Review Category: DVD/Blu Ray

Dragon Ball Super Season 1 – Part 1 contains the first 13 episodes of the latest Dragon Ball anime. This sounds like a pretty standard amount for a half series collection but in here it is a noticeable flaw. The first story line of Dragon Ball Super consists of the first 14 episodes. What viewers are getting in this package is incomplete.

This might not be so bad were the full story not available elsewhere. The first season of Dragon Ball Super is a remake of the two movies that were released before Super started airing. These episodes represent a longer version of the first of those two movies.

How attractive a purchase this collection makes hinges on that key factor. The episodes present in this collection have a greater running time to play with than Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods did. Unfortunately, this extra running time only proves to be unnecessary. In fairness to the anime, it doesn’t follow the script of the movie exactly, but it doesn’t achieve anything that its predecessor was unable to. The episodes aren’t bad. As a collection they are fun to watch; they are exemplary of the mixture of charm and action that Dragon Ball has come to be famous for. They just don’t do enough to justify themselves. Dragon Ball Z: Battle of Gods offers largely the same experience for a cheaper price. The fact that this bundle doesn’t even offer the complete storyline only makes it less desirable a purchase than Battle of Gods. 

Dragon Ball Super Season 1 – Part 1 offers three different ways to view the episodes on offer. Alongside the choice to watch individual episodes, or ‘Play All’ is ‘Marathon’. Unlike ‘Play All’ ‘Marathon’ offers the chance to watch all of the episodes together without being interrupted by the credits. The opening plays before the first episode only. This gives the chance to watch the episode as a seamless whole rather than as segments. The one flaw to this feature is that it still contains the “previously on”. In ‘Marathon’ such segments only serve to parrot what readers just watched back to them, making it unnecessary.

In terms of special features, the most notable are the ‘Catching Up on the Dragon Ball Universe’ segments. In these two videos members of the cast attempt to explain Dragon Ball to their daughters, and quiz them on what they’ve learned. Watching the actors’ daughters trying to explain the show is funny but they aren’t the catch up that the title suggests. Don’t come to them looking to learn much about Dragon Ball.

Dragon Ball Super Season 1 – Part 1‘s problem isn’t that it is bad. It is a showcase of what Dragon Ball is capable of, it can be tailored to different viewing habits, and the extras are fun enough. However, it still doesn’t manage to escape the fact that a better quality, complete viewing experience is available for a cheaper price.

Special Features: Catching Up on the Dragon Ball Universe: Sonny Straight & Savannah Ligaluppi / Catching Up on the Dragon Ball Universe: Christopher R. Sabat & Hero D. Sabat / Textless Opening Song / Textless Closing Song 1 / Textless Closing Song 2 / Trailers

DRAGON BALL SUPER SEASON 1 – PART 1 / CERT: 12 / DIRECTOR: KIMITOSHI CHIOKA / WRITERS: VARIOUS / STARRING: SEAN SCHEMMEL, CHRISTOPHER R. SABAT, JASON DOUGLAS, IAN SINCLAIR, SONNY STRAIT, KYLE HEBERT, MONICA RIAL / RELEASE DATE: 30TH OCTOBER 

Alexey Leonov (Evgeniy Mironov) makes a spectacular emergency landing in his jet fighter aircraft and his skill is rewarded by being included in the Soviet Space Program. It is at a time when the Soviet Union is making significant ‘firsts’ in the competition with the USA to land the first man on the Moon.

One milestone ‘first’ was to release an astronaut into space beyond the confines of his spaceship. To beat the US, the Soviets decided to undertake such a mission in 1965 rather than 1967.

From the beginning, Alex’s partner Pavel Belyeyez (Konstantin Khabenskiy), a 40-year-old veteran, is injured during training and with the help of Alex fights his way back into the program. Pavel is wary of Alex, he says he is fearless, and that’s dangerous.

