Review: Evil Under the Sun

Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot (Sir Peter Ustinov) is hired by a millionaire (Colin Blakely) to track down the monstrous actress/con woman (Dame Diana Rigg) who stole a jewel from him. This leads him to a Mediterranean hotel where the woman and other assorted guests are staying. When someone turns up dead – murder, of course – Poirot attempts to solve the mystery of whodunnit. Dame Maggie Smith is the hotel owner, a former rival of Rigg’s when they were both chorus girls. Roddy McDowall is a gossipy writer with aims of being Rigg’s biographer. James Mason and Sylvia Miles are a theatre producer and his wife. Nicholas Clay and pale-and-frail Jane Birkin play another couple, whilst Dennis Qualley plays the unfaithful Rigg’s husband.

 

Enjoyable 1982 Agatha Christie mystery from Guy Hamilton (“Goldfinger”, “Live and Let Die”) and screenwriters Anthony Shaffer (“Sleuth”, “Frenzy”, “The Wicker Man”) and an uncredited Barry Sandler (who co-scripted the very disappointing “The Mirror Crack’d”), manages to work in spite of a not terribly mysterious mystery. Usually, being ahead of the game ruins a lot of the fun for me, but when the cast is (mostly) this good, I honestly didn’t care. It’s certainly a more engaging mystery than “Murder on the Orient Express”, and at least it plays fair unlike the 1980 version of “The Mirror Crack’d” (also directed by Mr. Hamilton). Cinematographer Christopher Challis (“The Red Shoes”, “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”) gets the easiest job here, pointing the camera at all that stunning scenery (the Spanish island of Majorca).

 

David Suchet may be iconic as Hercule Poirot, but for my money Peter Ustinov is the best screen Poirot. He may not be perfectly Poirot, but he is perfectly Ustinov as Poirot. Unlike Albert Finney and Kenneth Branagh (in the film versions of “Murder on the Orient Express”), Ustinov manages to be an unsubtle scene-stealer without being too heavy-handed or fatuous. I should also point out that Ustinov designed Poirot’s bathing suit himself, it’s a very funny moment with a perfect musical accompaniment. Dame Diana Rigg and Dame Maggie Smith are in top form and seemingly having a whale of a time being horrible to each other. In fact, Rigg is wonderfully horrid in all of her scenes (look at those ghastly bangles she wears!), coming close to stealing the show from Ustinov. On just about equal footing to Rigg is Roddy McDowall as a bitchy gossip writer with the ridiculously inappropriate name of Rex Brewster (!). In smaller turns, Colin Blakely is amusing and Dennis Qualley solid and dependable.

 

I actually think James Mason is a touch wasted and might’ve benefitted from switching roles with Qualley. I was also not terribly enamoured with Jane Birkin, Nicholas Clay, and Sylvia Miles, who seem like then-fashionable casting choices who stand out like a sore thumb today. Of the three, Miles is at least better than usual. However, Clay is his usual dull himbo self, and Birkin’s mousy and anaemic act is equally dull.

 

A bit slow to heat up and the mystery is fairly transparent. However, with (most of) the cast and scenery here you don’t mind too much. An easy, breezy, entertaining, and picaresque vacation by way of a murder-mystery plot. It certainly didn’t deserve to flop at the box-office.

 

Rating: B-

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: Hellraiser (2022)

Recovering junkie Odessa A’zion accompanies scuzzy boyfriend Drew Starkey on a break-in where all they find is a weird puzzle box. A’zion later opens the box and after some weird shit happens, A’zion and Starkey figure it might be a good idea to learn more about this messed up trinket. Goran Visnjic plays a millionaire who possessed the box before our protagonist nicked it.   Is there any point in remaking/rebooting “Hellraiser” when the 1987 adaptation of Clive Barker’s original text was written and directed by Barker himself? And is considered a horror classic? On evidence here, absolutely not. Directed by David Bruckner ( “The Signal” ) and scripted by Ben Collins ( “The Night House” ) and Luke Piotrowski (ditto) this is an entirely tedious affair. I took a long time to get on board with the 1987 “Hellraiser” , I have to admit. It was wildly imaginative and original, like a nightmare transplanted on to film. However, the characters were stone cold and left me similarly chilly t
Read more

Review: Boyka: Undisputed

Yuri Boyka (Scott Adkins) is out of prison and fighting for a living, with ambitions for the ‘Most Complete Fighter’ to make a real name for himself. However, after an opponent dies during a fight, the deeply religious Boyka starts to have a crisis of conscience. He tries to make amends with the man’s widow, which eventually pits him against a local gangster (Alon Moni Aboutboul, quite good). Anything with Scott Adkins will generally get me interested, and although this series peaked with the superlative “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , this 2017 film from director Todor Chapkanov (director of the SyFy movies “Copperhead” and “Ghost Town” ) is no slouch in a series yet to deliver anything less than solid entertainment. Producer Isaac Florentine is missed in the director’s chair, but Chapkanov gives us at the very least the series’ most dramatically ambitious entry, as Adkins’ ‘most complete fighter’ Yuri Boyka continues on his journey to redemption here. In this one, the
Read more

Review: Ninja 2: Shadow of a Tear

Scott Adkins is once again Casey, an American proponent of the martial art of Ninjutsu. When Casey’s pregnant Japanese wife (Mika Hijii) is rubbed out, he’s on a vengeance mission to find her killers. A friendly face, Nakabara (Kane Kosugi) turns up at the funeral, and suggests Casey come to Thailand to deal with his grief in another country. Casey initially declines, but eventually takes Nakabara up on his offer. However, his wife’s murder still haunts Casey, and with intel supplied by Nakabara, the trail eventually leads Casey to a brutal drug baron named Goro (Shun Sugata).   I was extremely disappointed with the first “Ninja” , but had heard that this 2013 sequel from director Isaac Florentine ( “Undisputed II: Last Man Standing” , “Undisputed III: Redemption” , “Ninja” ) was a damn near masterpiece of the martial-arts action movie genre. Having now finally gotten my hot little hands on it, I’d say the hype is a bit much, but this is unquestionably a much better film than the f
Read more