Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)
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| Evil Under the Sun | |
|---|---|
 Original film poster |
|
| Directed by | Guy Hamilton |
| Produced by | John Brabourne Richard B. Goodwin |
| Written by | Anthony Shaffer Barry Sandler Agatha Christie |
| Starring | Peter Ustinov James Mason Maggie Smith Nicholas Clay Jane Birkin Colin Blakely Sylvia Miles Denis Quilley Roddy McDowall Diana Rigg |
| Music by | Cole Porter |
| Cinematography | Christopher Challis |
| Editing by | Richard Marden |
| Distributed by | Columbia-EMI-Warner Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) |  5 March 1982 |
| Running time | 117 min |
| Country | UK |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Evil Under the Sun is a 1982 British mystery film, based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie.
Tagline: "Holidays can be murder."
[edit] Production notes
The adaptation stayed fairly close within the plotlines of Christie's work, but truncated scenes for time constraints, removed minor characters and added certain humorous elements that were not present in the novel. Additionally, the novel is set in Cornwall, but the film is set on an Adriatic island in the fictional kingdom of "Tyrania."
The film was shot at Lee International Studios in Wembley, London and on location in Majorca, Spain. It made full use of its location to adequately convey the intricacies of Christie's plot, in which the hotel guests all appear to be at different parts of the island at the time of the murder.
Ustinov was making his second film appearance as Hercule Poirot, having first played the Belgian detective in Death on the Nile (1978). Of the other cast members, Smith and Birkin had also appeared in the same earlier film whilst Quilley and Blakely had featured in the 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express. Guy Hamilton had previously directed another Agatha Christie film, The Mirror Crack'd in 1980.
[edit] Plot summary
The story is set on an island at an exclusive hotel, formerly the summer palace of the reigning King of Tyrania, now owned by Daphne Castle (Smith), who, we are told, received it from the King "for services rendered." Her guests include glamorous actress Arlena Marshall (Rigg), Sir Horace Blatt (Blakely), a self-made millionaire and recent recipient of a knighthood, Rex Brewster (McDowall), an author of an unpublished tell-all biography of Arlena, Odell and Myra Gardener (Mason and Miles), New York theatrical producers, Patrick and Christine Redfern (Clay and Birkin), a handsome young man and his mousy wife, Kenneth Marshall (Quilley), Arlena's husband, and Linda Marshall (Emily Hone), Kenneth's teenage daughter and Arlena's stepdaughter.
When Arlena is discovered murdered, Poirot, also staying on the island, quickly discovers that nearly all of the guests had a connection to her and that anyone of them could have wished her dead.
On the morning of the murder, Arlena goes off on her own for what appears to be a tryst in an empty island bay. Poirot assumes that her assignation is with Patrick, but this seems not to be the case when Patrick arrives shortly afterwards in plain view of Poirot & Kenneth in the hotel lobby.
As the morning progresses, Myra tags along on a boat trip with Patrick who is transparently attempting to rendevous with Arlena. When they reach the secluded beach, they see the body of a woman on the sand. Patrick clambers ashore, announcing the body to be the strangled corpse of Arlena. Myra goes to fetch help while he waits with the body.
The investigation throws up a number of confusing details. A mysterious bottle has been thrown into the sea and a phantom bath has been taken at an odd time by none of the guests.
The solution to the murder hinges upon the fact that it is actually Christine posing as Arlena's corpse on the beach. She has used a temporary self-tanner to match Arlena’s skin color. Christine posed as Arlena lying on the beach by donning Arlena's bathing costume and face-obscuring Chinese red hat waiting to be "discovered" by Patrick in the plain but distant view of Myra. Arlena, meanwhile, has been struck earlier with a rock by Christine and stashed in a nearby rock grotto.
After Myra leaves the bay, Christine changes out of Arlena's bathing costume, pitches the bottle of self-tanner into the sea and dashes back to the hotel to take a cleansing bath and keep a tennis date. Now, Patrick can strangle Arlena at his leisure in the grotto and eventually be discovered by Poirot to be the cause (along with Christine) of Arlena's demise.
[edit] External links
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