Evil Under the Sun is a 1982 British mystery film based on the 1941 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie[4] and directed by Guy Hamilton.
Meanwhile, an insurance company asks detective Hercule Poirot to examine an expensive diamond originally belonging to millionaire Sir Horace Blatt.
Poirot correctly identifies it as a fake, but is assured by Sir Horace that the original was purchased at Tiffany’s in New York for his mistress, actress Arlena Stuart Marshall; she apparently returned a paste replica after their split.
She is emotionally abusive to her stepdaughter, Linda, and flirts openly with Patrick Redfern, who is holidaying on the island with his wife Christine.
Patrick left with Myra minutes before 12:00 PM, seeing Sir Horace's yacht approaching, and hearing the noon day cannon firing.
Rex met the swimming Linda when entering Gull Cove at 12:00 and reports that a bottle flung from the top of a cliff nearly hit him.
She then tossed away the lotion bottle, almost hitting Rex, and bathed away her tan, accounting for the hotel's water system pressure drop.
Though unmasked for both murders, Patrick does not resist when Poirot removes a pipe that has never been lit during his stay from his lips, empties its bowl, and reveals the diamond.
In 1975, head of production Nat Cohen announced the same producers would adapt the Evil Under the Sun novel as part of a slate of six films worth £6 million, also including Spanish Fly (1975), Aces High (1976), The Likely Lads (1976) and Sweeney!
[10] Producer Richard Goodwin said, "What we try to do is provide terrific escapist entertainment that you can take your kids to and make it look beautiful at the same time.
"[11] The screenplay was written by Anthony Shaffer (who had worked on Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile) and an uncredited Barry Sandler.
[12] The adaptation stayed fairly close to Christie's work but truncated scenes for time constraints, removed minor characters, and added humorous elements that were not present in the novel.
[15] Peter Ustinov made his second film appearance as Poirot, having previously played the Belgian detective in Death on the Nile (1978).
[11] The actual island used for aerial shots is Sa Dragonera, an uninhabited islet with "natural park" status, located just off the west coast of Majorca near Sant Elm.
[21][22] Other locations used were Cala Blanca[a] as Ladder Bay, and offshore at Sant Elm[b] for the south of France (Sir Horace's boat scenes).
[23][d] The other hotel exterior shots were filmed at the Raixa [es; ca] Estate[e] in Bunyola, a large Italianate villa surrounded by gardens.
[26] The early scenes on the moors were shot in the Yorkshire Dales, England, with the exterior of the police station being the former Literary Institute in Muker, Swaledale.