Once the men are prepared, an unmanned test module is put into orbit and successfully simulates a space walk mission, but disintegrates soon afterwards. As a consequence Chief Designer Sergey Korolev (Vladimir Ilin) wants to delay the mission by a year, and send up test dummies in the meantime. 

Alex is having none of this, he makes an impassioned speech to the effect that from his childhood, and during World War II, his family and the Soviet people had to suffer and take risks to achieve victory. He is so determined; he says he would gnaw a hole in the hatch to walk in space. 

In the face of this Sergey gives the green light to the manned mission. Voskhod 2 launches on 18 March 1965 crewed by Alex and Pavel. It achieves Earth orbit and at first Alex’s spacewalk goes according to plan, then things unravel faster than the umbilical cord that connects him to the space capsule.

As they cope with the many life endangering problems, there are flashbacks to Alex’s childhood, and scenes with his wife and family who have little idea of what is going on once the live TV broadcast is suddenly cut off to show ballet. 

At one stage Sergey is reminded that the astronauts are soldiers who might well have to die to stop their spaceship literally falling into enemy territory.

This is a real-life story of extreme bravery against all odds, with wonderful cinematography and special effects that take us back to the Cold War battle for supremacy in space. It gives a Soviet perspective of what sacrifices were made to be the first, and is equal to the US viewpoint displayed in such movies as the The Right Stuff and Apollo 13. 

THE SPACEWALKER / DIRECTOR: DMITRIY KISELEV / SCREENPLAY: SERGEY KALUZHANOV, YURIY KOROTKOV, OLEG POGODIN / STARRING: EVGENIY MIRONOV, KONSTANTIN KHABENSKIY, VLADIMIR ILIN / CERT: 12A / RELEASE DATE: 30TH OCTOBER 

One of several key films from the 1980s that defined the decade in terms of craftsmanship and technical virtuosity, the Coen Brothers’ debut film Blood Simple has been given a 4K makeover supervised by both the directors and Director of Cinematography Barry Sonnenfeld, one of several key talents emerging from this film that went onto greater success later on, particularly Frances McDormand, who married Joel Coen in 1984 and appeared in several key films of theirs, including Fargo (1996), for which she won a Best Actress Oscar.

Bartender Ray (John Getz) and Abby (McDormand) are having an affair behind the back of his boss (and Abby’s hubby), Julian Marty (Dan Hedaya), who in turn has hired a private investigator (M. Emmet Walsh) to follow them and to get a bigger sense of where all is going south. It’s unnecessary; as Marty is well aware Abby is playing away. Before long though, jealousy between the group has intensified to the point that Marty wants the investigator to go one step further….

Shot in Austin and around Texas in 1983, but not released in the US until the early part of 1985 (the UK got it in the Spring of that year when the critical acclaim emerged), Blood Simple is still a sharp and deliciously dark noir that encompasses all of the key attributes that helped make Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat another winner at the start of that decade.

Right from the outset, with M. Emmet Walsh’s voice-over setting the scene over a Chainsaw-esque montage of rural imagery, it is a still-highly original piece of Deep South drama, helped along by future and on-going long-term Coen collaborator Carter Burwell’s sparse yet involving score.

The script is as tight as it ever was, keeping attention throughout and little clues and subtleties can easily be missed if you are not paying attention – this film demands focus from the very first frame.

Barry Sonnenfeld’s camerawork is another unforgettable strength of the film, particularly his framing of the Texas landscape and some key individual moments on the open road that evoke the same sense of unease and discomfort that defined Steven Spielberg’s Duel (1971)

The performances of the cast are first-rate, particularly Walsh who offsets the dark tone with some quirky humour, but the interaction between Getz, McDormand and Hedaya and the evident knowledge of each other’s illicit acts adds to the overwhelming sense that something is (as the tagline on the original UK Theatrical Release poster stated) dead in the heart of Texas.

