Agatha Christie's "Evil Under the Sun" (1981) Maggie Smith, Peter Ustinov, Diana Rigg & Roddy McDowall

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:43):
Hello, and welcome to Book Versus Movie, the podcast that
we read books that have been adapted into movies and
then we try to decide which we like better of
the book or the movie. I am Margot pf colonialbook
dot Com and this is my good runing co host
Margot d Or Brooklyn Pitchick. Hi, everyone, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Very excited.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
It is May, although you wouldn't know it from where
I'm sitting. It's very gloomy and kind of drizzly here
in southern California, but perfect for Mysteries in May. This
is our second annual Mysteries in May, and we look

(01:23):
full disclosure, we're busy ladies. That's the thing. We're busy,
busy ladies. This month and this time of year, things
are happening, things are popping off all over the place.
And so we made a little executive decision just before
we got on the air that this year for Mysteries
in May, we're going to be devoted entirely to the work.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Of the.

Speaker 1 (01:51):
Incomparable missus Agatha Christie, who we've talked about before, but
we're going to do all Christie adaptations and very excited
to do that. Today is one that I had never
read before, but i'd seen an adaptation of it before
i'd outvoid. Let's say I've never read the book, and

(02:11):
we've talked about Agatha Christie before. She's got a really
fascinating story. We won't go into all of it today,
since we're gonna be talking about her all month long.
We'll just talk about some of it today, probably stuff
that's relevant to this particular story. But if you are
brand new, we've got a brand new episode that we
try to crank out for you every single week. And yeah, sometimes,

(02:33):
like I say, we have sometimes we have times of
year that are busier than others, and so we can't
always sit down with a good four hundred page.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
A lot of our good ones, by the way, we
were doing our research, and there's some that we would
love to but it's just with our schedules, we wouldn't
be able to put on the show that we would
put on for you. It would be just so slap dash.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
So we want we want to have some fun this
month with miss Christie. And I never know whether to
call her miss or missus because Christy is her married name, right.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
Especially got remarried, right and then she got remarried.

Speaker 1 (03:09):
Yeah, and Christy the first the husband was not the
greatest guy, but we'll talk about that in a minute. Anyway,
So we have lots of room for the rest of
the year in our scheduling where we need suggestions for
books and movies that we can cover.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
And I say.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Books, but really we will discuss any movie adaptation from
you know, some kind of a literary source, whether that's
again fiction, nonfiction, magazine article, short story, novella, poem, a song,
a play, a musical, we will consider it. We just
did musicals in March recently, doesn't mean we can't do
another musical during the year. It just means that's when

(03:48):
we kind of focus on that. But if you have
suggestions of movie adaptations you would like us to cover,
If you'd like to meet other listeners of this podcast
or interact with us, there are several places where you
could do that on the internet.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
We do have a basic Facebook page, be sure to
like it. The episodes are posted there pretty much as
soon as we put the episodes out, but we're much
more interactive in our private Facebook group. So you type
in book vis movie podcast group and ask to join,
and we do just talk about books and movies. There
it's a nice safe space to hang out. I know
we managed to do that. We're on threads, Instagram and

(04:23):
blue Sky at book versus End movie and those places.
You spell it all out and then we have an
old timey email book versus Movie podcasts spelled it all
out at gmail dot com and send us your suggestions
and if you would like some stickers, give us your
address and one of us will drop them in the
mail for you.

Speaker 1 (04:41):
And if you really enjoy the show and would like
to help keep us in books and movies, you can
also support us on Patreon.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Patrin We've been doing the show for ten years now,
so everything from eight years and previous to that we're
putting on our Patreon wall. The old old episodes are free,
and all the clips we show today are for free
on Patreon, by the way, but for those of you
that do sign up, you get some really cool things
like we just put out The Postman Always Rings twice
that's now only on Patreon. Coming up, Raise the Red Lantern,

(05:09):
Mulan Joy Luck Club, They are all coming up because
for the AAPI month we did a couple of years ago.
So thank you to everybody that helps us there, It
just helps. Uh. Seriously, it's just the cost for the
show of just like the books and the movies and
the internet, that kind of thing.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Seriously, it's just it's just that. And you know, frankly,
as long as you're here, we're happy, exactly. We love
that you're here, We love that you tell people about
the show. It really means a lot. And we started
the show. We talk about this from time to time,
but the whole reason we started this show was that
ten years ago. Boy it was a different world, wasn't it.

(05:49):
And we were fitness bloggers. Do you remember that we
were fitness bloggers.

Speaker 2 (05:53):
That's how we met, and I.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Know, and we were both lamenting that we weren't more.
And you know, I got to say we fixed that problem.
And it took me quite a while going. You know,
it's only been let me think, maybe three or four

(06:18):
years maybe since COVID that I finally decided to like, oh,
maybe I should keep a running log of all the
books I read every year, which is kind of interesting
to see, as I reflected, because I don't know about you, Margot.
People often when they find out about the show, or
if they know about the show, I'm their go to

(06:38):
person for book recommendations. Yeah right, and people al was like, oh,
you know what have you? You must read a lot?
And I was like, oh, yeah, well, what's a great
book I can read? And so whenever they asked me
that and put me on the spot, I blank out.
So having my running list and I give everything a rating,
and all of this is to say one of my

(06:59):
favorite books that I read last year was by one
of my favorite historians ever, Lucy Worsley, and she wrote
an absolutely terrific biography of Agatha Christie. It's called Agatha
Christie An Elusive Woman, and the audiobook is excellent. I

(07:21):
have both the audiobook and the paperback because it is
such a fascinating life and an unlikely one for who
she who she was. And as I said, we will
just talk about, you know, some of the broad strokes here.
This is the first one of the month, but we
were not going to go into tremendous detail because we

(07:43):
have the luxury of coming back and revisiting some details
as the month rolls out.

Speaker 2 (07:48):
But let's let's hit the.

Speaker 1 (07:50):
Broad strokes of Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christy, a k a.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
Lady Malowan Nay Miller. Okay, sorry, I'm like my Wikipedia
is not oh here it is. It's on the other
side of my screen. She was born September fifteenth, eighteen
ninety in Devon, England. She lived to be eighty five.

(08:18):
She died in nineteen seventy six. Notable works are Murder
of the Audient Express, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Death
on the Nile. She's written over sixty six novels. She's
she her life is just so fascinating. She's one of
the first women to go surfing in Australia. She's somebody

(08:40):
who's traveled quite a bit. She had a very problematic
first marriage and she disappeared for a while, so that
was also part of her story. But she she came back.
She never really explained it. I'm sure Margot can tell
us from her book. She did want to know. She
was married to Archibald Christy and they divorced in nineteen

(09:02):
twenty eight. She married Max Mallowan in nineteen thirty. They
have a child, Roslyn Hicks. And she's one of the
most revered writers and most successful writers. And that's the
thing that I was looking at over here. It's fourteen
short stories, sixty six novels. She has sold more than
a billion copies in English and translations, and second only

(09:25):
to the Bible and Shakespeare. And this nineteen forty one
is when this book comes out, and this is a
very prolific time in her life, and she is just
it's just spectacular. And what did you think she? I
loved this story.

