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Evil Under the Sun (1982 film)
Encyclopedia
Evil Under the Sun is a 1982 British mystery film based on the 1941 novel Evil Under the Sun
by Agatha Christie
.
. The adaptation stayed fairly close within the plotlines of Christie's work, but truncated scenes for time constraints, removed minor characters and added certain humorous elements that were not present in the novel. Additionally, the novel is set in Devon
, but the film is set on an Adriatic island in the fictional kingdom of "Tyrania." The character lineup is also slightly different. Whereas the characters of Rosamund Darnley and Mrs. Castle are merged, the characters of Major Barry and Reverend Stephen Lane are omitted, and the female character of Emily Brewster is now a man named Rex Brewster, played by Roddy McDowall
.
Ustinov was making his second film appearance as Hercule Poirot
, having previously played the Belgian detective in Death on the Nile
(1978); with Albert Finney
having played the role in the earlier Brabourne-produced Murder on the Orient Express
. Of the other cast members, Maggie Smith
and Jane Birkin
had also appeared in the earlier film whilst Denis Quilley
and Colin Blakely
had been in the 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express
. Guy Hamilton had previously directed another Agatha Christie story, The Mirror Crack'd
, in 1980.
The film was shot at Lee International Studios in Wembley
, London
and on location
in Majorca, Spain
The actual island used was Sa Dragonera
, but only for visual shots. The Actual locations used were the Formentor Beach (39°55′38.6796"N 003°08′22.254"E) for the South of France (Sir Horace's boat), Cala d'en Monjo (39°31′44.7168"N 002°25′50.4948"E) for Daphne's Cove and Hotel (Hotel was a private estate owned by a German, but has now been bought by the Majorca Council and demolished to its foundations which can still be seen today. Gull Cove was a cove on the Formentor Peninsula (Cala en Feliu) (39°55′48.40"N 003°09′48.23"E) and Ladder Bay was filmed near Camp De Mar (Cala Blanca) (39°32′12.10"N 002°24′20.12"E). The other hotel exterior shots were filmed at the Raixa Estate (39°40′50.9628"N 002°40′22.2528"E) north of Palma (Just Reopened to the public). Finally Poirot boards his boat to the Island from Deiá. The locations were well stitched together to give the appearance of a few locations near each other on a small island when in reality they are spread across Majorca. It made full use of its location to adequately convey the intricacies of Christie's plot, in which the hotel guests all appear to be at different parts of the island at the time of the murder.
The scenes of the finding of the murdered hiker on moors at the beginning of the film were shot in the Yorkshire Dales
, England
, with the exterior of the Police Station being the former Literary Institute in Muker
, Swaledale
.
. She has found the body of a woman who appears to have been strangled. The victim's name is Alice Ruber but the police find no leads.
(Peter Ustinov
) is called in by an insurance company and asked to check out a blue-hued diamond belonging to Sir Horace Blatt (Colin Blakely
), a millionaire industrialist. Poirot notices it is a fake, confirming the opinion of appraisers working on behalf of the firm. Poirot meets Blatt who is not only surprised at the news of the fake, but expresses resentment that "that woman" could do this to him. Blatt explains that he had an affair with a woman he met in New York and gave her the diamond which he had purchased for US$50,000 ($600,000 in 2008 dollars). He got her to return it after she dumped him for another man. He knows that the woman is due to go on holiday at an island which hosts an exclusive hotel
. Poirot agrees to go to the same island in order that they can confront the woman and enjoy a holiday of his own. Rather than accompany Blatt on his yacht, Poirot travels by land since he cannot stand prolonged sea journeys.
The hotel in question is the former summer palace of the reigning King of Tyrania. It is now owned by Daphne Castle (Maggie Smith
), who received it from the King "for services rendered." Her guests include:
Tension soon settles in on the island, much of it surrounding Arlena Marshall. She is very abusive towards her stepdaughter and Marshall himself turns increasingly towards Daphne, an old friend of his. Daphne herself has a long-standing and bitter rivalry with Arlena, going back to their days as chorus girls. Furthermore, Arlena caused the Gardeners financial problems by walking out of a major play and is refusing to perform in another in which they have invested most of their money. There is also Brewster who has written a tell-all biography
of Arlena but she refuses to sign the release for it since it reveals details about her real age, background and how sleeping around got her her big break on the stage. If the book isn't published, Brewster will have to refund the publishing house the advanced royalties they paid to him and which he has already spent.