Much comment was made about the Coen Brothers association with Sam Raimi when Joel worked as an editor on the original Evil Dead in 1982 and the comparison in style between that and Blood Simple. However, that is where the similarity ends, as their debut film remains a landmark of not only the period, but also the template for everything that followed in their subsequent filmography.

BLOOD SIMPLE / CERT: 18 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: JOEL & ETHAN COEN / STARRING: JOHN GETZ, FRANCES MCDORMAND, DAN HEDAYA, M. EMMET WALSH / RELEASE DATE: 30TH OCTOBER

This November sees the release of a glitzy new big screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic whodunit, with Kenneth Branagh donning the iconic moustache of Hercule Poirot. It doesn’t take a great detective, then, to work out why Vintage Classics have taken this opportunity to re-release a bunch of Christie adaptations on Blu-ray and DVD, not least this 1974 take on the same source. 

For those unfamiliar with the plot, it’s basically what it says on the tin; the world-famous detective is travelling on the world-famous locomotive when one of his fellow passengers, a mysterious American businessman, is found dead in his bunk. Poirot interrogates the other travellers one by one before gathering everyone together and, as is his style, revealing the solution. Without spoiling anything, it’s one of the most famous twists in detective fiction – and it’s a little more complex than ‘the butler did it’. 

Despite the glamour of the setting, the story itself isn’t particularly cinematic, being very dialogue-led and confined to a single location in a way that suggests a stage adaptation may be more suitable than a screen one. What it needs to make it work is a strong cast, and this version certainly succeeds in that regard. OK, so Albert Finney tends to overact and over-growl a tad as Poirot, and hardcore fans generally prefer David Suchet’s incarnation, but Finney certainly knows how to hold the attention during a long monologue. The line-up of suspects, meanwhile, includes Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Anthony Perkins, and John Gielgud, among other talents. That’s a seriously impressive list of stage and screen stars (earning extra points over the new version of the film by not having Johnny Depp in sight), and director Sidney Lumet allows them all a chance in the spotlight; Bergman, of Casablanca fame, even went on to win an Oscar for her role. If any film could be described as ‘prestigious’, it’s this one. 

The new release can also be described as such – just about. The main bulk of the extras is a set of rather self-congratulatory featurettes, adding up to about 50 minutes overall, but there’s also a brand new 20-minute interview with producer Richard Goodwin, which shines some interesting light on the making of the film and working with Christie herself. The new box and menu art is gorgeous, particularly when placed in a set with the other releases. If you’re a Christie fan, or just want to experience a classic detective tale told well, then this is worth adding to your collection. 

MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (1974) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: SIDNEY LUMET / SCREENPLAY: PAUL DEHN / STARRING: ALBERT FINNEY, LAUREN BACALL, INGRID BERGMAN, SEAN CONNERY, ANTHONY PERKINS / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 23RD 

Your awareness of Daniel Mann’s 1971 horror film Willard and Phil Karlson’s 1972 sequel Ben probably stems from the repeat plays over the last forty five years of Michael Jackson’s title song of the latter, and possibly the loosely based remake of the original film starring Crispin Glover.

Second Sight has put together a brand-new 4K/HD transfer respectively of each film with special features and they look fantastic in this case.

One suitable option to view the films is as a two-part mini-series form, as like the original Carpenter Halloween and Halloween II, Ben takes up where Willard left off. Seen today, both may well be more of interest to older viewers and cult fans of vintage horror.

Willard tells of Willard Stiles (Bruce Davison), about as nerdish and geeky as they come, whose boss (Ernest Borgnine) has stolen the business from his deceased father, not to mention an overbearing family who are as bullying as he is, led by mother Henrietta (the original Bride Of Frankenstein, Elsa Lanchester). However, in his solace, he makes friends with some rats in the neighbourhood and discovers a newfound power, as well as naming his ‘pets’, choosing the likes of Socrates and Ben. Before long, he is using this to manipulate them into causing havoc amongst his close circle.