Speaker 1 (09:45):
And we should have mentioned also she was in addition
to all of that that you just rattled up, which
any one of those accomplishments, who wouldn't want that? She
was also a prolific playwright, and yes, the playwright of
the longest running play in world history, The mouse Trap,

(10:10):
the Mousetrap. And you know, she was supposed to have
been a nice upper class lady who got married and
raised some children and had servants and protect around in
her garden. But she had an extraordinary life. Her second
husband was very interested in archaeology, and she traveled with
him all over the.

Speaker 2 (10:31):
World and.

Speaker 1 (10:33):
Was brought all of her experiences into her work. And yeah,
I'd never read I had seen the television adaptation of
this story, but I had never read it until this week.
And it's interesting because we took them last year when

(10:55):
we did Mysteries in May, we talked about Death on
the Nile, which has some very similar elements and devices
to this particular story. I forget what the how many
years apart those two stories are, but bear in mind,
you know, Agatha Christie is a woman who, as we said,

(11:16):
like she was never broke right, you know, she was
never like she wasn't like darning socks and saving bacon
Greece or anything anything of the kind. But she's somebody
who grew up, you know, upper middle class, if not
downright wealthy at the end of the nineteenth century, at

(11:39):
the end of the Gilded Age. She lives through two
World Wars. She serves in the First World War and
that's where she serves as a in the pharmacists and
so that's where she kind of learns about poisons and
things like that. But she sees a massive development of

(12:01):
technology and the women's roles and yeah.

Speaker 3 (12:06):
Just.

Speaker 2 (12:09):
Geography.

Speaker 1 (12:11):
Really that what this woman experienced in what she really
packed it in to one lifetime is what I'm saying.
And this story, like I said, she it's there are
there are definitely a lot of like Christie devices at
work here. I'm not mad at it. You know, I'm

(12:32):
enjoying it. People just love her books. And what's interesting
to me about an Agatha Christie novel and is she
just cranked these out. She used to crank out a novel,
I mean, a mystery every single year. And she also
wrote non mystery novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.
And I recently started one of those, called Absent in

(12:54):
the Spring, which is very good. First of all, she
writes in a way that just grabs you. You know,
it's not hoity toity, it's she just somehow manages to
plunk you right into that world.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
And at this.

Speaker 1 (13:08):
Point she's sending it's a it's definitely a nostalgia piece.
She's taking advantage of the nostalgia for the jazz age.
She's not she wrote during the jazz age, but this,
this story takes place during that time, but it's for
a much you know, more mature or developed audience. Now, Uh,

(13:33):
we have our wonderful detective. She also created. She also
created some of the most popular characters in literature. Even
one of these would be quite the accomplishment. Eric Cuparo
and Miss Marple. Eric Cuparo, we've talked about a couple

(13:53):
of times we did. We did Death on the Nile
last year, as I said, and we also did Murder
on the Orient Express sometimes covered.

Speaker 2 (14:00):
It was a Christmas one that we did too for
the holidays. One year it was David Soouchet and it
was very popular, one of ours I love.

Speaker 1 (14:08):
Well, we'll talk about David Shane a minute. So one
of the great things about her work not just that
it's accessible, not just that it's fun and interesting. It's
got great dialogue, and it's fun to figure out the
mystery as you're going along. You cannot help yourself as
the reader, like looking for clues. But somehow her work,

(14:31):
even though you know what's going to happen, even though
you've read it, you could read it again. It's fun
to go back and read her works again and again
and again. Even though it's a mystery. You would think
it would be spoiled for you.

Speaker 2 (14:44):
You wouldn't. Why would you go back and read it again?

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Like I knew, I knew from the adaptation that I
had seen some time ago. I knew how the story
more or less played out, I knew who done it.

Speaker 2 (14:56):
But I really enjoyed this book. Nevertheless, my mother was
a huge fan of mysteries and had a complete collection
of Agatha Christie and had her very specific ones she
would lend to me. She like, you can't keep us.
Of course I did. I wound up keeping them, and
thank god I did. But she had the same thing
like and my dad would say to her, like you
already know as she had them on books on tape.

(15:18):
She had everything, and it was like she just fun.
They were fun. She just liked her jib, She liked
the cut of her jib. She like the way she
told a story.

Speaker 1 (15:26):
And also you learn a lot about human nature and
you know, the things that we all grapple with very often.
The characters are wealthy, so it's also fun in that regard.
You know, it's not just it's partially the escapism, but
also also poking fun and showing the emptiness of that

(15:50):
kind of existence. It's not all it's cracked up to
be one thing that I think, I don't know if
this is something that she have to think. It was
something that she kind of set as an intention, and
the family, you know, the people in charge of her estate,
have done a really good job of stewarding is that.

(16:11):
Whenever you see an adaptation of Agatha Christie's work, and
there are countless adaptations all over the world. She's globally famous.
They always whenever they adapt the original work, they always
change certain elements. So even if you've read the book

(16:34):
and you know it backwards and forwards, when you're watching
the adaptation, there's going to be new fun things, changing
characters around, or doing composites.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Combining characters, yes, yeah.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Combining characters a lot. For instance, I for this week,
I watch not just the Peter uston Of one that
we're going to be talking about, but I watched the
David Soouchet one.

Speaker 2 (16:59):
Is it on BritBox? Is that where you got it? Yeah,
it's on BritBox.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
It is delightful, by the way, although I kind of
like spoiler alert, I kind of like the Peter Ustenoff
one a little bit better. But in the David Toouche one,
for instance, the child character is a girl in the
book and a boy in the David Suchet version. And
you see stuff like this all the time, and how

(17:23):
the different premises for how why people are in the location.
They play around with that. So let's talk about let's
talk about evil under the Sun. First of all, it's
a very intriguing title. Yes, right, you can imagine seeing
it on the you're going to snatch that Agatha Christie
novel up off the bookseller's shelf, you sure are with

(17:46):
a title like Evil under the Sun.

Speaker 2 (17:48):
It comes out in June of nineteen forty one, which
is considering what's going to be happening in the world,
it's kind of wild. I mean, our our cool Poirot
is on vacation and he's in Devon, he's in the
English seaside, and he's he he's at a hotel and

(18:13):
he notices that it's a secluded hotel and there's some
very you know, exciting characters that are staying at this hotel.
And he's chatting up people. And there's a woman that's
named Arlena Marshall and she is a former actress and
she is she's flirting with a man named Patrick Redfern
and even though he's obviously they're both married to other people.

Speaker 3 (18:36):
M But.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
So there's a woman that runs the hotel. There's a
father and daughter and there and then Arlene is with them.
She's married to him, and she has a sixteen year
old stepdaughter. Stepdaughter. Yes, so that's not her daughter, it's
her stepdaughter. This is like his second marriage. He lost
his wife a couple of years before four. Then we

(19:01):
have Patrick and his wife, and his wife is somebody
who's who comes across is very mousey, and he comes
across is very dashing. He's irish and very bold in
his actions. And then we have what are the names,
I'm sorry of the other people.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
We have a couple of and these are not in
the series. Again, when we get to the film, there's
some there's some changes. But in the novel there's an
American couple, the Gardeners, Carrie and Odell, And in the
book they're just they're just tourists and Carrie, Carrie is

(19:42):
a busybody who talks and talks and talks and talks
and talks the whole thing throughout the novel.