To cap it all, Arlena openly flirts with Patrick Redfern, much to the embarrassment of both their spouses and Marshall learns from Daphne that she actually arranged for the Redferns to join them on the island. Everyone feels sorry especially for Christine who is pale, mousy, and quite the cuckolded wife.
As the morning progresses, Myra tags along on a boat trip with Patrick, who is transparently attempting to rendezvous with Arlena. When they reach the secluded beach, they see the body of a woman on the sand. Patrick goes ashore, approaches the body and suddenly announces to Myra that it is the strangled corpse of Arlena. Myra goes to fetch help while he waits with the body.
Most of the guests had good motives for loathing Arlena. Poirot even suggests that Patrick, who appeared to like her, may have killed her in order to hold on to his increasingly jealous wife. Yet, when he questions them, Poirot finds that they all have alibis for the time when the crime was committed.
Kenneth Marshall was in his hotel room typing a reply to a letter which he'd received that morning. This is confirmed by Daphne even though Poirot demonstrates that she could not have seen Marshall from where she was standing. She could only have heard him. However, Marshall shows him the letter he was responding to which arrived in the morning's post and which he received about 11am. Poirot concedes this after reading the two letters.
Christine was sketching landscapes with Linda during the morning at Gull Cove. On realizing that the time was 11:55, Christine remembered she had a tennis match at 12:30 back at the hotel and quickly left. Every day at noon a local cannon is fired on the mainland to mark the time and can be heard as far as the island. (This figures into the plotline of the story.) Christine claims to have heard it while waving to Linda from the top of the cliff as Linda was swimming in the sea. Linda confirms this.
Sir Horace had a loud argument with Arlena on the beach in Ladder Bay where she was later found, but his own crew saw the whole exchange and they could see that she was still alive when he left at about half past eleven. He also left her the fake diamond, which she denied knowing anything about. However he said that she had promised she would straighten it out that evening. Poirot later found the false diamond in a grotto near to where the body lay.
Daphne was walking along the top of the cliffs and saw Arlena on the beach at Ladder Bay. She also saw the argument between Arlena and Sir Horace. She then returned to the hotel to chair a staff meeting.
Patrick's alibi was that when he left the hotel at about half past eleven for his rendezvous with Arlena, Myra accompanied him in the speedboat. En route they saw Sir Horace's yacht sailing towards the hotel. They arrived at Ladder Bay as the noonday gun sounded. Patrick found Arlena dead on the beach, witnessed by Myra.
Rex Brewster was pedaling his pedalo when he entered Gull Cove at 12:00. Seeing Linda there, he asked if she'd help him pedal it back but she refused. On his way back to the hotel, Brewster was almost hit by a bottle thrown from the top of a cliff. When Poirot tells him that Linda has denied seeing or talking to him, an agitated Brewster gets her to confess in front of both the detective and her father that she lied.
Odell Gardener claims he was reading and he was sure no one saw him so he has no alibi. He was almost proud of that fact since as he was "of the millions of innocents in the world." It transpires, however, that he was seen by Daphne and her staff. Odell mentions that he tried to wash up at about 12:15 for the tennis game, but the water pressure was low because someone was bathing at the same time—a very odd time for a bath.
When Poirot asks who threw the bottle or took the bath, none of the guests will admit to either act. During the night, Poirot reads a report he submitted to the same insurance firm that hired him to investigate the Blatt diamond issue and checks something in the hotel register.
All the alibis appear to indicate that no-one could have committed the murder at the time established, so someone is lying and Poirot announces that this someone is Christine Redfern.
On this basis, he states that Arlena's corpse on the beach was actually Christine posing as her. After knocking Arlena unconscious with a stone and hiding her in a nearby rock grotto
, she used a temporary self-tanner
to match Arlena’s skin color and donned Arlena's bathing costume and face-obscuring Chinese red hat. She then waited to be "discovered" by Patrick in the plain but distant view of Myra Gardener. Poirot knew Arlena was in the grotto because he had smelled her particular brand of perfume in there and had also found the imitation paste diamond which had been given to her by Sir Horace during their earlier argument.