Ben is the tale of Danny (Lee Montgomery) who has discovered Ben and as a result, his unsavoury relationship becomes a saving grace. However, Ben’s cohorts are turning violent and causing all manner of trouble in the neighbourhood…

On balance, the extent at which you will find these horrifying depends on your in-built phobia around rats. If you didn’t flinch during that Venice sequence in Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade, when Indy and Elsa fled from explosions and rats escaping, then you probably will find these more fun.

Willard is a strange affair now, as it isn’t really that horrifying and the pay-offs at the end are relatively tame. It struggles in what it is trying to be and indeed, some critics commented on this back on its original release. Performance-wise, Davison and Borgnine are competent and the film also has some appeal for fans of Clint Eastwood, given that his long-term collaborator Sondra Locke makes one of her early appearances in this. Vintage Universal horror fans will no doubt want to see Lanchester in action in one of her last screen roles.

However, Ben is more successful, due to sticking to a Them-style monster narrative and actually having some rather atmospheric moments of tension, thus being more effective as a horror movie. It still lacks some genuine scares, but tries its hardest at least to be more of a genre piece. The title song, though a catchy number, seems out of place in this type of film, but remains one of the best things about the film overall. Family Ties fans can also take pleasure from one of Meredith Baxter’s early film roles.

Overall, one for true fans of the films and cult film collectors.

WILLARD / BEN – BLU-RAY LIMITED EDITION  / CERT: 15 / DIRECTORS: DANIEL MANN, PHIL KARLSON / SCREENPLAY: GILBERT RALSTON / STARRING: BRUCE DAVISON, ERNEST BORGNINE, ELSA LANCHESTER, LEE MONTGOMERY, JOSEPH CAMPANELLA / RELEASE DATE: 30TH OCTOBER

Vintage Classics’ re-releases of Agatha Christie adaptations, handily timed to release alongside Kenneth Branagh’s new take on Murder on the Orient Express, continue with this lavish 1978 production of Death on the Nile. Coming hot on the heels of another Orient Express adaptation – the 1974 Albert Finney-starrer – this follow-up Poirot tale replaces Finney with Peter Ustinov, while retaining the all-star glamour. 

Holidaying in Egypt, Hercule Poirot witnesses a wealthy heiress and her new husband being stalked by the guy’s ditched ex-fiancée. Not long after, the legendary detective happens to be sharing the same boat as the newlyweds, and learns that the heiress has a lot of enemies. Knowing the title of the film, any amateur detective should be able to work out what happens next.

The way the investigation plays out is more dynamic than that in Orient Express, with less of a focus on interrogation only and more twists and turns to come, and the ending is very satisfying – as in the best whodunits, all the pieces cleverly come together, meaning you could have worked it out yourself, but probably didn’t. However, director John Guillermin and writer Anthony Shaffer’s handle on the material isn’t quite as firm as that of Sidney Lumet and Paul Dehn in the 1974 movie; some elements of the story drag on too long, while sub-plots about peripheral crimes – a first, failed murder attempt and a jewel robbery – feel poorly resolved. The location shooting in Egypt does make it a pleasure to look at throughout, though – it’s a real case of tourism via murder mystery.

Ustinov’s performance as Poirot, the first of six times he would play the Belgian detective, is amiable and entertaining, though Christie hardcores tend to find him too ramshackle compared to the quick-witted Poirot of the books and a poor fit for the character physically. The supporting cast list is stunning, from David Niven as Poirot’s military sidekick to Lois Chiles as the beautiful and doomed heiress, alongside Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, Angela Lansbury and Maggie Smith among the suspects. There’s particular fun to be had with Lansbury’s drunken novelist and Poirot’s attempts to deflect her attentions. 

