cult film freak: peter ustinov

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Written by James M. Tate / 2/15/2022 / No comments / agatha christie , british , colin blakely , denis quilley , diana rigg , emily hone , ensemble , guy hamilton , james mason , jane birkin , mystery , peter ustinov , roddy mcdowall , sylvia miles

SECOND PETER USTINOV POIROT MYSTERY 'EVIL UNDER THE SUN'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIn9n1krgIKjrYymp7GVHNekTm4ToxzqlP3OaL8okR8OH7UDyoanQn8RlFgmfy4EkCAMtsgXaDdpuolWBiHgohEI7ituNgX2QwurXbW073l4R3bExE65LHnL_jfLIJxpvibP_hh7CAmeOHGc7Haufs9eNKFI-3zNsmOv1gt4So9wPZfMOMSkfD-uiEkQ=s1897" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="742" data-original-width="1897" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiIn9n1krgIKjrYymp7GVHNekTm4ToxzqlP3OaL8okR8OH7UDyoanQn8RlFgmfy4EkCAMtsgXaDdpuolWBiHgohEI7ituNgX2QwurXbW073l4R3bExE65LHnL_jfLIJxpvibP_hh7CAmeOHGc7Haufs9eNKFI-3zNsmOv1gt4So9wPZfMOMSkfD-uiEkQ=s16000"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: EVIL UNDER THE SUN Director: Guy Hamilton Year: 1982 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Surprisingly EVIL UNDER THE SUN, the least known and least popular of the Agatha Christie Mystery films featuring Hercule Poirot beginning with MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS and sustaining with <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2022/02/nile1978.html">DEATH ON THE NILE</a>, is the best adaptation simply because there's not a distracting all-star cast and every character is a worthy suspect...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Which doesn't mean it's not a great cast, including Broadway-producing older couple James Mason and Sylvia Miles; polar opposite younger couple Jane Birkin and Nicholas Clay as a mousy rich girl and her playboy husband; a Clifton Webb LAURA-style flamboyantly vengeful writer in Roddy McDowall; and Denis Quilley as a millionaire father of gloomy teen (and the edgiest character) Emily Hone, paired with a gold-digging actress played with fashionably formidable zest by Diana Rigg, who everyone wants dead...</p><p><span></span></p>

agatha christie, british, colin blakely, denis quilley, diana rigg, emily hone, ensemble, guy hamilton, james mason, jane birkin, mystery, peter ustinov, roddy mcdowall, sylvia miles

SECOND PETER USTINOV POIROT MYSTERY 'EVIL UNDER THE SUN'

Title: EVIL UNDER THE SUN Director: Guy Hamilton Year: 1982 Rating: ***1/2 Surprisingly EVIL UNDER THE SUN, the least known and least popula...

FIRST PETER USTINOV POIROT MYSTERY OF 'DEATH ON THE NILE'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0Xi2x1ZFXa5Pm1ko9Aj8OAdTnrTp2BKr6Hhwdt26C4GNhfSkfaWhV0ex11NSRoPH2_j2DuIIDRQInJShKiWarw3w-OkizSI7vbZjQ8R43vPVk_7x-NVNz8ShiFl5IA9rkb0gRzh00jb3U0Bv4JOxpWp7cETgPXvZBhwoRWbz5PpAmH2Xo9w0qste-gQ=s1875" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="1875" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg0Xi2x1ZFXa5Pm1ko9Aj8OAdTnrTp2BKr6Hhwdt26C4GNhfSkfaWhV0ex11NSRoPH2_j2DuIIDRQInJShKiWarw3w-OkizSI7vbZjQ8R43vPVk_7x-NVNz8ShiFl5IA9rkb0gRzh00jb3U0Bv4JOxpWp7cETgPXvZBhwoRWbz5PpAmH2Xo9w0qste-gQ=s16000"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: DEATH ON THE NILE Year: 1978 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Director John Guillermin's DEATH ON THE NILE with a screenplay by Anthony Shaffer adapted from Agatha Christie's most celebrated novel featuring the affable Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot is far from a perfect "whodunit" since this group of suspects, all passengers on a fancy boat down the titular Egyptian river, have very little motive/motivation to kill who's the best thing about the picture, and not just the prettiest...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Thankfully Lois Chiles as super-rich heiress Linnet Ridgeway lasts over the one-hour mark; although she returns sporadically during the most uninteresting sequences where Poirot discusses with token constable-type David Niven what could have happened, providing flashbacks that aren't flashbacks being the first time we're seeing them...</p><p><span></span></p>

adventure, agatha christie, british, ensemble, i.s. johar, jack warden, john guillermin, jon finch, lois chiles, maggie smith, mia farrow, mystery, peter ustinov, simon maccorkindale, suspense

FIRST PETER USTINOV POIROT MYSTERY OF 'DEATH ON THE NILE'

Title: DEATH ON THE NILE Year: 1978 Rating: ***1/2 Director John Guillermin's DEATH ON THE NILE with a screenplay by Anthony Shaffer ada...

