The 1982 "Evil Under The Sun" is not my favorite Ustinov-Poirot film (that would be "Death On The Nile", of course), but I appreciated it more after seeing the Suchet version. This one isn't bad by any means (the ingenuity of Agatha Christie's story still comes through), but it is weaker than the Ustinov version in most respects: the characters are not as memorably drawn, the actors, although decent (Tamzin Malleson probably fares best), are not of the same caliber as the 1982 cast (James Mason, Jane Birkin, Sylvia Miles, Roddy McDowall, etc.), the locations, although pretty, are not as gorgeous as Majorca, and above all, many little details that were so much fun (the noonday cannon, the waving from the top of the cliff, etc.) are missing; in their place, we get a totally redundant drug trafficking subplot. I'd give the 1982 version *** out of 4 and this one **1/2. It's notable, however, for the last appearances of Hastings, Japp and Miss Lemon in this series to date.
Review of Evil Under the Sun