To establish her alibi Christine wore heavy clothes, not to protect herself from sunburn, but to cover the self-tanner and her own wristwatch. She had carefully nurtured the notion that she sunburned easily and was the wounded wife while her husband was carrying on a dalliance with Arlena. She had pre-set Linda's watch twenty minutes ahead before they went sketching to give her the impression it was later than it really was. She even suggested to Linda to wear the bathing cap (common among beachgoers in the 1920s) because it would cover her ears and thus she would not be able to tell if she heard the cannon or not. Before she left the area she took care to re-set Linda's watch to the correct time.
Poirot disproves Christine's alibi by asking why, when Brewster became upset when Linda denied seeing him, did he not go to his second possible witness, Christine? He did not mention seeing Christine at the top of the cliff even as she was supposedly waving to Linda when he arrived in his boat. Moreover when Brewster accosted Linda, she did not hear him approach from about three feet away because the bathing cap covered her ears. (To emphasize this point the audio in the movie is muted at that stage.) If Linda could not hear Rex approaching from such a short distance then how could she have heard the cannon marking midday?
When Patrick points out his wife has vertigo
and thus could not have climbed down the ladder at the cliff leading to the grotto, Poirot mentions that in order for Linda to have seen Christine waving she would have to have stood at the edge of the cliff. He reveals that he tried and became dizzy, so no one with vertigo would have even dared to try.
The guests also point out that Arlena was strangled and Christine's hands could not have matched the strangle marks. Poirot explains this away by claiming that Arlena was strangled long after Myra left: by Patrick.
After Myra left the bay, Christine changed out of Arlena's bathing costume. Patrick then strangled Arlena in the grotto, changed her back into the bathing costume and set her up for when Poirot and the others arrived to examine the body. Christine meanwhile pitched the bottle of self-tanner into the sea—narrowly missing Rex Brewster—and then dashed back to the hotel to wash off the self tan—the bath no one admitted to taking—and turn up for her tennis date.
The main problem is proof of guilt. Poirot admits that he has none, just circumstantial evidence. As the smug Redferns are about to depart, Christine - no longer the mousy pitiful wife - confidently remarks: "Give us some time and we may discover how you [Poirot] did it. After all, where were you between 11:30 and noon?" Later she reappears, dressed in expensive clothes, now no longer the vulnerable sympathetic wife but dressed to kill so to speak. Then Patrick unwittingly makes the second of three mistakes: he pays the hotel bill with a check.
Poirot notes the signature on the cheque and then suddenly addresses Redfern as "Felix Ruber", husband of the woman whose body was found on the moors in England some months ago. He points out that the "R" of Redfern on the check matches the distinct "R" to the signature of Felix Ruber on the insurance form he was reading earlier. The time of Mrs. Ruber's death was established as occurring at the time her husband could prove he had been on a train to London. Witnesses complained he smoked in a non-smoking compartment, a little too obvious.
The company which held Mrs. Ruber's life insurrance, and was also to insure the Blatt diamond, sent Poirot to investigate. He never met the husband or the hiker who found the body. As an agent of the insurance company he may have been limited to simply checking the police reports and ensuring that they were thorough in their investigation. Felix could thus cash in on his wife's life insurance. However, the death of Alice Ruber seemed to parallel that of Arlena: the coincidence was too great for an investigator like Poirot to ignore.
Redfern/Ruber's first mistake was from the day before, when he and Poirot overheard some of the hotel staff singing an air from an opera written by Giuseppe Verdi
. As a joke, Patrick pointed out that in Italian the name of the composer translates as "Joe Green". This led Poirot to realise that "Filix Ruber" is the Latin for "Red Fern".
When Redfern protests that all Poirot has is a signature and a "bloody silly word game", Poirot announces that he has requested pictures of the hiker (Christine) and the grieving husband (Patrick) from the British police and that that should be enough for a conviction for both killings.