Speaker 2 (19:50):
Whenever the Gardeners show up is Carrie.

Speaker 1 (19:52):
Goes bloby blob bloy bloah blah bah blah blah. I
was just saying, isn't that right? Odell her husband, and
he says yes, darling, And and he says yes, darling.
It's very very funny. They are very much the comic
relief of the story. We have a character who had

(20:13):
shown up I think in a previous Poiro's story named
Rosamond Darnley. Right, she's dressmaker and she's a dressmaker, right.
And Kenneth Marshall like they had a they had a
fling a while ago. They wear Sweethearts and they're in
the ute.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, there's Emily Brewster, she's a spinster that rose daily.
We have also some police chief. There are more police
people in this story than there are in the movie
a lot. Yeah, there's quite a few of them. And
then uh, and then so those are I think those
are like mostly with the missus Castle, she owns the

(20:55):
the hotel.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yes, and there is a reverend. There's a reverend who
like is We're not sure is he recovering from a
nervous breakdown. There's something not quite right.

Speaker 2 (21:11):
With the reverend. But it's a lot of people. We
have a lot of stuff going on, a lot of character.
There's a lot to keep track of. Yeah, and.

Speaker 1 (21:21):
So like in a lot of Christy works, there's a
lot of romance and secrets and clues being dropped all
over the place and maids overhearing things, you know.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
So Parro.

Speaker 3 (21:42):
Just like in.

Speaker 1 (21:44):
Death on the Nile Parro like he always he's like, oh,
I'm just here on vacation, which he's never just there
on vacation spoiler alerted, Like he's never ever, ever, he's
he's there to meet up with He's there to meet
up with a some I can't remember if it's Colonel
Weston or Inspector Colgate, but he's there to meet up

(22:07):
with a law enforcement officer who is seeking his advice
on a stolen jewel I think it was. And they
kind of settle that matter pretty early in the book,
and then we kind of don't think about it again.
There's a there's also so Arlena is the center of everything.

Speaker 2 (22:30):
Ar Lena this this.

Speaker 1 (22:33):
Yet recently retired movie star. She's very famous, she's very glamorous.
She in the book we learn that nobody really knows
the circumstances, but somehow, this much much older millionaire left
everything he owns to this movie star, and nobody knows

(22:56):
quite why they weren't married. So she's very wealthy and
her own right. Although her husband has her husband I
forget what number husband he is, mister Marshall and his daughter.
Mister Marshall is also quite well off and she's definitely
flirting with Patrick Redfern, and Patrick's wife accuses him in

(23:21):
front of everybody, accuses him of choosing this location for
their vacation because he knew that Arlena was going to
be there. So they've met before, and they've had a
where to believe that they've had a flirtation before, because
Arlena is not at all surprised to see Patrick Redfern there.
So all throughout the beginning of the book, Patrick and

(23:42):
Arlena are going off adventuring. They're frolicking on the beach,
they're going for a swim, they're in the paddle boats,
playing tennis, all of that. Meanwhile, his wife, Christine, who's
this again, frail, little mousey little thing like, oh, I
can't go out in the sun, Albert.

Speaker 2 (24:00):
Bird, and if I'm an Irish girl, I can't yeh. Yeah,
that's like her whole thing. I can't handle the eat,
I can't handle direct sunlight. So she's constantly putting extra
clothes on herself, she's you know, wrapping herself up, and
she's also just pretending that she's we'll find out, you know,
she goes along, but she's always saying that she's very frail.
And then also she and Poirot, she tells him that

(24:21):
she has vertigo, and that's so she can't go down
the cliffs. He can go down the clips, she can't
go down stairs. Very quickly. I have vertigo, so I
understand like what she's talking about. So she's trying to
just put paint herself as like, oh my god, I'm
the wounded bird. My husband just flirts with this gorgeous
forty somethingter x movie store stage star whatever she is

(24:41):
at this point, and everyone feels sorry for her, everyone does.

Speaker 1 (24:45):
And everyone feels sorry for missus Radfern and everyone, you know,
because she clearly loves her husband, and her husband is
acting a fool and chasing this movie star and knowing
that that's never going to go anywhere. So me and
while talking about so, piro is overhearing things, and and
other people are overhearing things. And among the things that

(25:06):
get overheard is supposedly that Christine overhears Arlene on the
phone with someone who appears to be blackmailing her, someone
who is demanding money of her, and she I forget
who she if, she tells poiro don't quite remember anyway,

(25:26):
So that's one of the things that happens. And then
one day Emily Brewster, who is the spinster, he's the
athletic spinster. So she's very sporty and she's there for
her health, and she likes all the outdoor activity at
this resort.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
And by the way, never does he never does. He's
over his way doors. He's in dooorsy. He likes food,
he likes he likes things the way he likes things,
and he likes the sweets and his things. And so
these two are like oil and water. They don't. Yeah. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:56):
So Emily Brewster is coming back from like a brisk
bicycle ride or something like that and is almost brained
by a flying glass bottle that just misses her and
shatters into a zillion pieces as she's walking back up
to the resort, and she immediately goes to mister Puaro

(26:18):
and says, like, somebody's trying to kill me, and they
hurl the bottle at me and tried to kill me.
And he's like, okay, I'll check it out. I guess,
you know, and so he just to humor her, he
goes and he finds, you know, picks up some pieces
of this broken bottle.

Speaker 2 (26:33):
And then.

Speaker 1 (26:35):
Patrick Redfern shows up and he's like, oh, has anybody
seen Missus? I mean Missus Marshall, who's the movie star.
Mayboy's seen Missus Marshall around And they're like nope, Nope,
nobody's seen her. And he's like, well, I guess I'll
just go for a little sale around the island. Then
Miss Brewster again, the spinster, Miss Brewster, you want to

(26:56):
come with me? And she's like yeah, okay. So they
go out on the water and Miss Brewster realizes like, oh,
he's looking for Arlena. He's not just out for like
a fun sale around the island for exercise. Like I
am like, oh great, got it now I got roped
into this. And so they go sailing around the island
and there they see Arlene sunbathing on the beach with

(27:17):
her hat over her face, as I have done countleen times.
That's how I lie on the beach's with my hat
on my face, right, And Patrick jumps out of the
little paddle boat and he runs over to Arlene, leaving
Emily Brewster back in the boat, and he's talking to
her and she's not moving and he lifts up the

(27:38):
hat and he says, oh, my gosh, she's dead. She's
been murdered, she's been strangled, and somebody has to get
the police. And he says to Emily, you know, you
stay here, I'll go get the police. She's like, I'm
not staying here with this dead body. Are you kidding me?
What if there's some maniacs still around? I'll go get
the police. You stay here. He's like, okay, fine, So

(27:58):
she goes and tells everybody, goes screaming back to the
to the resort and telling everybody, and they alert the police,
and the police come and they go and sure enough,
Arlene's lying there. She's strangled, and she appears to have
been strangled by somebody with big, powerful hands, big man hands, right,

(28:18):
And who could possibly have done it? Well, not Patrick Redfern,
that's the most logical suspect, because they were having a thing. Nope,
not him, because he had an alibi. He was with
Emily Brewster showing up on the boat. Everybody has an alibis,
as often happens in Agatha Christie. Everyone has some kind

(28:39):
of an alibi. Somebody saw them somewhere where they couldn't
possibly have committed the murder. Missus Redfern, who's the other
obvious suspect, because she's she would be jealous of her
husband flirting with this glamorous movie star.