LOIS CHILES DEADLINES AGATHA CHRISTIE'S 'DEATH ON THE NILE'

adventure, agatha christie, i.s. johar, jack warden, john guillermin, jon finch, lois chiles, maggie smith, mia farrow, mystery, peter ustinov, simon maccorkindale, suspense

LOIS CHILES DEADLINES AGATHA CHRISTIE'S 'DEATH ON THE NILE'

Lois Chiles must die for a DEATH ON THE NILE Year: 1978 DEATH ON THE NILE, directed by the underrated John Guillermin, who surprisingly ...

FOURTH CHRISTIE MYSTERY: EVIL UNDER THE SUN

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Part of the Opening Credit Paintings YEAR: 1982</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We'll take on the Agatha Christie cinematic four-pack in reverse, which began in 1974 and ended in 1982 (at least on the big screen), and the films are MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, DEATH ON THE NILE, THE MIRROR CRACK'D and starting out with the last and, going back in time when, as a kid of around twelve or thirteen, standing outside a the local double feature theater, seeing the poster for EVIL UNDER THE SUN was an eye-opener. Half-remembering an image of a (not knowing actor names) stout man standing partially in the water with a wine glass in his hand. It was sunny and tropical and this was the first time witnessing an unlikely leading man compared to an Eastwood or Stallone and, well, years have past and while a forty-something's memory often ends up serving nothing but time, and that poster cannot be found online and perhaps never existed, Agatha Christie's French (Belgium, actually) sleuth is a personal favorite, with a spark of the accidental clumsiness of Peter Falk's COLUMBO and always around when a murder takes place...</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Diana Rigg's character probably fearing Emily Hone will soon surpass her</u></td></tr>
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EVIL UNDER THE SUN is the third case with Hercule Poirot, and by far the best, second to Peter Ustinov's first time in the more adventurous and less contained DEATH ON THE NILE... and he was a replacement that really worked...<br />
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While Albert Finney is one of the all-time great actors, in MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS he seems to be doing an imitation of an imitation with a performance hindered by a cake of makeup and a phony (looking, anyway) mustache. Peter Ustinov is the best theatrical Perot because he doesn't seem to be acting at all. His quirkiness fits like a glove, and he's intense and affably endearing: Set in an island paradise, EVIL is a sort of Busman's Holiday for the Frenchman, and the actors surrounding are a perfectly odd lot including Maggie Smith, Roddy McDowell, Sylvia Miles, slowburn and meticulous teenage newcomer Emily Hone and the legendary James Mason. Like in NILE, there's a good looking younger couple, and the man, played by Nicholas Clay, is not only prettier than his girlfriend, but Diana Rigg, as the pivotal Arlena — a stage actress who may or may not agree to star in a production, is... well... it's very tricky writing a review of a Mystery film since just about anything can be a spoiler...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>A patriotic cannon blasts daily at high noon SCORE: ****</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What sets EVIL UNDER THE SUN apart from its two predecessors is the tight, lean script wherein the characters are never stagy thanks to the gorgeous backdrop that's anything but in the background — to use a cliche term when describing geography, the surrounding is "like a character in itself," especially shots from the hotel down into the sunlit grounds leading out into the blue-green ocean. Other visual highlights include a patriotic cannon firing a loud shot at 12 noon daily, not only bringing together the eclectic band of possible suspects, each with an ironclad alibi, but it allows the unlikeliest of heroes a platform to splendidly <i>happen-upon </i>everything that "James Bond director" Guy Hamilton places within eyeshot and earshot for both Poirot and his audience. Making a second viewing not only recommended, but completely necessary.</span>

eighties, franchise, james mason, maggie smith, mystery, peter ustinov, sequel

FOURTH CHRISTIE MYSTERY: EVIL UNDER THE SUN

Part of the Opening Credit Paintings YEAR: 1982 We'll take on the Agatha Christie cinematic four-pack in reverse, which began in 197...

Written by James M. Tate / 12/07/2015 / 1 Comment / farrah fawcett , jenny agutter , michael anderson , michael york , peter ustinov , richard jordan , science-fiction , seventies

MICHAEL ANDERSON DIRECTS MICHAEL YORK IN LOGAN'S RUN

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>year of release: 1976</u></td></tr>
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The quintessential cult sci-fi classic for more reasons than the funny costumes, the obvious model tramways, the plastic dome buildings and the – for today’s modern standards – dated special effects...<br>
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LOGAN'S RUN, the movie that led to an entertaining one-season TV series, is a wonderfully conceived timepiece with great acting and a pace that hardly falters, most of the way through till the talky conclusion. But it's a long time to get there…<br>
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So let’s start off with the premise: a future society where people only live to thirty. At which point they are brought to a place called “The Carousel” where you’re either killed or you run... Not a wise choice for the latter: the police-state assassins known as Sandmen will find, chase and terminate...<br>
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One being the main character, Michael York's intense yet vulnerable Logan, who, along with crafty partner Francis, played by the always-intriguing Richard Jordan, really love their job... And why not: both have four whole years till their own sand runs out. But Logan’s given a secret assignment to pose as a runner to find “The Sanctuary” where others have escaped successfully. He meets secret underground ingénue Jessica... future gorgeous AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON starlet Jenny Agutter... and, after setting one runner free witnessed by Jordan's Francis, and understandably falling in love, the RUN in LOGAN becomes legit, and pretty darn thrilling. <br>

farrah fawcett, jenny agutter, michael anderson, michael york, peter ustinov, richard jordan, science-fiction, seventies