This is another excellent package from Vintage Classics, with stylish cover and menu art and a range of extras, foremost being three brand new interviews: Angela Lansbury, costume designer Anthony Powell, and producer Richard Goodwin. The movie won an Oscar for costume design, so Powell’s interview is particularly interesting for followers of film fashion. Rounding off the set are some making-of featurettes and stills galleries, though these have been seen before.

DEATH ON THE NILE (1978) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: JOHN GUILLERMIN / SCREENPLAY: ANTHONY SCHAFFER / STARRING: PETER USTINOV, MIA FARROW, LOIS CHILES, DAVID NIVEN / RELEASE DATE: OCTOBER 23RD

The Evil Dead Trilogy is for many one of the greatest cult franchises of all time; it made Ash Williams (and Bruce Campbell) an instant icon and Sam Raimi a prolific film director. In 2015, Raimi boldly revived Ash Williams on the small screen, extending his adventures against the book that never seems to leave him alone: the Necronomicon. Now in its second series, Starburst took a look at the forthcoming Blu-ray release.

Ash Vs. Evil Dead picks up with Ash, along with his comrades in arms, Kelly (Dana DeLorenzo) and Pablo (Ray Santiago) living in Jacksonville, after striking a deal with Ruby (Lucy Lawless), the immortal writer of the Necronomicon, for a quiet life if she can unleash some demons. Unfortunately, said demons have turned on Ruby and now she needs Ash’s help to vanquish them. The trail takes them back to Elk Grove, Michigan, Ash’s hometown, where Ash catches up with his estranged father, Brock Williams (Lee Majors), and the other people he left behind, but the Deadites are waiting with ideas of their own for the Necronomicon.

What makes this series excellent is that it did all its character (re)establishing in the first series, allowing the second series to be a gleaming tribute to the Evil Dead Trilogy: the Michigan location, the appearance of Ted Raimi, the “evil force” travelling shots and several other key Evil Dead cameos (we won’t spoil the surprises) all blend with the development of the story, which feels like a natural successor to the series. We see Ash contemplate what his life has done to the people he left behind in Michigan, but this doesn’t stop him having to behead and disembowel any Deadite getting in the way, with Pablo and Kelly being developed strongly in their own rights to have their own problems running alongside Ash’s. All this coupled with a strong set of behind-the-scenes features and audio commentaries makes the second series of Ash Vs. Evil Dead the strongest continuation of the franchise so far.

ASH VS. EVIL DEAD (SEASON 2) / CERT: / DIRECTOR: VARIOUS / SCREENPLAY: VARIOUS / STARRING: BRUCE CAMPBELL, DANA DELORENZO, RAY SANTIAGO, LUCY LAWLESS / RELEASE DATE: 23RD OCTOBER

Superficially, It Comes At Night appears to be a fairly traditional, unexceptional, low budget character piece in which a group of edgy, ill-matched survivors of a global apocalypse struggle to stay alive in a hostile and unfamiliar world. But in truth there’s actually quite a bit more to it and, frustratingly, quite a bit less too.

We’re in a cold, brutal world ravaged by some unspecified disease. Travis (Harrison Jr.), teenage son of brittle survivors Paul (Edgerton) and Sarah (Ejogo) watches in numbed horror as his father puts his grandfather out of his disease-ridden misery, throws the body into a shallow grave and sets it alight. The next night their secure home, deep in isolated woodland, is breached by Will (Abbott) searching for supplies for his family, unaware that the house is occupied. Suspicion, paranoia and violence are never far away in this cruel new world but eventually Paul decides to trust Will and he invites him, his wife and young son into their sanctuary. For a while they seem to get along well, slipping into an affable, private routine. But soon the cracks begin to show when it seems that Will might not have been entirely open and honest and that there might just be something out there in the woods…