Speaker 2 (28:53):
Her alibi is that at the time of the murder,
she was she was down on.

Speaker 1 (29:01):
The beach with Linda, Arlena's stepdaughter, with Linda, and she
was painting. She was doing watercolor. That's her thing that
she does, Christine, and she asked Linda at one point
what time it is. Linda says, oh, it's five minutes
to twelve, and Christine says, oh, no, I'm supposed to
meet the gang for tennis at noon. I've got to go,

(29:23):
And she leaves Linda there swimming and she runs up
to the hotel and then she shows up at noon
on the tennis court in her tennis whites, just like
she's supposed to write on time. She just makes it
so she has an alibi. Everybody has an alibi. Mister Marshall,
who is the other obvious suspect. Mister Marshall was typing

(29:45):
away at he was I can't remember what he was typing.
He was typing something. He's typing in his room and
type writers are loud, and so the maid has overheard
him typing and typing and typing, So that's his alibi,
is that he was busy in his room typing. And
the maid, when she's question also mentions that when she

(30:07):
heard mister Marshall typing, she also heard somebody taking a bath,
and it had struck her that that was an odd
time for somebody to take a bath in the middle
of the day like that, that was unusual. The gardeners
have their aliba. Everybody has an aliba, So now what,
But we've got a body, right, So Plio and the

(30:28):
police go and inspect the beach because there's footprints in
the sand, and they follow the footprints around. It appears
that Arlena was strangled inside a nearby cave, and they
look around the cave. They and Plio can smell her
perfume in there, so she definitely was in there. And
he sees footprints and he follows the footprints in the

(30:49):
cave and they stumble upon a box of heroin.

Speaker 2 (30:55):
There's a whole heroin subplot that's in the whole Heroines
the plot that's not I don't think they need it,
but myself, Oh.

Speaker 1 (31:02):
It's fine, Yeah, it's a lot, and it's partly to
confuse the reader right against it's because you're like, oh, okay,
heroin and the police are like, well, that's it. You know,
either she was on heroin or she stumbled upon whoever
you know was was hiding heroin here, like obviously this
is the heroin Heidi hole. And either she came in

(31:25):
to get some or she found somebody with theirs and
they they had to take her out. So then we
have a lot of fun of Puiro, you know, Ques,
We have the whole fun middle part of the book
where Paro questions everybody and they all give their version
of where they were and what they thought. Linda the
stepdaughter who hated Arlene also and everybody hates her like

(31:49):
a certainly all the women hate her, Yeah, everybody with
Patrick and her husband even isn't that crazy about her
because she's so terrible to him, And Linda really is
the way that Arlene has treated her father and just
ton't like her. And we learned that Linda, who's kind
of not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Let's say
she's not the brightest, she's a little mousey, she's a

(32:11):
little healthy, insecure.

Speaker 2 (32:14):
Let's say, yeah, yeah, yeah, I mean, she lost her mom,
her dad marries this jerk off who just treats soon yeah. Yeah,
And they kind of also put it in there because
she's in her adolescence and she's really upset. They kind
of make it like, well, she could just gone psycho
because she's an adolescent. You see, that's it's a teenage girl, right.

Speaker 1 (32:35):
We learn also though, that she had gone to the
mainland and gone to the library and checked out some
books about.

Speaker 2 (32:43):
Was it voodoo something like that, So she's she's dabbling
in the dark arts. She was looking for spells.

Speaker 1 (32:54):
Yeah, and she has convinced herself, because she's a teenage girl,
she's convinced herself that somehow her dabbling in the dark
arts has led to Arlena's demise, even though she herself
like never laid a hand on the woman and was
just reading some books.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
Come on, we're only possible, Linda. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (33:15):
No, Piro is not buying that for a moment, and
he reassures Linda. Paro has a soft spot for young people,
which I always really love in his books. He really
has like a he's just a big softy when it
comes to kids, and so he really reassures Linda like
that's cute, but you know, there's no way that you

(33:36):
possibly could have done this.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Cry.

Speaker 1 (33:38):
First of all, your hands are tiny, you know. Secondly,
like that's not what she died from. And so he's
very very sweet with her, and that's that's always fun.
And then the question questions the Americans, that's hilarious. She
talks and talks, doesn't let him say anything but yes, darling.
And eventually when Para at some point Puaro at some

(34:02):
point asks asks to him, he says that he says,
like it's too He says, it's too like as you
English say, slick, this crime like it's it's too slick.
I think, whoever did this, This is not like a
clumsy crime of passion. Somebody really really really planned this

(34:26):
and maybe they did it before. So I'm going to
look at other cases like this, other strangling cases that
are maybe unsolved, and just you know, to help me
kind of think about it, he says. So he orders
some other cases, other case files so he can study them.
And as he's trying to mull this all over and

(34:50):
so we're gonna spoil everything, by the way, so he
comes to the conclusion and this is this one's a little,
I feel like compared to some of the other Christie's.
But it's like I say, I'm not mad at it.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
It's fine.

Speaker 1 (35:06):
He comes to the conclusion that this crime where you
have a woman who was strangled, you have her husband
slash lover who has an alibi, and the discovery of
the body, like, there's some similarities between this case and

(35:29):
a case from some years before, the case of a
woman named Alice Corrigan. Now, in the case of Alice Corrigan,
she was found strangled in the woods by a teacher,
like a pe teacher who happened to be bicycling by
discovered the body goes screaming into the village. The police

(35:51):
come and the obvious suspect, of course, is Alice Corrigan's.
I think it's her fiance. But the fiance is on
a train at the time of the death, so he's exonerated.
And also he gets all of her money. She's like,
somehow I remember if she have a life insurance policy
or what. But somehow, out of the whole thing, the

(36:13):
fiance ends up with all of the money. And nobody
has ever caught or convicted for the strangulation of Alice Corgan.
So while he's looking through the case file in the book.
The way that he solves it is he's looking through
the case file and he sees a photo of the

(36:36):
fiance and a photo of the teacher who discovered the
body of Alice Corgan and realizes that they are in
fact Patrick and Christine Redfern, or so called Patrick and
Christine Redfern. So Christine is not a frail you know,

(36:57):
little twiggy, you know, uh, about to faint at any moment.
She is quite an athletic with a great deal of stamina,
pe teacher, so perfectly capable of raising herself all over
the island, certainly not afraid of heights.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
That was a ruse. And Patrick and Patrick we learn
that the.

Speaker 1 (37:27):
He has somehow, because he has he has an existing
relationship with Arlene, he somehow has swindled our Leane out
of that fortune that she got from the millionaire, the
much older millionaire. And that kind of blackmail sounding phone
call was basically, I don't remember if it was her

(37:51):
financial advisor. It wasn't a blackmail thing. It was somebody
calling to be like, what happened to all your money?
Where's your money?

Speaker 2 (37:59):
Uh?

