Evil Under the Sun (1982)

The best of the Agatha Christie movies I have seen till now.Yes it follows the same formula as any other movie adapted from Christie's work. Yes we still have the detective rounding up all the suspects and explaining the plot. But it's really the cast of characters and the sharp writing that makes this the most enjoyable of the lot.Peter Ustinov is as good as he's ever been as Poirot. I have read the book and I think the book lends itself more to a cinematic style than some of her other books. It has a tight plot and a surprising ending. And the ending managed to hold the same impact as it had years ago when I read the book.Evil Under the Sun is a winner because it is able to capture the essence of her books and her style.

EVIL UNDER THE SUN marks the second of Peter Ustinov's appearances as the famous Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot and it's very similar to look and feel as his first, DEATH ON THE NILE. Once again a bunch of glamorous but ageing Hollywood stars are stranded in a remote exotic setting, where one of their number (an incredibly bitchy Diana Rigg) is murdered and Poirot has to work out who did it. I enjoyed this film slightly more than the two previous Poirot movies of the 1970s, because it has a lighter touch and more comedy, that makes it very amusing at times. The cast is very strong and has nice roles for Roddy McDowall, James Mason, and an on-form Maggie Smith, and I did get a hoot out of Colin Blakely's Yorkshireman. As ever, the only thing that took the edge of this - and it was the same with the other Poirot movies - is that it feels very drawn out, particularly in the first half. The murder takes forever to happen and too much time is spent merely wallowing in the star power instead of getting on with the plot. Still, it's a fun watch.

The fourth in the series of Brabourne/ Goodwin produced adaptations of Christie that began with MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1974). This one, set on an island in the Mediterranean (actually filmed in Majorca) has Peter Ustinov in his second outing as Poirot investigating the murder of a self-interested actor (Diana Rigg), with a gang of suspects including hotel-keeper Maggie Smith, cuckolded husband Denis Quilley, camp journalist Roddy McDowall, theatrical producer James Mason and his domineering wife Sylvia Miles, and would-be gigolo Nicholas Clay and his mousy spouse Jane Birkin. Anthony Shaffer's script gives plenty of opportunity for humorous sequences, especially the cat-fights between Smith and Rigg, and the scene where Poirot, clad in a bathing-dress, attempts to have a morning swim. Whereas David Suchet in the television version tended to be low-key in his characterization, referring to his "little gray cells" and how they solved cases on more than one occasion, Ustinov turns in a flamboyant performance, full of little details: the sequence where he overhears Clay and Birkin arguing in their hotel room ends with a shot of Poirot twitching his mustache, as if he doesn't quite believe what they are saying (he is eventually proved right). The score has rightly been praised: John Lanchbery's arrangements of Cole Porter standards are both florid yet particularly appropriate for the film's bourgeois ambiance: the characters' entire lives are dedicated to pleasure rather than work. As Poirot observes, somewhat cynically, they resemble slabs of meat laid out in the sun to brown. Guy Hamilton's direction is both slick and very clear: unusually for most Christie adaptations, EVIL UNDER THE SUN ties up every single strand of its complicated plot, leaving viewers without too many questions to ask as to whodunit and why. Definitely one of the better versions of the great detective novelist's work, even if it departs quite significantly from the source-text.

SPOILER ALERT I guess my only real complaint here is that for the first 50 minutes of the 117 minute film are kinda slow. Yes, it's fun watching the various characters being catty toward one another, but the plot doesn't advance much. Of course, it was all setting the stage...but it could have been done a tad quicker.Aside from that, the real treat here is watching Peter Ustinov. What a gem he was. I cannot really accept any other actor as Hercule Poirot after seeing him in the part.SPOILER ALERT It must have been a let down for James Mason to have such an inconsequential role...and so little screen time. Maggie Smith does rather nicely here as the proprietor of the hotel where all the action takes place. Nicholas Clay also has a nice turn as the murderer, as does Jane Birkin as the murderess. I liked Roddy McDowall just as much here I always do...not at all. Diana Rigg was interesting, but gets murdered halfway through the flick.A nice feature of this film is using Cole Porter songs as the score! And to see -- if you catch it -- Porter's name in the hotel register.Entertaining as these flicks are, they always seem a bit too convenient when it comes time for the master to unveil the murderer, and that's no less true here. Nevertheless, this is a rather fun movie to watch, and a treat to savor Peter Ustinov.