It Comes at Night is, as a title, a bit of a misnomer. It’s not really much of a spoiler to reveal that no, it doesn’t come at night – but then that might depend on what your perspective is on what ‘it’ actually might be. And this is a film that allows its audience to walk away with lots of questions unanswered. What, if anything, is in the woods? What really went on during the night that causes the group’s relationship to start to disintegrate? What happened to the family dog? What secrets do Will and his family hide and what’s the truth about their journey so far? This is a film which has no interest in answering many of the questions it sets which either makes it a sloppy, frustrating experience or a daring, atmospheric, relentlessly-grim apocalyptic drama which, perhaps, reflects reality in that we don’t always get all the answers and that some things are better left unknown and unsaid. What’s fairly certain, though, is that despite its juddering pace and narrative ambiguity, It Comes at Night is a disturbing look at human nature and it’s a film which will leave you pondering its meaning and, perhaps, its purpose, long after you walk away from it. It’s a moody, shadowy film powered by a glowering performance from the increasingly impressive Joel Edgerton (and with an excellent turn from Harrison Jr. as troubled son Travis) and with its emphasis firmly on character and story. The exact nature of the apocalypse is kept vague in this small, intimate story of a handful of jittery, nervous people doing all they can to survive in a grave new world riven by suspicion, fear and mistrust.

It Comes at Night won’t suit all tastes; in tone it’s not entirely dissimilar to 2015’s underrated Arnold Schwarzenegger zombie drama Maggie in that it’s a difficult, angular, uncomfortable film aiming for the art house audience rather than the multiplex masses. It Comes at Night demands that its audience’s work with it and the end result, whilst not always entirely satisfactory, is never less than compelling and highly watchable.

Special features: Director commentary / Human Nature – creating It Comes at Night feature

IT COMES AT NIGHT / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR & SCREENPLAY: TREY EDWARD SHULTS / STARRING: JOEL EDGERTON, CHRISTOPHER ABBOTT, CARMEN EJOGO, KELVIN HARRISON JR, RILEY KEOUGH / RELEASE DATE: 30TH OCTOBER

Having directed the Alastair Sim An Inspector Calls and Goldfinger earlier in his career, Guy Hamilton became the Bond director of choice in the early 1970s, before moving on to make two Agatha Christie adaptations – following the misfiring but under-rated 1978 sequel to The Guns of Navarone – early in the 1980s. 

The first of these was The Mirror Crack’d, in which Hamilton used his well-earned reputation to assemble an all-star cast as the film company who have descended upon the small village of St. Mary Mead in order to mount a production of the story of Elizabeth I. The mystery begins when local volunteer Heather Babcock (Maureen Bennett) dies after drinking a poisoned cocktail apparently intended for Marina Rudd, the star of the film. Thereafter – in the original at least, albeit a little less so here – layer after layer of suspicious behaviour is thrown into relief, before Miss Marple finally unveils the perpetrator by clarifying their motivation in committing the crime. 

There are a few changes to the Christie book (named for a line in Tennyson’s The Lady of Shalott), notably the period in which the film is set. Rather than the year of its publication, Hamilton takes the plot back almost a decade to 1953, presumably to exacerbate the contrast between the innocence of the English villagers and the crudeness of the American visitors. The Mirror Crack’d thus focuses much of its sometimes quite sophisticated – and occasionally rather too knowing – humour at satirising the mores of the then film industry, although this emphasis is perhaps at the expense of a truly satisfying narrative. Familiarity with the material and its heroine, a familiarity that was probably much less intense nearly forty years ago, makes it rather easier to second-guess the plot complications and their resolution than it really ought to be. 

And while The Mirror Crack’d was instrumental in creating Angela Lansbury’s reputation as a sleuth, especially in America, she’s a rather sturdier Marple than possibly we might expect, towering over several of her co-stars, and making the accident which side-lines her for much of the running time feel a touch contrived. 

The acting, however, is as you would expect nothing short of splendid. Right from the pre-titles’ film-within-a-film sequence, there’s a deliciously self-aware ambience about the film and its performances that only serves to highlight those moments – most notably from Elizabeth Taylor (as Rudd) and Rock Hudson (as her philandering husband) – where the pathos kicks in.