Speaker 1 (37:59):
And that she'd been swindled out of it. So I remember,
like she was about to find out that Patrick had
swindled her out of all her money, or her husband
was about to find out. And so to hide the
fact that the money was gone, they kill they'd plot
to kill Arlane. And so here's how they did it. Christine, Christine,

(38:22):
whose alibi is that she was swimming with Linda. So
and Linda is, you know, as we've learned, a teenage girl, unreliable,
flighty and emotional. And while Christine, I mean, while Linda
the teenager is occupied like getting out of her her
clothes and her swimming costume and whatever. Christine turns her clock,

(38:44):
turns her wristwatch ahead twenty minutes.

Speaker 2 (38:48):
I think it was.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
So when she asks Linda what time it is to
establish her alibi, and Linda says, oh, it's five minutes
to twelve. It's not five minutes to twelve, it's twenty
five minutes to twelve. And then Linda goes into the water.
Christine doesn't join her because she's too frail. She can't
be out in the sun like that. So when Linda
goes out, Christine turns the clock the watch back to

(39:13):
the correct time. Races up the cliff because she's she's
a gazelle, you know. She she's very strong and athletic
and fast. Races up to her room and covers her
whole body from the neck down with makeup, with body
makeup to make it appear as though she is sun tanned.

(39:35):
And oh no, maybe she does that before she goes
to the beach. Anyway, so she puts she covers herself
with makeup. She's covered with suntan makeup, everything but her
hands in her face. And oh that's right, everything but
her hands in her face. But then when she runs
up to after she leaves Linda, she runs up because
she's got her body covered up, everything but her hands

(39:57):
in her face, as I said, And she races up
to the room and off doing the makeup on her hands,
leaves her face as is pasty, and to hide the evidence,
hurls the bottle of body makeup out of the window,
not realizing that missus Brewster, the athletic Spinster, was down

(40:18):
below and that she nearly hit her in the head
with his bottle.

Speaker 2 (40:23):
And Poiro when also Proro, I think.

Speaker 1 (40:27):
When he was inspecting the bottle, he found like the
label of the makeup or or found like the bottle
contains some kind of brown liquid. So she makes up
her body everything but her face, races down to the
beach where Arlena is. Arlena seeing Christine coming down to
the beach is like, ugh, you know this bee? And

(40:50):
so she goes to hide from her in the cave,
and Christine is calling her to intimidate her and to
get her to hide because she wants her to hide
it the cave. And I can't remember if she she
knocks her unconscious. I think she knocks with the rocky

(41:10):
or with the rock she knocks her unconscious, and then
she takes off her overclothes and she's wearing a bathing
suit and she's got body makeup on to look tan.
She grabs Arlena's hat or she has a duplicate hat
and lies on the beach with a hat on her
face and the makeup, and she you know, she's a
very athletic, well built lady. She's been hiding her figure

(41:33):
under the clothes the whole time, so nobody realizes, like
she's very well built, just like Arlena. And from a distance,
you would you know, same bathing suit, same hat, tan
body could be anybody so when Patrick runs out of
the boat, he when he peeks, picks up the hat.
It's Christine under there. He's hiding her non you know,

(41:55):
made up face, and he's you know, he's lying when
he says, oh, do you know she's d Meanwhile, she's
still very much alive. She's just unconscious in the cave.
And he sends miss Brewster, the athletic spinster, off in
the boat for help.

Speaker 2 (42:09):
And then he proceeds to go in.

Speaker 1 (42:11):
The cave and strangles life out of our lane, strangles
her and they swaps. He places Christine, gets her clothes
back on. She races back because she can run and
she's fast. She races back to her room, takes a
bath in the middle of the day to wash off
all of the naming up. That was the unusual bath,
and then she's back on the tennis court in her

(42:31):
tennis whites, just like she's supposed to be right on
time at noon.

Speaker 2 (42:35):
And that's how they did it.

Speaker 1 (42:37):
And they so we have the you know, and we
have the big climaxic scene like we always do Winneparo.
He gets everybody in the room and he talks about
how like you could have done it because of X
y Z, and he explains all the scenarios where all
the different people could have done it, and then lands
on the final one, which is the most obvious one.

(42:58):
Who was the most obvious suspect the red ferns, One
of the red ferns, but it turns out it's both
of the Red Ferds. So again very much like in
Death on the Nile, where you have a couple who
seem to be who seem to be at odds but
are actually thicke as thieves and they are plotting this

(43:18):
murder together. It's a little bit different scenario in Death
on the Noiw, but I mean a very similar device
where you have the mousey little woman that everybody feels
sorry for, but she's actually in cocoots with the cad
who is flirting with the glamorous lady who gets killed,
and the police are all there and the police drag

(43:39):
them off, and then there's also they also catch the
It turns out one of the other guests on the island,
mister Blatt, is the one who's running the heroin smuggling ring,
and they also capture him as well for the heroine.

Speaker 2 (43:54):
The end. Yeah, it's so fun. Cannot recommend did you
listen to the audiobook? Yes, I did listen to the audiobooks.
Oh good, it's David Soouche. Wonderful.

Speaker 1 (44:06):
He does all the voices. Delightful. Absolutely, Like if you
got a road trip this summer, get you those David
Suchet Agatha Christie audiobooks. You will be so entertained it
will fly by.

Speaker 2 (44:22):
Oh that sounds so good. So in two thousand and
one David Soouche does a version for and it's for
BritBox here. I don't know what it is of BBC
or what it was for there, but this is actually
in nineteen eighty two, we have a version. And there
were a few. There was a death on the Nile,
there was a the Oriented Express. There were a few
murder mysteries late seventies, early eighties here in the States.

(44:46):
So this one is directed by Guy Hamilton and as
the screenplays by Anthony Schaeffer, and they move the action
to the Mediterranean from devn So, yeah, which is fine.
I love the Mediterranean.

Speaker 3 (45:01):
I mean I.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
Always I'll always go check that out. And so they
bring back uh Peter Houston off so Parro.

Speaker 1 (45:10):
We should say, if you've never read a Poirot book,
or you've never I don't know where you are. But
if you've never seen David Suchet, if so, if you
one of the things I love about Poirot and Christy
and Miss Marple, actually both of these the hero and
heroine always of every of every book that they're in,

(45:30):
is that Christy always gives us wonderful, delicious little details
about what they look like and their mannerisms and their
little ticks and things that they have. They both they
both do. And Parro is a very specific like he's
not very tall. People always underestimate him. He's very fastidious

(45:52):
and fussy and indoorsy, as we said, and and because
of that, he's often the figure of fun. He's off
and he's often funny unintentionally. People are are often like
laughing by him and and yeah or yeah, amused by him,
but also sometimes just straight up like mocking him. And

(46:13):
if you've ever seen one of the David Suchet poiro adaptations,
like he is precisely to the mustache hair what Agatha
Christie describes in the book. But when we talked about

(46:33):
Murder on the Orient Express, we had Albert Finnie playing
the role and he's very good. He was very good,
but you know, he took it, took it a little
bit different direction, just a little he was I would say.
You know, Pio, as we mentioned, is a is a
bit of a gormond, you know, he's always got like
a little bit of a belly going on. But Albert

(46:57):
Finnie's Paro not you know, it was a little though
not quite there, but but it was very good. It
was still very good. But he didn't want to come
back as Parro. For the follow up Death on the Nile,
they they went with Peter Ustinoff, who again takes it
to his own direction. He's much funnier. He's definitely playing

(47:17):
for laughs. But I just love him. He's not the
textbook Proro. He's bigger, you know. For one thing, he's
just he's too big. He's got too much air. But
you know, he's not like a fastidious little penguin. He's
a he's a much bigger you know. He flirts a
bit more with people. Yes, yes, And I just love it.