At that point Patrick makes his third mistake: he puts his pipe in his mouth. Poirot points out that the pipe has never once been lit during the Redferns' stay. He takes it, empties it and hidden in the tobacco is the diamond. Patrick concedes defeat by punching Poirot to the floor!
Later Daphne's staff take the Redferns back to the mainland and the police in a small launch, while the other guests mock them from Blatt's yacht. Recovering from the assault, Poirot is told that he is to be decorated by the King of Tyrania.
Evil Under the Sun
Evil Under the Sun is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie and first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club in June 1941 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in October of the same year...
by Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie
Dame Agatha Christie DBE was a British crime writer of novels, short stories, and plays. She also wrote romances under the name Mary Westmacott, but she is best remembered for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections , and her successful West End plays.According to...
.
Production
The screenplay was written by Anthony Shaffer (who had worked on previous Christie films) and an uncredited Barry SandlerBarry Sandler
Barry Sandler is an American screenwriter and film producer. His career has spanned several decades, with the 1980s being his most prolific. The openly gay Sandler is perhaps best known for writing the 1982 film Making Love, the first mainstream Hollywood film to deal seriously with issues of...
. The adaptation stayed fairly close within the plotlines of Christie's work, but truncated scenes for time constraints, removed minor characters and added certain humorous elements that were not present in the novel. Additionally, the novel is set in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
, but the film is set on an Adriatic island in the fictional kingdom of "Tyrania." The character lineup is also slightly different. Whereas the characters of Rosamund Darnley and Mrs. Castle are merged, the characters of Major Barry and Reverend Stephen Lane are omitted, and the female character of Emily Brewster is now a man named Rex Brewster, played by Roddy McDowall
Roddy McDowall
Roderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
.
Ustinov was making his second film appearance as Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
, having previously played the Belgian detective in Death on the Nile
Death on the Nile (1978 film)
Death on the Nile is a 1978 film based on the Agatha Christie mystery novel Death on the Nile, directed by John Guillermin. The film features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot played by Peter Ustinov plus an all-star cast. It takes place in Egypt, mostly on the Nile River...
(1978); with Albert Finney
Albert Finney
Albert Finney is an English actor. He achieved prominence in films in the early 1960s, and has maintained a successful career in theatre, film and television....
having played the role in the earlier Brabourne-produced Murder on the Orient Express
Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film)
Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 British mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, and based on the1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.-Overview:...
. Of the other cast members, Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, DBE , better known as Maggie Smith, is an English film, stage, and television actress who made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 59 years...
and Jane Birkin
Jane Birkin
Jane Mallory Birkin, OBE is an English-born actress and singer who lives in France. In recent years she has written her own album, directed a film and become an outspoken proponent of democracy in Burma.- Early life :...
had also appeared in the earlier film whilst Denis Quilley
Denis Quilley
Denis Clifford Quilley OBE was an English theatre, television and film actor who was long associated with the Royal National Theatre....
and Colin Blakely
Colin Blakely
Colin George Blakely was a Northern Irish character actor. He was considered an actor of great range.-Early life:...
had been in the 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express
Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film)
Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 British mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet, starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot, and based on the1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie.-Overview:...
. Guy Hamilton had previously directed another Agatha Christie story, The Mirror Crack'd
The Mirror Crack'd
The Mirror Crack'd is a 1980 film British mystery film based on Agatha Christie's Miss Marple novel The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side...
, in 1980.
Filming locations
Wembley
Wembley is an area of northwest London, England, and part of the London Borough of Brent. It is home to the famous Wembley Stadium and Wembley Arena...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
and on location
On location
On location can refer to:*Filming location, a place where some or all of a film or television series is produced*On Location , a name of an HBO special series*Adobe OnLocation, computer software for direct to disk recording....
in Majorca, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
The actual island used was Sa Dragonera
Dragonera
Sa Dragonera is an uninhabited islet in the Balearic Islands, Spain, located just off the west coast of Majorca. It is currently a natural park.-Geography:...
