Evil Under the Sun
Original film poster
Directed by	Guy Hamilton
Produced by	John Brabourne Richard B. Goodwin
Written by	Anthony Shaffer Barry Sandler Agatha Christie
Starring	Peter Ustinov James Mason Maggie Smith Nicholas Clay Jane Birkin Colin Blakely Sylvia Miles Denis Quilley Roddy McDowall Diana Rigg
Music by	Cole Porter
Cinematography	Christopher Challis
Editing by	Richard Marden
Distributed by	Columbia-EMI-Warner Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	5 March 1982
Running time	117 min
Country	UK
Language	English
IMDb profile

Evil Under the Sun is a 1982 British mystery film, based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. Film tagline: "Holidays can be murder." Image File history File links Evilunderthesun. ... Guy Hamilton (born September 16, 1922, Paris, France) was a noted film director. ... The Right Honourable John Ulick Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne, CBE (9 November 1924–23 September 2005) was a British peer and a television producer. ... Anthony Joshua Shaffer, (May 15, 1926 – November 6, 2001), was a English dramatist. ... Barry Sandler is an American screenwriter and film producer. ... Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, DBE (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976), also known as Dame Agatha Christie, was an English crime fiction writer. ... Ustinov at Large (book cover) Sir Peter Alexander Ustinov, CBE (April 16, 1921 – March 28, 2004), born Peter Alexander von Ustinov, was an Academy Award-winning English-born actor, writer, dramatist and raconteur of French, Italian, German, Russian and Ethiopian ancestry. ... James Neville Mason (May 15, 1909 – July 27, 1984) was a three-time Academy Award nominated English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. ... Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, DBE (born 28 December 1934), better known as Dame Maggie Smith, is a two-time Academy Award-winning English film, stage, and television actress. ... Nicholas Clay as Lancelot in Excalibur. ... Birkin in 2005 Jane Birkin OBE (born 14 December 1946) is an actress and singer. ... Colin Blakely (September 23, 1930 May 7, 1987) was a British character actor. ... Sylvia Miles is an actress with a 40 year career in movies. ... Denis Quilley (December 26, 1927 - October 5, 2003) was a British theatre, television and film character actor who was long associated with the Royal National Theatre. ... McDowall as a child actor Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude McDowall (September 17, 1928 – October 3, 1998) was a British actor. ... Promotional photo of Diana Rigg as Tracy di Vicenzo in On Her Majestys Secret Service. ... Cole Albert Porter (June 9, 1891 – October 15, 1964) was an American composer and songwriter from Indiana. ... Christopher Challis (born 18th March, 1919) is a distinguihsed British cinematographer who has worked on more than 70 feature films since starting in the industry in the 1940s. ... EMI Films is a motion picture production arm of The EMI Group, and its films were released between 1939 and 1990. ... Warner Bros. ... Universal Pictures is the main motion picture production/distribution arm of Universal Studios, a subsidiary of NBC Universal. ... Image File history File links Flag_of_the_United_States. ... March 5 is the 64th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (65th in leap years). ... 1982 (MCMLXXXII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... // January 11 - Production begins on the Star Wars film Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. ... Mystery film is a film genre which uses mystery as an element to the plot. ... This article is about the year. ... Maggie Smith Evil Under the Sun (published in 1941) is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, and a 1982 film based upon the novel. ... Agatha Mary Clarissa, Lady Mallowan, DBE (15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976), also known as Dame Agatha Christie, was an English crime fiction writer. ... A tagline is a variant of a branding slogan typically used in marketing materials and advertising. ...

Production notes

The adaptation stayed fairly close within the plotlines of Christie's work, but with scenes truncated for time constraints, the removal of minor characters, and the inclusion of some elements of humour that were not part of the original. The novel is set in Cornwall, but the film is set on an Adriatic island in the fictional kingdom of "Tyrania." Cornwall (Cornish: Kernow) is a county in South West England on the peninsula that lies to the west of the River Tamar. ... The Adriatic Sea is an arm of the Mediterranean Sea separating the Apennine peninsula (Italy) from the Balkan peninsula, and the system of the Apennine Mountains from that of the Dinaric Alps and adjacent ranges. ...

The film was shot at Lee International Studios, Wembley, London and on location in Majorca, Spain. It made full use of its location to adequately convey the intricacies of Christie's plot, in which the hotel guests all appear to be at different parts of the island at the time of the murder. Wembley is a place in the London Borough of Brent. ... full of cockneys. ... Majorca (Mallorca in Catalan and Spanish, sometimes also encountered in English),: from Latin insula maior, later Maiorica, (major island) is one of the Balearic Islands (Catalan: Illes Balears, Spanish: Islas Baleares), which are located in the Mediterranean Sea and are a part of Spain. ...

