This was the second of Peter Ustinov's outings as Poirot. The series went a little downhill after this but 'Evil Under The Sun' remains glorious. More tongue in cheek than 'Death On The Nile' which preceded it, considerable changes are made to the source material. Instead of an island off the Devon coast we are in the Adriatic and only a few of the original hotel guests remain intact. Its all tremendous fun though with some wonderfully witty dialogue, fabulous costumes and a great soundtrack featuring the tunes of Cole Porter.
In my opinion there are no bad turns in this film but I do have a particular fondness for Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg. Sylvia Miles is superbly grotesque as Myra Gardiner and Dennis Quilley is dignified as the put upon Kenneth Marshall. Peter Ustinov is sometimes criticised for being nothing like Christie's description of her Belgian detective and this is true but he throws off the role with tremendous panache. Christie purists may prefer the David Suchet TV version of the story but it's not half as much fun as this.
In my opinion there are no bad turns in this film but I do have a particular fondness for Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg. Sylvia Miles is superbly grotesque as Myra Gardiner and Dennis Quilley is dignified as the put upon Kenneth Marshall. Peter Ustinov is sometimes criticised for being nothing like Christie's description of her Belgian detective and this is true but he throws off the role with tremendous panache. Christie purists may prefer the David Suchet TV version of the story but it's not half as much fun as this.