, but only for visual shots. The Actual locations used were the Formentor Beach (39°55′38.6796"N 003°08′22.254"E) for the South of France (Sir Horace's boat), Cala d'en Monjo (39°31′44.7168"N 002°25′50.4948"E) for Daphne's Cove and Hotel (Hotel was a private estate owned by a German, but has now been bought by the Majorca Council and demolished to its foundations which can still be seen today. Gull Cove was a cove on the Formentor Peninsula (Cala en Feliu) (39°55′48.40"N 003°09′48.23"E) and Ladder Bay was filmed near Camp De Mar (Cala Blanca) (39°32′12.10"N 002°24′20.12"E). The other hotel exterior shots were filmed at the Raixa Estate (39°40′50.9628"N 002°40′22.2528"E) north of Palma (Just Reopened to the public). Finally Poirot boards his boat to the Island from Deiá. The locations were well stitched together to give the appearance of a few locations near each other on a small island when in reality they are spread across Majorca. It made full use of its location to adequately convey the intricacies of Christie's plot, in which the hotel guests all appear to be at different parts of the island at the time of the murder.
The scenes of the finding of the murdered hiker on moors at the beginning of the film were shot in the Yorkshire Dales
Yorkshire Dales
The Yorkshire Dales is the name given to an upland area in Northern England.The area lies within the historic county boundaries of Yorkshire, though it spans the ceremonial counties of North Yorkshire, West Yorkshire and Cumbria...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, with the exterior of the Police Station being the former Literary Institute in Muker
Muker
Muker is a village and civil parish in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. Situated in Swaledale, one of the Yorkshire Dales, its name...
, Swaledale
Swaledale
Swaledale is one of the northernmost dales in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in northern England. It is the dale of the River Swale on the east side of the Pennines in North Yorkshire.-Geographical overview:...
.
Prologue
A hiker rushes into the local police station at the moors in YorkshireYorkshire
Yorkshire is a historic county of northern England and the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its great size in comparison to other English counties, functions have been increasingly undertaken over time by its subdivisions, which have also been subject to periodic reform...
. She has found the body of a woman who appears to have been strangled. The victim's name is Alice Ruber but the police find no leads.
Introduction
Belgian detective Hercule PoirotHercule Poirot
Hercule Poirot is a fictional Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels and 51 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.Poirot has been portrayed on...
(Peter Ustinov
Peter Ustinov
Peter Alexander Ustinov CBE was an English actor, writer and dramatist. He was also renowned as a filmmaker, theatre and opera director, stage designer, author, screenwriter, comedian, humourist, newspaper and magazine columnist, radio broadcaster and television presenter...
) is called in by an insurance company and asked to check out a blue-hued diamond belonging to Sir Horace Blatt (Colin Blakely
Colin Blakely
Colin George Blakely was a Northern Irish character actor. He was considered an actor of great range.-Early life:...
), a millionaire industrialist. Poirot notices it is a fake, confirming the opinion of appraisers working on behalf of the firm. Poirot meets Blatt who is not only surprised at the news of the fake, but expresses resentment that "that woman" could do this to him. Blatt explains that he had an affair with a woman he met in New York and gave her the diamond which he had purchased for US$50,000 ($600,000 in 2008 dollars). He got her to return it after she dumped him for another man. He knows that the woman is due to go on holiday at an island which hosts an exclusive hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
. Poirot agrees to go to the same island in order that they can confront the woman and enjoy a holiday of his own. Rather than accompany Blatt on his yacht, Poirot travels by land since he cannot stand prolonged sea journeys.
The hotel in question is the former summer palace of the reigning King of Tyrania. It is now owned by Daphne Castle (Maggie Smith
Maggie Smith
Dame Margaret Natalie Smith, DBE , better known as Maggie Smith, is an English film, stage, and television actress who made her stage debut in 1952 and is still performing after 59 years...
), who received it from the King "for services rendered." Her guests include:
- Glamorous actress Arlena Stuart Marshall (Diana RiggDiana RiggDame Enid Diana Elizabeth Rigg, DBE is an English actress. She is probably best known for her portrayals of Emma Peel in The Avengers and Countess Teresa di Vicenzo in the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majesty's Secret Service....
