Evil Under the Sun

The supporting cast is understandably spectacular but the fault lies, as does every Ustinov interpretation of Poirot, with Peter Ustinov's insistence on trying to reinterpret the stories as comedies with murderous undertones. It's for that reason I'll refer to this one as "Peter Under the Sun". No wait, that didn't work.

This is actually a brilliant story but I don't accept anyone as Poirot except for David Suchet.

You know, I really enjoyed the rivalry between Diana Rigg and Maggie Smith. But when that vanishes, sheesh, we're not left with very much. There's less of the fun over-the-toppery of Death on the Nile and more of the generalized contempt, with added Eastern European racisms. And this is yet another prestige late-70s-early-80s murder mystery that was absolutely *obsessed* with the lives of Broadway producers. I guess that's who second-rate Hollywood people really wanted to be at the time???

First-class Christie adaptation. Ustinov rules, while the supporting cast, especially the wonderful Maggie Smith, provide solid back-up. It delivers the goods.

Campy bitchfest with wall-to-wall Cole Porter, decent mise-en-scene, scenery-chewing Ustinov, Rigg, and Smith; and best of all, a shiftily shy Jane Birkin . . .

a great little whodunnit with an unexpected ending, but a lot of nonsense in between

Could have been a decent formula whodunnit, but you could skip to the hour mark and miss nothing. I assumed Hamilton could handle this sort of thing and it wouldn't be a chore.

See my review of "Death on the Nile" ... this is simply "Death on an island". Enjoyable, totally predictable ( other than who actually did it! ) but it probably went on a bit

Ustinov is a great Poirot, but the plot isn't nearly as brilliant this time around as those in the best Christie adaptations ('And Then There Were None', 'Death on the Nile' and 'Witness for the Prosecution')

I didn't pay much attention to the actual plot and murder mystery and I'm not sorry. It's not a brain twister, but a rather comfy and splendidly directed little movie. It's exquisitely shot, got some amazing costumes and Peter motherf#$&ing Ustinov as an adorable Poirot. My in-house Agatha Christie fan tells me it's one of the better adaptations of the books, and I was definitely not expecting it to be that good, but now I feel the urge to find more comfy movies, ugh...

One of the best adaptations of Christie for cinema. Great character acting by the whole cast, superb location and often amusing script. Rigg and Smith are especially good in a bitchy musical performance. The plot is, of course, somewhat implausibly contrived, but that doesn't matter in terms of sheer amusement. EJ 43, IF 25.

Excellent supporting cast and production values - but as a crime mystery this lacks something for me.