January 18, 2021
Evil Under the Sun (1982) *** 1/2
TCM
Free
Wildcard
I am so behind on these posts, but not on the movies! I have seen one a day, every day, without fail, I just am slacking on writing down my thoughts.
Evil Under the Sun is the second Agatha Christie Poirot mystery that starred Peter Ustinov, and this one I saw multiple times, far more than Death on the Nile. And why? Because this all-star cast included Roddy McDowall, my favourite actor from when I was 10 until I was 30 or so, and who still has a special place in my heart.
Diana Rigg plays the terrible woman whom everyone wants to murder in this one. A selfish, bitchy actress, hated by the producers of her last show (Sylvia Miles and James Mason) that she dropped out of to run off with a rich guy (Colin Blakely), whom she dumps instantly for a very sweet man with a daughter, both of whom she walks all over, while having an affair with another guy, who has a dreary wife (Jane Birkin). They all are staying at an island vacation hotel owned by Maggie Smith, who both used to be a chorus girl with Diana Rigg in their youth, and also has a thing for the nice man she married and is mean to. Also, Roddy McDowall wrote a biography of her that she won’t sign off on. So nearly the whole cast has a motive to kill her, and Poirot must solve the case and save the day.
This is a much lighter, frothier movie than Death on the Nile, possibly due to the fact that there is only one murder as part of the main plot, and the score is made up of Cole Porter ditties. It’s very funny, and the cast appears to be having a ball. Maggie Smith and Jane Birkin repeat from Death on the Nile, but in completely different characters, so you get a kind of repertory theatre vibe.
I love this movie, it is a gem from start to finish.
365 Films in 365 Days 