Evil Under the Sun Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		4.0

Evil Under the Sun Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov December 22, 2017

Guy Hamilton's "Evil Under the Sun" (1982) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal. The supplemental features on the disc include exclusive new and archival interviews; archival featurette; production stills; and more. Also included with this release are five collectible cards with reproductions of original costume designs. In English, with optional English SDH subtitles for the main feature. Region-B "locked".

Casual distraction

When a young woman is found dead in the British countryside, Hercule Poirot (Peter Ustinov, Death on the Nile, Lola Montes) is hired by an insurance company to solve the case. He is also asked to inspect a fake diamond which a wealthy industrialist (Colin Blakely, Nijinsky, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes) wants insured for £50,000.

Soon after, the eccentric Belgian detective travels to the South of France where he meets the industrialist and discovers that some time ago he gave the original diamond to Arlena Marshall (Diana Rigg, Julius Caesar, Theatre of Blood), a sophisticated but rather capricious actress with whom he fell madly in love. They met in New York and decided that she would come back to Europe with him. Before they left, he bought her the diamond from Tiffany’s. However, halfway across the Atlantic the actress changed her mind and ran off with another man - but kept the diamond. When later on they met again she returned the diamond, but when the industrialist tried to insure it he discovered that he had a fake. Having recently learned that the actress will be vacationing on a beautiful Mediterranean island, the industrialist asks Poirot to travel with him and prove that his former lover cheated him. Poirot agrees, but shortly after he arrives on the island someone kills the beautiful actress.

Completed in 1982, Guy Hamilton’s Evil Under the Sun is unquestionably the least exotic of the three films in The Poirot Collection. A good portion of the film feels like a straightforward melodrama rather an exotic period thriller full of colorful characters hiding juicy secrets. However, this is hardly a bad thing because the distracting pomposity from Murder on the Orient Express is completely eliminated.

Ustinov’s relaxed performance gives the film its identity. Instead of consistently trying to impress with intelligent remarks, most of the time Poirot looks like a curious outsider who has just as much trouble guessing the motives of the mysterious killer as the rest of the guests on the island. As the film progresses it is easy to see that he is a lot more intelligent than everyone else, but he remains a human being capable of mistakes. As a result, it never feels like one is viewing an old-fashioned period play whose characters interact with each other simply because they have to.

The mystery is resolved quickly and convincingly. Poirot gathers all of the wealthy guests and in a familiar fashion reconstructs the murder of the beautiful singer. There are a few minor twists that add some flavor to the case, but they feel right for a film in which Agatha Christie’s famous character is expected to be a few steps ahead of everyone else.

Unsurprisingly, the supporting cast is quite big, but it is not difficult to remember the different names and the possible motives that make each character a suspect. Jane Birkin and Nicholas Clay are the handsome couple Christine and Patrick Redfern. Maggie Smith is the bubbly Daphne Castle, who owns the lavish hotel on the exotic island. Sylvia Miles and James Mason are the wealthy producers Myra and Odell Gardener. Denis Quilley is Arlena’s husband, Kenneth Marshall, while a young Emily Hone is his daughter, Linda. Finally, Roddy McDowall is the eccentric critic and writer Rex Brewster.

Evil Under the Sun was lensed by British cinematographer Christopher Challis (Stanley Donen’s Arabesque, Peter Yates' The Deep).

Evil Under the Sun Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of approximately 1.89:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Guy Hamilton's Evil Under the Sun arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of StudioCanal.

Similar to the recent releases of Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile, this release is also sourced from a new remaster of Evil Under the Sun. The quality of the presentation is again superior to that of first release that StudioCanal produced in 2014. Depth and clarity are better during outdoor and darker/indoor footage, and overall delineation is also dramatically stronger. The color scheme also supports much stronger primaries with beautiful ranges of healthy nuances. There are no traces of problematic digital tinkering, but once again encoding optimizations could have been performed to have more consistent grain exposure. Image stability is excellent. (Note: This is a Region-B "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-B or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

Evil Under the Sun Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There is only one standard audio track on this Blu-ray release: English DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0. Optional English SDH subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The lossless track is flawless. Depth and clarity are outstanding and there are no balance issues to report. The lovely music score also easily breathes throughout the entire film. Also, there are no purely transfer-specific anomalies to report.

Evil Under the Sun Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Stills Gallery One - a collection of original behind-the-scenes production stills. (2 min).

• Stills Gallery Two - a collection of original costume drawings/designs. (2 min).

• Interviews - presented here are three video interviews in which the interviewees recall their contributions to Evil Under the Sun and discuss Guy Hamilton's vision for it as well as working methods. In English, not subtitled.
  
  1. Costume designer Anthony Powell (8 min).
  2. Screenwriter Barry Sandler (7 min).
  3. Producer Richard Goodwin (7 min).

• Making of - this archival featurette contains raw footage from the shooting of Evil Under the Sun as well as clips from archival interviews with director Guy Hamilton and cast members. In English, not subtitled. (15 min).

• Collectible Cards - five collectible cards with reproductions of original costume designs that were used in the film.

Evil Under the Sun Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I believe that Guy Hamilton's Evil Under the Sun will appeal primarily to folks who have seen John Guillermin's Death on the Nile and enjoyed Peter Ustinov's Hercule Poirot. He is even more convincing in this film. The story is more casual, but I think that this actually helps the film because it is easier to believe that the main characters are real people. This recent release is sourced from a fantastic new remaster of the film, but I wish the folks at StudioCanal would put a little extra care when they encode their releases so that the end result is all-around superb, rather than only good or very good. RECOMMENDED.