(47:43):
I could watch it all day long. I think he's
absolutely delightful as this character, and he really just makes
the most of the whole wardrobe. I just love his
wardrobe in this one in particular, because of course, in
Death on the Nile they're on this boat the whole
time pretty much.

Speaker 2 (48:03):
But in this one we see him outdoors. You know,
his his various He designs the swim costume that we
show at the top of the segment. I mean, that's
his idea, all of it, and it's hilarious. Like he
just jogs a bit about in the water and then
runs back out and he's like, oh, yeah, I went swimming.
He's supposed to lose some weight and that's one of
the reasons why he's supposed to go there, and that's

(48:25):
why he's supposed to be swimming. But he's like, what
am I doing? No?

Speaker 1 (48:29):
Yeah, those like those like pantaloon things he was wearing
at one point, I mean, they're just it's just delightful.
He always has that little twinkle in his eye, and
underneath it all is a mastermind who is figuring it

(48:49):
out and putting all of the pieces together. So in
this uh, well, let's play the trailer trailer. Yeah, let's
play the trailer. Warning it's a little and again, if
you're watching this on YouTube, we don't know if they're
going to let you see it or not here, but
it's easy to find. Here we go, pavoc.

Speaker 4 (49:11):
Sant oh, I do not think that formal introductions are
necessary paro ercularo. There are those who have called me
the greatest detective of old time, a description with which

(49:33):
I find it difficult to park. But even a great
detective master times recharge the.

Speaker 5 (49:40):
Little gray cells. And I recently took my vacation on
an Adriatic island so remote as to be unknown even
to the gyeed.

Speaker 3 (49:50):
Miss I have come ahead, practice your sluicing games on
my guests. They've all got far too many skeletons in
their cupboards.

Speaker 5 (50:05):
Alina, it's my wife, that's all.

Speaker 2 (50:07):
It is true, till deaths do your heart.

Speaker 3 (50:11):
Even in those days, you could always throw her legs
out in the air, higher than any of them, and.

Speaker 6 (50:17):
Wider, Patrick, aren't you getting a little tired of rowing?

Speaker 3 (50:31):
I'm so sorry we late How Drick insisted of I'm
being right around the island just to figure the new
He's absolutely exhausted, not in the least of.

Speaker 2 (50:39):
Bras to be murdered. What the hell do we do now?
Oh dear, just leave it to me. Do you know
what's mostly in this place.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
What matter pity?

Speaker 6 (51:02):
Oh my, I'm the last to arrive.

Speaker 5 (51:06):
I'm sorry, Saharas, but it's my duty to put it
to you that you are furious, you lost your temper,
you strangled her.

Speaker 2 (51:14):
That is Bobby Cop.

Speaker 5 (51:15):
That is Bobby Cop. I wish you to consider very carefully,
a bathing, a bar, a bottle, a wristwatch, the diamond,
the noonday gun, the breath of the sea, and the
height of the cliff you get white?

Speaker 2 (51:31):
Can you tell her to tell him the truth?

Speaker 4 (51:38):
But with a cui hope? Mysteries never last very loud
you are skeptical, well, perhaps you would care to fit
your wits against mine?

Speaker 1 (51:53):
Bansharks, Miss Amy, Okay, I love that in over the

(52:21):
course of this three minute trailer he has devoured that
entire giant dessert, like enough to serve six people.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
How fun is that? I mean, so in this version
they they're leaning into more of her celebrity and her stardom. Yes, so, yeah,
we'll go into the characters here. So we have Peter
Eustonov obviously as erk Roll, Colin Blakeley as Sir Horace Blatt.
He's the person that hires him to look up stuff, Okay,

(52:51):
Jane Burkin is Christine Redfern, I mean, and it's if
you heard of the Birken Bag, It's based on Jane Burkin,
and we talked about her. We talked about blowout, when
we talked about Death on the Nile, Death on the Nile,
it's it's she, so she is and then her husband's
played by Nicholas Clay who unfortunately passed away very young

(53:12):
to cancer.

Speaker 6 (53:13):
Uh.

Speaker 2 (53:13):
Maggie Smith as Daphne Castle, who runs the joint. Roddy
McDowell is a character they brought in. So they took
away the sporty gym teacher and they bring in Rex Brewster.

Speaker 1 (53:27):
So Emily Brewster, the spinster, this athletic spinster. We have
Rex Brewster who is sort of like a sort of
a gossip columny kind of a guy. And he's working
on a tell all biography of our movie star Earlena.

Speaker 2 (53:43):
And he already got the advance for it, and so
he already wrote it and wrote it and printed it
and he just needs her to sign off on it.
And she's like, nah, I don't want to sign off
on it, and he's like, I've already spent the advance like,
I can't, you can't do this to me. Sylvia Miles
is Myra Gardner. I just love her. She's wonderful, she's amazing,

(54:03):
And James Mason is her husband Odell Gardner.

Speaker 1 (54:07):
Is James Mason supposed to be American in this or
is he I'm confused, I'm a little confused. Or is
he like a British guy who's lived in in the
United States for a long time.

Speaker 2 (54:16):
I'm not. I'm it's not that amazing, but always sounds
like James Mason to me, So I don't I don't know.
He's great. Oh yeah, Dennis Quilly as Kenneth Marshall. Diana
Rigg is Arlena, who is just so beautiful and so spectacular,
Emily Hone as Linda Marshall, and then Richard Wood She's

(54:38):
really good, yeah, and then Richard Vernon as Fluet of
the Young the London Trojan Telegraph Insurance Company. Yes, so
it opens with, oh, sorry, a female hiker is found
dead and it's a couple that found there are two
different people found her and and hercules there for another reason.

(55:02):
But they ask him what do you think about what's
going on here? And I think he says that she
looks like she's been strangled. And they're also talking about
a jewel that possibly like that that's what he wants
to ensure for a certain amount of money, and he's like,
now that's a knockoff, that's not it. And then he
goes on his vacation. He goes to the hotel and

(55:25):
Daphney is Daphne Castle is our Maggie Smith. She runs
the hotel with the red hair and the perm that's favor.

Speaker 1 (55:34):
And she's such a different character than what she played
and Death on the Now, which again, like I could
I just want a mini series of Maggie Smith and
Betty Davis's character is from Death on the Nile, just
the two of them like traveling the world being awful
to each other. The Maggie Smith's character is a what

(55:56):
do they call that? It smoshed together of Darnley, the
dressmaker in the book, and also the woman who owns
the hotel, Miss Castle.

Speaker 2 (56:05):
And also.

Speaker 1 (56:08):
Miss Castle we learn knows Arlena that they both were
acting actresses starting out in the Salad Days together, but
Arlena of course become a big star and Daphne ended
up owning this hotel and struggling to make ends meet.