); - Kenneth Marshall (Denis QuilleyDenis QuilleyDenis Clifford Quilley OBE was an English theatre, television and film actor who was long associated with the Royal National Theatre....
), Arlena's husband; - Linda Marshall (Emily Hone), Kenneth's teenage daughter from an earlier marriage;
- Rex Brewster (Roddy McDowallRoddy McDowallRoderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
), a writer and theatre critic (with the airs and pomposity of Noël CowardNoël CowardSir Noël Peirce Coward was an English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer, known for his wit, flamboyance, and what Time magazine called "a sense of personal style, a combination of cheek and chic, pose and poise".Born in Teddington, a suburb of London, Coward attended a dance academy...
); - Odell (James MasonJames MasonJames Neville Mason was an English actor who attained stardom in both British and American films. Mason remained a powerful figure in the industry throughout his career and was nominated for three Academy Awards as well as three Golden Globes .- Early life :Mason was born in Huddersfield, in the...
) and Myra Gardener (Sylvia MilesSylvia Miles-Early life and career:Miles was born Sylvia Reuben Lee in New York City, the daughter of Belle and Reuben Lee, a furniture maker....
), New YorkNew York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
theatrical producerTheatrical producerA theatrical producer is the person ultimately responsible for overseeing all aspects of mounting a theatre production. The independent producer will usually be the originator and finder of the script and starts the whole process...
s; - and Patrick (Nicholas ClayNicholas ClayNicholas Anthony Phillip Clay was an English actor.-Early life:Born in Streatham London, to Bill and Rose Clay, he studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and began his acting career in the early 1970s with small parts in film and television.-Career:Clay also appeared in several West End...
) and Christine Redfern (Jane BirkinJane BirkinJane Mallory Birkin, OBE is an English-born actress and singer who lives in France. In recent years she has written her own album, directed a film and become an outspoken proponent of democracy in Burma.- Early life :...
), a dashing, handsome young man and his mousy wife.
Tension soon settles in on the island, much of it surrounding Arlena Marshall. She is very abusive towards her stepdaughter and Marshall himself turns increasingly towards Daphne, an old friend of his. Daphne herself has a long-standing and bitter rivalry with Arlena, going back to their days as chorus girls. Furthermore, Arlena caused the Gardeners financial problems by walking out of a major play and is refusing to perform in another in which they have invested most of their money. There is also Brewster who has written a tell-all biography
Biography
A biography is a detailed description or account of someone's life. More than a list of basic facts , biography also portrays the subject's experience of those events...
of Arlena but she refuses to sign the release for it since it reveals details about her real age, background and how sleeping around got her her big break on the stage. If the book isn't published, Brewster will have to refund the publishing house the advanced royalties they paid to him and which he has already spent.
The Murder
One morning, Arlena goes off on her own in a paddleboat to sunbath at an empty spot on the island known as Ladder Bay, but both Poirot and Marshall assume that her real purpose is to be with Patrick. However this is refuted when Patrick shows up in the hotel lobby.As the morning progresses, Myra tags along on a boat trip with Patrick, who is transparently attempting to rendezvous with Arlena. When they reach the secluded beach, they see the body of a woman on the sand. Patrick goes ashore, approaches the body and suddenly announces to Myra that it is the strangled corpse of Arlena. Myra goes to fetch help while he waits with the body.
Alibis and Details
Daphne Castle insists that Poirot investigates the matter, dismissing the efficiency of the local police, and he agrees. Sir Horace Blatt turns up on his yacht and, as Poirot had guessed, reveals that Arlena was also the woman who took his diamond.Most of the guests had good motives for loathing Arlena. Poirot even suggests that Patrick, who appeared to like her, may have killed her in order to hold on to his increasingly jealous wife. Yet, when he questions them, Poirot finds that they all have alibis for the time when the crime was committed.
Kenneth Marshall was in his hotel room typing a reply to a letter which he'd received that morning. This is confirmed by Daphne even though Poirot demonstrates that she could not have seen Marshall from where she was standing. She could only have heard him. However, Marshall shows him the letter he was responding to which arrived in the morning's post and which he received about 11am. Poirot concedes this after reading the two letters.