Ustinov was making his second film appearance as Hercule Poirot, having first played the Belgian detective in Death on the Nile (1978). Of the other cast members, Smith and Birkin had also appeared in the earlier film whilst Quilley and Blakely had featured in Murder on the Orient Express (1974). Guy Hamilton had previously directed another Agatha Christie film, The Mirror Crack'd (1980). This article or section may need to be cleaned up and rewritten because it describes a work of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. ... Death on the Nile is a 1978 film based on an Agatha Christie mystery novel of the same title, directed by John Guillermin. ... Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 feature film, based on the 1934 novel by Agatha Christie and featuring Hercule Poirot. ... The Mirror Crackd is a 1980 film based on Agatha Christies Miss Marple novel of the same name, directed by Guy Hamilton. ...

Plot summary

Maggie Smith

The story is set on an island at an exclusive hotel, formerly the summer palace of the reigning King of Tyrania, now owned by Daphne Castle (Smith), who, we are told, received it from the King "for services rendered." Her guests include glamorous actress Arlena Marshall (Rigg), Sir Horace Blatt (Blakely), a self-made millionaire and recent recipient of a knighthood, Rex Brewster (Roddy McDowall), an author of an unpublished tell-all biography of Arlena, Odell and Myra Gardener (Mason and Miles), New York theatrical producers, Patrick and Christine Redfern (Clay and Birkin), a handsome young man and his mousy wife, Kenneth Marshall (Quilley), Arlena's husband, and Linda Marshall (Emily Hone), Kenneth's teenage daughter and Arlena's stepdaughter. Image File history File links Evil_Sun_3. ... Image File history File links Evil_Sun_3. ... Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, DBE (born 28 December 1934), better known as Dame Maggie Smith, is a two-time Academy Award-winning English film, stage, and television actress. ... The 4-star Manor House Hotel at Castle Combe, Wiltshire, England. ... Actors in period costume sharing a joke whilst waiting between takes during location filming. ... A mansion on Diamond Head Road in Honolulu near Diamond Head State Park. ... A statue of an armoured knight of the Middle Ages For the chess piece, see knight (chess). ... // Today, films and television programs surrounding the lives of famous people are a major part of the entertainment industry. ... Nickname: Big Apple; City that never Sleeps; Gotham Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area    - City 1,214. ... A theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatrical production. ...

When Arlena is discovered murdered, Poirot, also staying on the island, quickly discovers that nearly all of the guests had a connection to her and that anyone of them could have wished her dead.

Diana Rigg and Denis Quilley

On the morning of the murder, Arlena goes off on her own for what appears to be a tryst in an empty island bay. Poirot assumes that her assignation is with Patrick, but this seems not to be the case when Patrick arrives shortly afterwards in plain view of Poirot & Kenneth in the hotel lobby. Image File history File links Evil_Sun_2. ... Image File history File links Evil_Sun_2. ... Promotional photo of Diana Rigg as Tracy di Vicenzo in On Her Majestys Secret Service. ... Denis Quilley (December 26, 1927 - October 5, 2003) was a British theatre, television and film character actor who was long associated with the Royal National Theatre. ...

As the morning progresses, Myra tags along on a boat trip with Patrick which is transparently an attempt to rendevous with Arlena. When they reach the secluded beach, they see the body of a woman on the sand, and Patrick clambers ashore, announcing the body to be the strangled corpse of Arlena. Myra goes to fetch help while he waits with it.

The investigation throws up a number of confusing details. A bottle has been thrown into the sea and a bath taken at an odd time that no one will admit to taking.

The solution to the murder hinges upon the fact that it is actually Christine posing as Arlena's corpse found on the beach by Patrick and Myra. She has used a temporary self-tanner to match Arlena’s skin color before throwing the bottle into the sea. Christine posed as Arlena lying on the beach, donning Arlena's bathing costume and face-obscuring Chinese red hat to be "discovered" by Patrick in the plain but distant view of Myra. Arlena, meanwhile, has been struck earlier with a rock by Christine and stashed in a nearby rock grotto. Sunless tanning (also known as self tanning, or UV-free tanning refers to applying chemicals on the skin to produce an effect similar in appearance to a traditional suntan. ...

After Myra motors the boat back to retrieve help, Christine changes out of the bathing costume and rushes back to the hotel to take a cleansing bath and keep a tennis date. Now, Patrick could strangle Arlena at his leisure in the grotto and be discovered by Poirot to be the cause (along with Christine) of Arlena's demise. A Grotto (Italian grotta), when it is not an artificial garden feature, is a cave, small or quite large, usually near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide. ...

External links

• Evil Under the Sun at the Internet Movie Database
• Rotten Tomatoes film reviews