie Smith have most of the fun, sparring off each other with juicy put-downs and barbed insults which, sadly, do not end in an all-out bikini cat-fight.  Roddy McDowall raises the camp quotient even higher with his Noël Coward party piece, although, thankfully, the film can rely on James Mason and Denis Quilley to bring it back to Earth and stop it from degenerating into a vaudevillian extravaganza.  Nicholas Clay gets little to do other than look impossibly muscular and handsome whilst Jane Birkin is cast, somewhat tongue-in-cheekly, as the dowdy neglected wife.  But, as Poirot is apt to point out, all is not what it seems and there are twists and turns aplenty as the mystery wends its devious course to its fiendishly ingenious climax.  Evil Under the Sun may not be the most memorable big screen Agatha Christie adaptation but it is an enjoyable and stylish romp, worth watching if only for Diana Rigg's raucously uninhibited rendition of Cole Porter's You're The Top.  Is there no limit to Miss Rigg's talents?

Film Synopsis

Alerted by an insurance scam, the world-famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot travels to a small island in the Adriatic to try to recover a valuable diamond belonging to the self-made millionaire Sir Horace Blatt.  Ostensibly, Poirot is on holiday and checks into a luxury hotel run by Daphne Castle.  The other guests at the hotel include: theatrical producers Odell and Myra Gardener; gossip columnist and critic Rex Brewster; the glamorous former actress Arlene Stuart and her husband Kenneth Marshall; Marshall's teenage daughter Linda; and Patrick and Christine Redfern, a seemingly ill-matched couple.  The tranquillity of the sunny location is threatened by petty grievances between Arlene Stuart and the other guests.  The Gardeners stand to lose a fortune if the actress does not agree to star in their next production; Rex is incensed when she forbids him to print a scurrilous biography about her; Linda makes no secret of her hatred for her stepmother; and who knows what Kenneth Marshall thinks when he sees his wife openly flirting with the handsome Patrick Redfern.  One morning, Patrick arranges to meet Arlene at a secluded spot on the island.  His secret assignation is spoiled by Myra Gardener, who insists that he gives her a lift in his pedalo.  To his horror, Patrick finds that Arlene has been killed, apparently strangled.  This is the moment at which Horace Blatt suddenly turns up in his yacht, not far from the spot where Arlene Stuart was murdered...