DVD/150: EVIL UNDER THE SUN (Guy Hamilton, 1982)

Guy Hamilton, who delivered the flat Vimto flavour of THE MIRROR CRACK'D two years earlier, proffered a cheeky glass of fizz with EVIL UNDER THE SUN, the fourth and last EMI Agatha Christie adaptation.

Hamilton had the advantage of a script by Anthony Shaffer who also wrote the earlier DEATH ON THE NILE.

The cast glitter like the sunlit sea of the Majorca locations, tongues firmly in cheek.  It plays like a weekend murder mystery; you suspect the actor playing the victim is sunning themselves on a terrace somewhere just out of sight of the sleuthing.

Peter Ustinov returns for his second outing as Hercule Poirot who is investigating who faked a large diamond brooch.  While staying at an exclusive Adriatic clifftop hotel, one of the guests is murdered in broad daylight - and while all the other guests had a reason for doing it, they also all have unshakeable alibis.

 

 

Shelf or charity shop?  With the cast all popping like champagne corks, Anthony Powell's delicious costumes, John Lanchbery's effervescent Cole Porter-influenced score and charming title water-colours by Hugh Casson, it's sunning itself on the shelf.  Best supporting performance?  Maggie Smith as hotel owner Daphne - she delivers definitive Mag! Her wrists and elbows contribute as much to her performance as her dry delivery, landing her lines with the timing of death.  Sadly she has too few scenes with her character's nemesis Diana Rigg - one of her few successful film appearances.  Best unsupporting performance?  Nicholas Clay's swimming trunks...