Sylvia Miles as Myra Gardener
THE
setting is an island in the Adriatic and a small, exquisite, extremely
expensive resort hotel that once was the summer palace of the reigning
king of Tyrania. It's the late 1930's, just about the time of the
Anschluss, though no one at the hotel could care less about Hitler,
National Socialism, Austria's sovereignty or an era's imminent end.
They're all too busy with their intramural assaults on friendship,
marriage, reputation, character and, when pushed to the limits, life
itself.
Boredom
is the enemy in this world. Style is everything - the weapon as well as
a defense. Even when the mots are not especially fresh, they are
delivered with the kind of elegance that only the rich, famous or
heedless can affect with confidence. Come what may, everyone dresses for
dinner at 8, including the gentleman whose beloved wife that morning
was found on the beach in untimely death, strangled and, for good
measure, bashed about the head.
''Evil
Under the Sun,'' the latest Agatha Christie whodunit to be given the
all-star screen treatment, has nothing but style, but its style goes a
long way.
The
film, which opens today at the New York 1 and other theaters, has Peter
Ustinov, wittier and wider than ever, as the brilliant Belgian
detective Hercule Poirot. It has a cast of marvelous actors who
communicate mosly through rude remarks:
Maggie
Smith as Daphne Castle, the hotel's owner, who received the island and
the palace in return for services to Tyrania's king, who, from what we
hear, sounds to be even less important than Zog of Albania; Diana Rigg
as Arlena Marshall, a temporarily retired stage star of great celebrity
and forked tongue; Colin Blakely as Sir Horace Blatt, a self-made
millionaire and recent recipient of a knighthood; James Mason and Sylvia
Miles as Odell and Myra Gardener, New York theatrical producers whose
bickering future depends on their signing Arlena for a new show, and
Roddy McDowall as Rex Brewster, a professional scamp of the sort who
gets invited to dinner parties, but only to fill in for a last-minute
cancellation.
The
other guests at the hotel are played by Nicholas Clay and Jane Birken
as Patrick and Christine Redfern, a handsome young man and his
frightfully mousy wife; Denis Quilley as Kenneth Marshall, Arlena's
gentlemanly husband, and Emily Hone as Linda Marshall, Kenneth's
teen-age daughter and Arlena's stepdaughter, a child with murder in her
heart.
Because
''Evil Under the Sun'' is the sort of movie in which plot takes
precedence over everything else, the only clue a reviewer can give about
what happens is to say that the murder victim is the most interesting
character in the screenplay, which is the work of Anthony Shaffer, who
wrote the classic ''Sleuth.''
In
adapting Dame Agatha's not exactly flamboyant novel, Mr. Shaffer seems
to have put a paperback edition of it under his pillow for one night and
then allowed his imagination to take over. That's all to the good,
though, because this is - after all - a conventional whodunit; both he
and Guy Hamilton, the director, faithfully observe all of those genteel,
drawing room conceits that so charm Christie fans and stupefy the rest
of us.
''Evil
Under the Sun'' doesn't rank with either ''Murder on the Orient
Express'' or ''Death on the Nile,'' but it's far more fun than ''The
Mirror Crack'd,'' which Mr. Hamilton also directed. The principal
setting, actually Majorca, is dazzlingly beautiful - all craggy cliffs,
turquoise lagoons, formal gardens, secluded beaches plus any number of
places from which people can observe other people who think they're
unobserved.
The
soundtrack score is an anthology of Cole Porter's greatest hits, which
are attractive even when they aren't particularly appropriate. Elliot
Scott's production design and Anthony Powell's costumes are frequently
funny and vicious in ways that are beyond the call of the genre. Even
Hugh Casson's light-filled watercolors, which are seen behind the
opening credits, give one a lift.
As
Hercule Poirot, Mr. Ustinov more or less presides - hostlike - over the
revels that must be continually interrupted to get in plot points, and
which prevent the movie from becoming the high comedy the cast could
handle so effortlessly. This is not to say that ''Evil Under the Sun''
doesn't have its memorable moments. It does, including the sight of Mr.
Ustinov taking his morning ''swim,'' which means walking back and forth
in water up to his knees, making tentative, Australian crawl-like
movements with his arms. There's also an extremely promising sequence in
which Miss Rigg graciously entertains the guests in the drawing room
after dinner by singing ''You're the Top,'' when Miss Smith attempts to
upstage her with unwelcome harmony. When these two actresses are on the
screen, you can believe the hotel's register that lists as recent guests
Ivor Novello, ''Fred and Adele'' and even Cole Porter.
''Evil
Under the Sun,'' which has been rated PG (''Parental Guidance
Suggested''), contains nothing, not even naughty words, that could
conceivably astonish anyone very small and very young.
Murder on Majorca
EVIL
UNDER THE SUN, directed by Guy Hamil- ton; screenplay by Anthony
Shaffer, based on a novel by Agatha Christie; director of photography,
Christopher Challis; edited by Richard Marden; music by Cole Porter;
produced by John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin; released by Universal
Pictures. At the New York 1, Second Avenue and 66th Street; Greenwich 1,
Seventh Avenue and 12th Street; Gemini 1, 64th Street and Second
Avenue; Rivoli 2, Broadway and West 49th Street, and other theaters.
Running time: 117 minutes. This film is rated PG.
Hercule Poirot . . . . . Peter Ustinov
Sir Horace Blatt . . . . . Colin Blakely
Christine Redfern . . . . . Jane Birkin
Patrick Redfern . . . . . Nicholas Clay
Daphne Castle . . . . . Maggie Smith
Rex Brewster . . . . . Roddy McDowall
Myra Gardener . . . . . Sylvia Miles
Odell Gardener . . . . . James Mason
Kenneth Marshall . . . . . Denis Quilley
Arlena Marshall . . . . . Diana Rigg
Linda Marshall . . . . . Emily Hone
Police Sergeant . . . . . John Alderson
Police Inspector . . . . . Paul Antrim
Police Surgeon . . . . . Cyril Conway
Flewitt's Secretary . . . . . Barbara Hicks
Flewitt . . . . . Richard Vernon
Concierge . . . . . Robert Dorning
Gino . . . . . Dimitri Andreas
