I Watch Films: Evil Under The Sun

 

Evil Under The Sun (1982)

Private detective Hercules Poirot (Peter Ustinov) visits the offices of the London Trojan Insurance company, to admit that so far as he can tell a death is above board and they will have to pay up. Taking this in his stride, the claims adjuster offers him a diamond which he identifies as a fake. Agreeing, the adjuster admits this is a puzzle; it comes from Sir Horace Blatt (Colin Blakely) who is wealthy enough not to involve himself in these sort of shenanigans.  Poirot accepts a commission to go to the South of France to talk to Sir Horace about it; it seems he bought a real diamond from Tiffany’s in New York, a gift for his mistress Arlena Marshall (Diana Rigg). The two having split, it appears he got back the fake. The two agree to go and find Arlena, who is apparently going to an exclusive hotel in the Adriatic Sea. Chronically seasick, Poirot travels there on his own, leaving Sir Horace to go in his yacht.

The hotel is a former summer palace of the King of Tyrania* gifted to former actress (and his former lover) Daphne Castle (Maggie Smith). At the hotel is Arlena, her husband Kenneth (Dennis Quilley) who she ignores, her stepdaughter Linda who she’s rude to the point of abusive to. (She’s also catty to Daphne, a much less successful actress). There’s a pair of theatre producers (James Mason and Sylvia Miles) who Arlena left in the lurch when she quit a show, and who are looking to get her for their next show; Patrick Redfern (Nicholas Clay) who openly flirts with Arlena, and Patrick’s wife invalid Christine (Jane Birkin); also Rex Brewster (Roddy McDowall) who is writing a tell-all biography of Arlena, who is now refusing permission.

Inevitably Arlena is murdered, and everyone has an alibi. The King of Tyrania, wanting to avoid scandal, agrees to let Poirot investigate. Poirot speaks to everyone, walks the paths, inspects everything, cross-references every story. So far as he can tell no one had an opportunity; the pairings and alibis make no sense to collaborate; and the handful of inexplicable events add up to nothing. And yet she was definitely murdered!

This is a rather elaborate scheme rather than an elegant one. Ustinov previously played Poirot in Death On The Nile, and he does a similarly good job here**. This isn’t quite an all star cast, everyone here doing their part pretty well. It’s probably the introductory sections that are most fun where everyone gets to be their character and talk about their relationships. Poirot’s final explanation of the complex plot is okay, but then topped by the final reveal (with a transformation of one character) which is excellent.

Watch This: Old school murder mystery with some fun performances and a nice location
Don’t Watch This: A lot of terrible people, not least a murderer

* Always nice to see a fictional country in a film that is trying to be relatively sensible about this sort of thing.

** Maggie Smith is also back, playing a very different character here; for one she seems to be straight