Agatha Christie – Evil Under the Sun (1982)

Agatha Christie – Evil Under the Sun (1982) Who could have strangled this Broadway superstar bitch while sunbathing on the deserted beach of a private Mediterranean island? All the suspects have excellent reasons to have grievances against the arrogant victim. Hercule Poirot is not at the end of his surprises…

British film directed by Guy Hamilton, released in 1982. It is adapted from the novel Hercule Poirot’s Holiday by Agatha Christie, featuring the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Poirot goes on holiday to a luxury hotel on an island off the coast of Albania to look after a famous actress suspected of stealing a diamond. But the actress is found murdered on a beach on the island. Poirot must find the murderer and the diamond. The only problem is that all the other guests at the hotel had a reason for killing the actress, but they all have alibis. So Poirot tries to find out which one has managed to fabricate a false alibi.

The story takes a while to get going, but it’s great once you get into the swing of things. Peter Ustinov is the least good and least charismatic Hercule Poirot I’ve ever seen. Yet that won’t stop me from seeing the other five times he has played the detective, because I don’t doubt for a moment the general talent of this British writer, actor and theatre and film director, as well as screenwriter and film producer who dubbed his own films that weren’t in English, given that he was also fluent in French, Italian, German and Russian. He played the Belgian detective in two other films and three TV films.

At the same time, you can’t say that I’m a connoisseur of Poirot’s actors, given that there’s a whole string of actors whose performances I haven’t seen, namely Ian Holm, Tony Randall, Alfred Molina, Austin Trevor, John Moffatt, Maurice Denham, Peter Sallis, Harold Huber, Charles Laughton and even John Malkovich! The other three I saw, on the other hand, I loved: Albert Finney, David Suchet and, of course, Kenneth Branagh.

But all in all, the cast of this film is pretty incredible. The delightful & charming Diana Rigg finds herself here in one of her most detestable roles, but her charisma has always remained intact. She was infectious in her last role as Miss Alexandra Collins in Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho. The film was released in 2021, although she died of lung cancer in 2020.

The interrogation of James Mason is one of my favourite moments in this film. He has an unsettling class here. Jane Birkin also shines, at the height of her acting talent and beauty. It will be difficult for me to express how happy I was to find her here in a role that suits her perfectly.

Maggie Smith is also impeccable, and her acting is frighteningly precise. It’s clear that she was made for this job. As I write these lines, I discover that she left us exactly one month ago. May her soul rest in peace. She will continue to make me laugh and dream.

Emily Hone, the youngest in the cast and the only young woman, is breathtakingly natural in her role. Incredibly at ease, she has nothing to envy of her elders.

As for Roddy McDowall, what a delight it is to see this incredibly likeable actor every time. He is best known for Planet of the Apes, having appeared in four of the five original films! He also starred in Cleopatra (1963), as well as a number of legendary series such as The Invaders, Batman (in which he played The Bookworm!), Columbo and Code Quantum. For some people like me, he is above all the great Peter Vincent, in the two Fright Night films of 1985 and 1988, one of the main characters in the acting duo alongside William Ragsdale.

And four of the actors in this film took part in another Hercule Poirot investigation: Colin Blakely and Denis Quilley in Le Crime de l’Orient-Express (1974), Jane Birkin and Maggie Smith in Death on the Nile (1978).

The film was shot on the Spanish island of Majorca. More specifically, at Calo d’en Monjo. This seems to be one of the main differences with the book, whose action takes place off the English coast.

Evil Under the Sun, translated into French as ‘Meurtre au soleil (Murder in the Sun)’, is a very good film. Its cast is obviously very important. But the direction is very good, the dialogue well crafted and the pace pleasing. Guy Hamilton was an ideal person to direct some Agatha Christie.

My Rating