The film has a much less starry cast than its predecessors, and the location of a small hotel on an Adriatic island is less interesting than the Orient Express or a Nile cruise taking in the Pyramids and Luxor.

Peter Ustinov returned to play Poirot for a second time in Evil Under the Sun, following his first appearance in Death on the Nile four years earlier.Įvil Under the Sun was a box office disappointment and it's not that hard to see why. The series consisted of three Hercule Poirot films, Murder on the Orient Express (1974), Death on the Nile(1978) and Evil Under the Sun (1982), and one Miss Marple film, The Mirror Crack'd (1980). and almost as many alibis.Įvil Under the Sun was the last of four Agatha Christie adaptations produced by John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin in the 1970s and early 1980s. But murder is about to intrude into this idyllic world, and Poirot finds there are a range of possible suspects. Also present are waspish gossip columnist Rex Brewster (Roddy McDowall), Redfern's neglected wife Christine (Jane Birkin), and husband and wife theatrical producers Odell (James Mason) and Myra Gardener (Sylvia Miles). While there he encounters an assortment of wealthy guests, including Arlena and her husband Kenneth (Denis Quilley), her lover Patrick Redfern (Nicholas Clay) and her former associate Daphne Castle (Maggie Smith), who now runs the hotel. Poirot heads to an exclusive hotel on a small island in the Adriatic to meet Arlena and to investigate. When the two men meet, Sir Horace tells Poirot that the jewel was a gift to a mistress, former actress Arlena Marshall (Diana Rigg), who has obviously had the original jewellery replaced with a fake. Puzzled by this very wealthy man attempting to perpetrate such an obvious fraud, Poirot is sent to meet him on his yacht in the south of France. Renowned Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov) is called in by a London insurance company when wealthy industrialist Sir Horace Blatt (Colin Blakely) attempts to have a cheap piece of costume jewellery insured for £50,000.

Evil under the sun poirot