Evil Under the Sun *** (1982, Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith, James Mason, Diana Rigg, Nicholas Clay, Colin Blakely, Jane Birkin, Roddy McDowall, Sylvia Miles, Denis Quilley) – Classic Movie Review 1,305

Evil Under the Sun (1982): Hotelier Maggie Smith’s star guest is a bitchy actress (Diana Rigg) everyone wants to kill – for refusing to do a stage show, for stopping a book, or for having an affair with a married man in front of his shy wife (Jane Birkin). 

Director Guy Hamilton’s attractive 1982 whodunit thriller film Evil Under the Sun finds Peter Ustinov happily back for a second time as Belgian super-sleuth Hercule Poirot in this enjoyable and diverting follow-up to the John Brabourne-Richard Goodwin production team’s Death on the Nile (1978). Screenwriter Anthony Shaffer again is the man successfully rewriting the 1941 novel by Agatha Christie for the screen, with uncredited work by Barry Sandler.

When Poirot is asked to check out a blue-hued diamond belonging to millionaire industrialist Sir Horace Blatt (Colin Blakely), Poirot tells him it is a fake. During an affair, Blatt paid $100,000 for the gift to his girlfriend Arlena Marshall (Diana Rigg), now on her honeymoon with her husband (Denis Quilley) and step-daughter at an exclusive resort hotel on an Adriatic island in the fictional kingdom of Tyrania. Poirot agrees to confront her, and enjoy a holiday of his own, at the former summer palace of the reigning King of Tyrania, now owned by Daphne Castle.

The all-star supporting cast is led by Maggie Smith as Daphne Castle, the proprietress of the Tyranian resort hotel whose star guest is the bitchy glamorous actress Arlena Marshall whom apparently everyone hates enough to want to kill. They all have different reasons – for refusing to do a stage show, stopping a book, having an open affair with another guest Patrick Redfern (Nicholas Clay) in full view of his shy wife Christine (Jane Birkin). It is no surprise then when Arlena is strangled to death. With everyone having an alibi, Poirot must find out whodunit, as usual.

The infectiously enjoyable camp and outrageous performances, the Cole Porter songs, the gorgeous Christopher Challis cinematography and a top-quality production are effective disguises for a modestly entertaining mystery.

Nicholas Clay (1946-2000), James Mason, Colin Blakely, Jane Birkin, Roddy McDowall, Sylvia Miles and Denis Quilley also star alongside Ustinov, Smith and Rigg.

Emily Home, John Alderson, Paul Antrim, Cyril Conway, Barbara Hicks, Richard Vernon and Robert Dorning are also in the sterling cast.

Dragonera from Majorca.

The film was shot at Lee International Studios in Wembley, London, and on location in Majorca, Spain. The island used was Sa Dragonera, but only for aerial shots. The costumes are designed by Anthony Powell, who had won an Oscar for his work on Death on the Nile. Bizarrely, Ustinov designed his own bathing suit.

It was remade for TV in 2003 as Evil Under the Sun, with David Suchet as Poirot,  and Hugh Fraser and Philip Jackson.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974) was the first of a number of all-star adaptations of Agatha Christie novels in the 1970s and early 1980s, including The Mirror Crack’d with Miss Marple (Angela Lansbury) and Death on the Nile, Evil Under the Sun and Appointment with Death with Hercule Poirot. Quilley and Blakely both appeared in Murder on the Orient Express.

Guy Hamilton, who directed four James Bond movies including the 1964 classic Goldfinger, had previously directed The Mirror Crack’d in 1980. He died on 21 April 2016 at the age of 93 on Majorca where he lived.

RIP Diana Rigg (1938-2020), who died of cancer on 10 September 2020, aged 82. She is fondly remembered as Emma Peel in The Avengers (1965 to 1968), as a Bond girl called Tracy in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969), as Barbara in The Hospital and as Edwina Lionheart in Theatre of Blood (1973).

Jane Birkin died at her home in Paris on 16 July 2023, at the age of 76 after having a stroke in 2021.

London-born Birkin began her career in minor roles in Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blowup (1966), and in Kaleidoscope (1966). She appeared in the controversial film Je t’aime moi non plus (1976) under Serge Gainsbourg’s direction and found international acting fame with the Agatha Christie films Death on the Nile (1978), and Evil Under the Sun (1982), and is especially remembered for Daddy Nostalgie (1990).

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© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Movie Review 1,305

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