Speaker 2 (56:27):
Right, And so all these people are showing up for
this vacation and they all know who Arlena is. And
then we have Myra and her husband Odell. They have
a script because they think that if she agreed or
she did agree to the script.

Speaker 1 (56:42):
Or they had a show that she was in a
Broadway show and she pulled out of it and broke
her contract and they lost their shirts. And so they
are hoping to entice her to do another production so
that they can get their money back and so and
otherwise they have a motive, which where the ones in

(57:03):
the in the book before in the in the book
don't really have a motive.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
The Gardener's uh.

Speaker 1 (57:09):
They're just again more or less sort of comic relief
and they could have done it, but they don't like
the reason here they do they have a they have
a motive for or at the great least maybe losing
their patients with her.

Speaker 2 (57:22):
To the point of strangling her. But yeah, so that's
their deal with her.

Speaker 1 (57:29):
And then of course we have her husband and and
stepdaughter who she's very terrible.

Speaker 2 (57:35):
We see her being just dreadful.

Speaker 1 (57:37):
Awful to them in the book. In the book, ar
Lena the movie star is not as terrible as Diana
Rigg is making her in this movie. You kind of
feel sorry for Arlena in the book because she's what

(58:00):
is she doing with Patrick? Like? Why is she messing
with this guy? And we learned that he has swindled
her out of all of her money. You know, we
just kind of think she's not good at picking men,
like she's not good like relationships is her weak point.
Whereas here she is deliberately dreadful to everyone, and she's

(58:23):
very much taking advantage of her position of being famous
and being beautiful and glamorous. And she, you know, when
they're all down at dinner, she shows up last, you know,
looking just dressed way more than everybody else, like, oh sorry,
I'm late, you know, because she's has to make an
entrance everywhere she goes.

Speaker 2 (58:43):
Should we play that? Really dreadful? What can we play
that clip? It's a cateness and cocktails? Because I love this.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
Yeah, this shows it's just so much fun with just
the two of them. I mean, it's just so we've
got our Diana Rigg Maggie Smith. What's better than that?

Speaker 3 (59:00):
Us?

Speaker 2 (59:00):
Nothing you enjoying that? How about a cocktails?

Speaker 6 (59:13):
Your Bara White Lady?

Speaker 3 (59:15):
A side car name race or between she if I could.

Speaker 4 (59:18):
Have a claim to Cassish, she would have banana syrup.

Speaker 3 (59:25):
Certainly.

Speaker 2 (59:27):
Oh my, I'm the last to arrive.

Speaker 6 (59:32):
Have a sausage deer.

Speaker 2 (59:35):
Or must be famished having to wait all that time
in your room?

Speaker 6 (59:39):
Have you have you wet breasons? Christine and Patrick?

Speaker 2 (59:44):
I lady lead?

Speaker 6 (59:45):
Yeah, my favorite leading lady. Why if it isn't O'Dell
and Mayrah?

Speaker 2 (59:52):
What on earth are you two doing here?

Speaker 5 (59:55):
Arline?

Speaker 2 (59:55):
We have a fabulous share for you. Oh it's a
real humdinger, honey, and O'Dell insisted that we both come
over here together to see you personally.

Speaker 6 (01:00:05):
Well, it's very sweet a few, but I'm sort of retired.

Speaker 1 (01:00:08):
You know.

Speaker 2 (01:00:09):
This is my new audience.

Speaker 6 (01:00:12):
Have you met my husband?

Speaker 1 (01:00:13):
How do you do it?

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
How do you do to change your mind?

Speaker 5 (01:00:15):
You won't be able to resist this one. Kaila is
mad to do it.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
But we're holding her off until you have a.

Speaker 6 (01:00:20):
Chance to look at it and can he's done some
of the press.

Speaker 5 (01:00:23):
Music, Darling.

Speaker 2 (01:00:25):
It's inpritensational to see you again. Hello, how do you do?

Speaker 6 (01:00:29):
Excuse me?

Speaker 2 (01:00:30):
I must talk to you not Rex cool? Thank you?

Speaker 3 (01:00:37):
Cheers.

Speaker 2 (01:00:44):
I think it tells you everything.

Speaker 1 (01:00:46):
It's wonderful. I just I love that scene we have.
The music is all cool, cold corner order music, but
I love the way it's very it's not hitting you
over the head like this is the Child the Age.
It's it's very nice and subtle and always just kind
of in the background and setting the tone. The costumes

(01:01:08):
are spectacular everybody. I mean, I love the Gardener's various
costumes that they have. And you know, Myra's so like ghost,
very loud American, and I was supposed.

Speaker 2 (01:01:24):
To be Carol Channing.

Speaker 1 (01:01:26):
Oh really yeah, oh interesting, I can see that she yes, okay, yeah.
Sylvia Miles though, is doing a lay.

Speaker 2 (01:01:38):
Miles too and.

Speaker 1 (01:01:40):
Setting it in the Adriatic is terrific. I think it
works really super well, no reason not to you. Again,
it's a very christy thing to have everybody isolated on
a train on a boat, this time on an island,
and having the device which is not in the book.
I don't think of the the gun right right, going

(01:02:04):
off at precisely you every single time.

Speaker 2 (01:02:07):
Linda, Linda has to wear her swim cap. When she
wears her swim cap in the water, she can't hear,
so there's a gun that goes off at noon every day.
That's or it's a cannon that goes off every day
at noon, and so that's where we keep our time
for that. But yeah, so everybody knows when it's noon,
everybody exactly, so that but uh, yeah, it's so funny

(01:02:30):
to be and also like once again, you know, Jane
Berkin is like so classy and so beautiful and so
stylish and chic, and even when they're trying to make
her look slumpy with all that stuff, I still kind
of good luck, I mean, because she's still Jane Berkham.
I mean, it's just but yes, it's the you.

Speaker 1 (01:02:53):
See Diana Rigg is swaning around and Maggie Smith like,
I'm sorry, but you did notice that's Jeb right, She's
no slouch.

Speaker 2 (01:03:05):
Yeah, but but it's it's really well done. It's beautiful,
it's it's uh the locations are great. The only thing
I would discover, I mean, I think, did she switch
her bathing suit with uh? It's like that seems a

(01:03:28):
great I was so much money? Are they getting this murder?

Speaker 1 (01:03:32):
She's not swapping her swimsuit with a corpse in the book,
and in fact, not even the hat and the book
it's a duplicate hat. It's a hat that they just
it is just kind of around, you know, that they
have for people. And yeah, I also thought that was
a little bit icky. And instead of instead of a

(01:03:52):
heroine smuggling ring, it's it's jewels and so and he's
not swindled her.

Speaker 2 (01:03:59):
She did.

Speaker 1 (01:03:59):
We don't have story about ar Lena having or the
fortune of her own from the millionaire guy and a
dubious what's it? She has this jewel that that's that's
what he's taking is it's about the jewel, this giant,
giant diamond, which is a little different than him swindling
her kind of over time and about to be discovered,

(01:04:21):
and that's why they kill her. So I like that
a little better. Actually, I think it's more plausible in
the in the book, But uh, how could you not
enjoy Diana Rigg and Roddy McDowell and I love and
I love having it be I love Roddy McDowell, and I.