Christine was sketching landscapes with Linda during the morning at Gull Cove. On realizing that the time was 11:55, Christine remembered she had a tennis match at 12:30 back at the hotel and quickly left. Every day at noon a local cannon is fired on the mainland to mark the time and can be heard as far as the island. (This figures into the plotline of the story.) Christine claims to have heard it while waving to Linda from the top of the cliff as Linda was swimming in the sea. Linda confirms this.
Sir Horace had a loud argument with Arlena on the beach in Ladder Bay where she was later found, but his own crew saw the whole exchange and they could see that she was still alive when he left at about half past eleven. He also left her the fake diamond, which she denied knowing anything about. However he said that she had promised she would straighten it out that evening. Poirot later found the false diamond in a grotto near to where the body lay.
Daphne was walking along the top of the cliffs and saw Arlena on the beach at Ladder Bay. She also saw the argument between Arlena and Sir Horace. She then returned to the hotel to chair a staff meeting.
Patrick's alibi was that when he left the hotel at about half past eleven for his rendezvous with Arlena, Myra accompanied him in the speedboat. En route they saw Sir Horace's yacht sailing towards the hotel. They arrived at Ladder Bay as the noonday gun sounded. Patrick found Arlena dead on the beach, witnessed by Myra.
Odell Gardener claims he was reading and he was sure no one saw him so he has no alibi. He was almost proud of that fact since as he was "of the millions of innocents in the world." It transpires, however, that he was seen by Daphne and her staff. Odell mentions that he tried to wash up at about 12:15 for the tennis game, but the water pressure was low because someone was bathing at the same time—a very odd time for a bath.
When Poirot asks who threw the bottle or took the bath, none of the guests will admit to either act. During the night, Poirot reads a report he submitted to the same insurance firm that hired him to investigate the Blatt diamond issue and checks something in the hotel register.
Solution
Assembling the suspects together, Poirot announces that the solution to the murder hinges on several items: Linda's bathing cap, a bath no one would admit to taking, a mysterious bottle flung into the sea, the particular geography of the island, the cannon being fired to mark noontime, and the fact that people sunbathing from a distance look similar.All the alibis appear to indicate that no-one could have committed the murder at the time established, so someone is lying and Poirot announces that this someone is Christine Redfern.
On this basis, he states that Arlena's corpse on the beach was actually Christine posing as her. After knocking Arlena unconscious with a stone and hiding her in a nearby rock grotto
Grotto
A grotto is any type of natural or artificial cave that is associated with modern, historic or prehistoric use by humans. When it is not an artificial garden feature, a grotto is often a small cave near water and often flooded or liable to flood at high tide...
, she used a temporary self-tanner
Sunless tanning
Sunless tanning Sunless tanning Sunless tanning (also known as UV-free tanning, self tanning, spray tanning (when applied topical, or fake tanning) refers to the application of chemicals to the skin to produce an effect similar in appearance to a suntan...
to match Arlena’s skin color and donned Arlena's bathing costume and face-obscuring Chinese red hat. She then waited to be "discovered" by Patrick in the plain but distant view of Myra Gardener. Poirot knew Arlena was in the grotto because he had smelled her particular brand of perfume in there and had also found the imitation paste diamond which had been given to her by Sir Horace during their earlier argument.
To establish her alibi Christine wore heavy clothes, not to protect herself from sunburn, but to cover the self-tanner and her own wristwatch. She had carefully nurtured the notion that she sunburned easily and was the wounded wife while her husband was carrying on a dalliance with Arlena. She had pre-set Linda's watch twenty minutes ahead before they went sketching to give her the impression it was later than it really was. She even suggested to Linda to wear the bathing cap (common among beachgoers in the 1920s) because it would cover her ears and thus she would not be able to tell if she heard the cannon or not. Before she left the area she took care to re-set Linda's watch to the correct time.
Poirot disproves Christine's alibi by asking why, when Brewster became upset when Linda denied seeing him, did he not go to his second possible witness, Christine? He did not mention seeing Christine at the top of the cliff even as she was supposedly waving to Linda when he arrived in his boat. Moreover when Brewster accosted Linda, she did not hear him approach from about three feet away because the bathing cap covered her ears. (To emphasize this point the audio in the movie is muted at that stage.) If Linda could not hear Rex approaching from such a short distance then how could she have heard the cannon marking midday?
