A Dead Actress and A Missing Ring

Evil Under The Sun (1982) – Poirot’s “little grey cells” are challenged by the mystery of a fake diamond ring. As so often happens, while he is working on one mystery, another appears. A murder on a secluded private island resort makes the whole situation more complicated.

Directed by Guy Hamilton

Starring – Peter Ustinov, Maggie Smith, James Mason, Roddy McDowell, Sylvia Miles, Diana Rigg

Why I Liked It – Great cast with a great story

This is a fun little mystery marred by one part of the production. It has the worst score I’ve endured in a while. Here is a story by one of the greatest mystery writers of the 20th Century, featuring her most iconic character. And the music is perfect, if this movie was a slapstick comedy. It pulled me out of the story repeatedly, with the thought, “What the hell are they doing?”

That’s too bad, because, otherwise, this is a lot of fun. When it comes to actors portraying the Belgian genius, I’m torn between David Suchet and Peter Ustinov. It’s a coin toss, but one that I win either way. Both are superlative as Agatha Christie’s idiosyncratic detective. Surround him with the cast of veteran actors and you’ll get all the amusement you could desire.

Poirot’s challenge begins with straight-forward insurance work. There’s a dead body on a moor, which he handles quickly. That impresses the company enough to ask him to look into a diamond ring that has disappeared. A fake has taken its place. This takes him to a resort island hotel in the Mediterranean where he meets an interesting group of people. While only a few of them are related to his case, all of them become suspects when the woman at the center of the insurance case is found dead on a beach. She’s given everyone, other than Poirot, a good reason to want her dead.

Ustinov is wonderfully eccentric as Poirot, and Diana Rigg is archly bitchy as the victim. With Maggie Smith as the eccentric hotel owner, and Roddy McDowell as the fawning writer, there is plenty for eye and ear. Deceit, betrayal, and death. It’s Agatha Christie in full bloom.

And then the score pipes up and taints everything.

Ignore the music and enjoy the rest.

Rating – **** Recommended