Monday, June 8, 2009

Evil Under the Sun

I have a confession to make.

Until today I had never seen or read any Agatha Christie, ever.

This may not register on anybody else's interest radar, but my grandmother was shocked, and, after witnessing the 1981 version of "Evil Under the Sun", one of the Poirot series, today, I was a little too.

Yes, it was formulaic, and no, I'm not sure I could sit every week and watch an epic two and a half hour film with the same main, undeveloping character, as my grandmother seems to do, but gosh darn I had fun trying to figure out who'd killed the skanky, evil lady and how, and laughing at the insane costumes which didn't seem to quite belong to any one era.

Unfortunately, I can't find any pictures which really give a good enough picture, but this is the cover of the DVD. On the right is the promiscuous wife who justifiably also doubles as the obligatory corpse. This outfit is typical of the character, a body suit with multi-coloured oval dots and a matching turban with smaller dots. Then to her left was the man who wanted to write her biography and was never seen not in a sailor suit of some description. Of course in the middle is old Poirot, who was quite amusing in himself. Then the corpse's arch-nemisis and, coincidentally, the owner of the hotel that everyone happened to have 'independantly' decided to holiday at and finally the young man-hunk with whom skanky deadlady was having a rather obvious affair with, in front of both their spouses.

Oh yes, the possibilities of different motives and alibies where endless and easily kept me from my rather urgent need to write my essay for over three hours. Also, corpsey and her enemy kept trying to out-do each other with their evening outfits, we couldn't decide which era it all seemed to suit, but whenever it was, it was obviously a time when large sequins were very, very in. The ladies all donned very, very large hats and the cutest little one piece bathing costumes while the men were always dappering it out in their smartly cut suits. It was the kind of film which makes me dream of becoming a costume designer.

In the end, I don't think I'm going to make it a regular hobby, but I'm fairly sure that I'll return to some Agatha Christie goodness again.

BuzzChildxx

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