For the more hard-line Christie aficionados, Hamilton’s film is likely to be just a little too casual in its adaptation. For the less discriminating, it’s a blast. Not a classic by anyone’s estimation, but a polished, slick and compelling entertainment, and never looking better than in this gorgeous restoration.

Special Featues: new interviews with Dame Angela Lansbury, writer Barry Sandler and producer Richard Goodwin / stills / storyboard galleries

THE MIRROR CRACK’D (1980) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: GUY HAMILTON / SCREENPLAY: JONATHAN HALES, BARRY SANDLER / STARRING: ANGELA LANSBURY, ROCK HUDSON, ELIZABETH TAYLOR, TONY CURTIS, KIM NOVAK, GERALDINE CHAPLIN, EDWARD FOX / RELEASE DATE: 23RD OCTOBER

Guy Hamilton’s second and final Agatha Christie adaptation was, in effect, a sequel to John Guillermin’s Death on the Nile, the 1978 film that had introduced Peter Ustinov as the definitive big-screen Hercule Poirot. Expanding on the success of that sun-drenched, holiday-set thriller, Evil Under the Sun relocates from Christie’s beloved Devon to the Adriatic, allowing for some gorgeous photography (looking glorious in this lovely new restoration) in and around Majorca. Similarly, Hamilton’s film takes Christie’s now over-familiar plot and fills it with an array of Hollywood stars and renowned character actors, shifting the emphasis into the realms of the larger than life.

Sir Horace Blatt employs Poirot to seek out the expensive jewel he’d presented to the actress Arlena Stuart during their short-lived relationship, and which she had surreptitiously kept upon breaking off the affair. Poirot arrives at the exclusive island retreat of Daphne Castle, to find an assembled party almost all of whom have reasons for feeling rather less than hospitable towards the adultering diva. After a first half in which the characters are introduced and their motives for murder provided, Arlena turns up dead and it’s down to our eccentric Belgian sleuth to work out precisely how and why. 

Evil Under the Sun is no less self-aware than Hamilton’s previous Christie adaptation, but the script – co-written by The Wicker Man’s Anthony Shaffer – does this time keep its focus rather more closely on the characters and their motivations. If the resolution relies just a touch too much on the rest of the cast behaving exactly as the murderer needs them to at any given moment, it’s easy to willingly suspend disbelief given the journey we undertake in order to reach it. Ustinov gives a very different, but equally arresting, take on Poirot that makes him every bit as iconic as David Suchet’s subsequent TV version, and the rest of the cast are palpably and infectiously having an absolute ball with their parts. 

It would be impossible to single out anyone other than Ustinov as the star of the production, but Diana Rigg is very effective against type as the self-interested victim of the plot, while the likes of Colin Blakely, James Mason and Roddy McDowell manage to make a huge impression in what might have felt like lesser roles. Maggie Smith is perhaps the heart of the drama as Castle, instilling the story with enough pathos to make it something less than the arch star vehicle it could otherwise have seemed.

Perhaps less celebrated and well-remembered than the earlier Brabourne and Goodwin Christie adaptations beginning with Murder on the Orient Express in 1974, Evil Under the Sun is easily their equal and possibly even the best of them.

Special Features: new interviews with costume designer Anthony Powell, writer Barry Sandler and producer Richard Goodwin / behind the scenes and costume designs / stills galleries

EVIL UNDER THE SUN (1982) / CERT: PG / DIRECTOR: GUY HAMILTON / SCREENPLAY: ANTHONY SHAFFER, BARRY SANDLER (uncredited) / STARRING: PETER USTINOV, JANE BIRKIN, COLIN BLAKELY, NICHOLAS CLAY, JAMES MASON, RODDY McDOWELL, SYLVIA MILES, DENIS QUILLEY, DIANA RIGG, MAGGIE SMITH / RELEASE DATE: 23RD OCTOBER