When Patrick points out his wife has vertigo
Vertigo (medical)
Vertigo is a type of dizziness, where there is a feeling of motion when one is stationary. The symptoms are due to a dysfunction of the vestibular system in the inner ear...
and thus could not have climbed down the ladder at the cliff leading to the grotto, Poirot mentions that in order for Linda to have seen Christine waving she would have to have stood at the edge of the cliff. He reveals that he tried and became dizzy, so no one with vertigo would have even dared to try.
The guests also point out that Arlena was strangled and Christine's hands could not have matched the strangle marks. Poirot explains this away by claiming that Arlena was strangled long after Myra left: by Patrick.
After Myra left the bay, Christine changed out of Arlena's bathing costume. Patrick then strangled Arlena in the grotto, changed her back into the bathing costume and set her up for when Poirot and the others arrived to examine the body. Christine meanwhile pitched the bottle of self-tanner into the sea—narrowly missing Rex Brewster—and then dashed back to the hotel to wash off the self tan—the bath no one admitted to taking—and turn up for her tennis date.
Motive and Truth
There is one problem: motive. Christine certainly had motive but what was Patrick's? As he puts it, "adultery may be reprehensible but not criminal". It turns out that Patrick was actually interested in Blatt's diamond. He had switched the real one for a paste copy, probably during one of his trysts with Arlena in England. Upon learning that she had returned it to Blatt, he realized that an investigation into the forgery would lead back to him so he killed her.The main problem is proof of guilt. Poirot admits that he has none, just circumstantial evidence. As the smug Redferns are about to depart, Christine - no longer the mousy pitiful wife - confidently remarks: "Give us some time and we may discover how you [Poirot] did it. After all, where were you between 11:30 and noon?" Later she reappears, dressed in expensive clothes, now no longer the vulnerable sympathetic wife but dressed to kill so to speak. Then Patrick unwittingly makes the second of three mistakes: he pays the hotel bill with a check.
Poirot notes the signature on the cheque and then suddenly addresses Redfern as "Felix Ruber", husband of the woman whose body was found on the moors in England some months ago. He points out that the "R" of Redfern on the check matches the distinct "R" to the signature of Felix Ruber on the insurance form he was reading earlier. The time of Mrs. Ruber's death was established as occurring at the time her husband could prove he had been on a train to London. Witnesses complained he smoked in a non-smoking compartment, a little too obvious.
The company which held Mrs. Ruber's life insurrance, and was also to insure the Blatt diamond, sent Poirot to investigate. He never met the husband or the hiker who found the body. As an agent of the insurance company he may have been limited to simply checking the police reports and ensuring that they were thorough in their investigation. Felix could thus cash in on his wife's life insurance. However, the death of Alice Ruber seemed to parallel that of Arlena: the coincidence was too great for an investigator like Poirot to ignore.
Redfern/Ruber's first mistake was from the day before, when he and Poirot overheard some of the hotel staff singing an air from an opera written by Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Verdi
Giuseppe Fortunino Francesco Verdi was an Italian Romantic composer, mainly of opera. He was one of the most influential composers of the 19th century...
. As a joke, Patrick pointed out that in Italian the name of the composer translates as "Joe Green". This led Poirot to realise that "Filix Ruber" is the Latin for "Red Fern".
When Redfern protests that all Poirot has is a signature and a "bloody silly word game", Poirot announces that he has requested pictures of the hiker (Christine) and the grieving husband (Patrick) from the British police and that that should be enough for a conviction for both killings.
At that point Patrick makes his third mistake: he puts his pipe in his mouth. Poirot points out that the pipe has never once been lit during the Redferns' stay. He takes it, empties it and hidden in the tobacco is the diamond. Patrick concedes defeat by punching Poirot to the floor!
Later Daphne's staff take the Redferns back to the mainland and the police in a small launch, while the other guests mock them from Blatt's yacht. Recovering from the assault, Poirot is told that he is to be decorated by the King of Tyrania.