Speaker 2 (01:04:40):
Like the choice.

Speaker 1 (01:04:41):
Again, the choices are a little bit different in the
in the book than in the film.

Speaker 2 (01:04:47):
Like Brewster.

Speaker 1 (01:04:48):
Brewster also does like the gardeners in the book, she
doesn't really have a motive.

Speaker 2 (01:04:52):
She's just she's there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:53):
She's another guest that's there to kind of help us
understand what goes on at this kind of spa where
they are. And the gardeners have no motive. So I
like that in the movie, our Brewster character has a motive,
the gardeners have a motive. Everybody has a motive, and
that makes it very fun and and and moves it along,

(01:05:16):
and I love that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
I really like the girl. Linda is much better in
the in the film story than she is in the
in the original novel. She's she has a lot more agency,
she's smart, she's a smart kid.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
Yeah, I think I think she's a good show. I
really like the way that they wrote her. I even
like her. I would to say that character over the
version and the David Souchet one of the in the
in that one, they make it a boy. His name
is Lionel, not Linda, and and he's very good. But
I think the way that they wrote Linda in this

(01:05:52):
version I like the most, I think, and out of
all the versions, I think that I think hers is
and she's very good, and I like her.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
I don't I just really believe her. I really believe her.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
Take on the relationship between Arlena and her father. I
really believe like she's she feels like when Christine invites
her to the beach, She's going to go swimming, Christine's
going to be water coloring, and she's she's excited that

(01:06:23):
somebody took a notice of her and included her and
invited her to do something fun. You know that she
wants to do so, Like, I really like the way
that that character was written, and yeah, it's not necessary
to have it be there's more characters in the book
than in this film. You know, in the book there's
a maid who hears the bath being drawn. I like

(01:06:46):
the device of we have the gardeners who now again
have a motive. And mister Gardner mentions that at one
point he goes to turn on the tap and there's
no water. Why is somebody taking a bath in the
middle of the day or why, you know, why isn't
the water running? Where's the staff? And we learned that
you know, it's because Christine is washing off the makeup.
But I think the choices are are really for the

(01:07:09):
most part, I think they're really good and it's a
very entertaining movie. Like of course you want to go
see this in the summertime. It's a perfect summer movie.
It's Ed Peter ustonoff what else, I mean, what else?
It's perfect, It's great, It's really really fun and highly
recommend and I really enjoyed watching this version and the

(01:07:31):
Souchet version back to back. It's totally different premises, different
locations because in the Souchet one they are still in Britain.
Oh okay, and and then the Souchet one he's been
sent to this resort by his doctor to lose weight.
He's been diagnosed with obesity. I know he thinks the

(01:07:56):
suits are shrinking.

Speaker 2 (01:07:58):
There's also a great scene in the in the that
is funny. It used to it off and the and
the the other version, the eighty two version, where at
the very end, Jane Burkin comes out and she's real
Jane Burkin, like they yeah, and she's just so glamorous,
and then it's really pretty. Yeah, they're also so pretty.

Speaker 1 (01:08:19):
The costumes, like yeah, especially for her character that the
it's very look it's Shane Burkin.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
How do you hide?

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
I mean it's like Nicole Kidman looking Mountsey and I mean, okay,
but they do it I mean considering, Yeah, it did
a pretty good job. Yeah, it's I buy it. I
think everyone, I think everyone is doing a good job. Yeah,
I really really enjoyed it. Did I enjoy it as
much as Death on the Nile?

Speaker 2 (01:08:47):
I did not, No, And it doesn't do it morecast
it didn't do as well, so they didn't do them
for a few years. I mean, this happens with Agatha
Christie movies. You know, they kind of like pop up
every once in a while, and then you get a
bunch of them because you need like a group of
actors that all have charisma, and I could also like
play characters that could be guilty and then not guilty,

(01:09:08):
And there's always costuming, and yeah, you want to keep
the mystery going. I mean it's it's a lot of
work to make it work. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:17):
Yeah, And I felt like, I don't know, I felt
like they didn't spend as much on this as they
did on the Dial. Maybe because the Nile looks expensive.

Speaker 2 (01:09:28):
The Nile, I mean, they're they're really there.

Speaker 1 (01:09:30):
You could tell like they're really there, They're really there,
and anyway, but I but I still I still really
enjoyed it, and I enjoy and again the book is
not like her greatest, most groundbreaking mystery, Piro Mystery, but
it's still a lot of fun, a great deal of fun.

(01:09:51):
And yeah, I I but Booker movie, which did you
Which do you think you like better?

Speaker 2 (01:09:59):
I have to say the movie because I liked seeing
it all brought to life.

Speaker 1 (01:10:03):
I mean, I think so too, because again, it's not
it's not her, it's not her most groundbreaking book, and
she's using stuff devices that we've seen before, so what
makes it Although again it's still very good, it's still
super good. But you're right, I think the I think

(01:10:24):
the film takes takes tickets, takes it into some fun
directions and and it's a good one to use for
a Peter Ustinov Parro, you know, like a like I
I can't stress enough. Not my favorite Kenneth brand Sparrow
in this in this story, I don't see it, Albert Finnie,

(01:10:49):
I don't really see it. And and the David Suchet
one really works very well. But they they've done some
things to make it work really well that aren't necessarily
in the book either. So so yeah, I am also
going to give it to the film. I think I
think a lot of the The production is really smart.
I like the locations, the music, the costumes, lighting is

(01:11:11):
really good.

Speaker 2 (01:11:14):
Diana Rigg is just Diana Rigg for me, is like
that sends it over the edge.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
I think she's just I like that choice to make her,
to make her just heartless, which she's not completely heartless
in the book. She's just dumb. She's just making bad choices.
She's flattered that this young man is is after her,
and she's just you know, uh, she's playing it up
for the attention. Its opposed to just dangling, you know,

(01:11:41):
playing with him because she can, which is what Diana
Riggs or Lena is doing. But it's fun to see
in a movie.

Speaker 2 (01:11:47):
Yes it is.

Speaker 1 (01:11:48):
I like it so that that's our that's our evil
under the sun. Which one are we going to do next?

Speaker 2 (01:11:58):
You told us you were telling me off the air.
Is it Death on the Nile or was it Oh, let's.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
I was going to say, let's do Death on the Nile.
We'll do the Kenneth Bronog one because it's a it's a.

Speaker 2 (01:12:12):
Recent one.

Speaker 1 (01:12:13):
I think the most recent one is the Venice one, right,
but Death on the Nile is the is the second
one I think of his quiro.

Speaker 2 (01:12:22):
I've never seen it, and I love Death on the Nile.
I love that book.

Speaker 1 (01:12:27):
I loved the movie that we saw last year, and
we just recently discussed it. So we all of us
who've been following around. Have you've been following along with us,
then you also have seen it or read it recently
as well, and so yeah, let's do let's do Death
on the Nile.

Speaker 2 (01:12:44):
But the newest one excellent. So please send us your
suggestions for for books and movies to cover all those
places I mentioned at the top of the show. Our
email once again is book versus Movie Podcasts spelled it
ale out at gmail dot com. If you'd like some
stick send us your address will drop them in the
mail for you and Margo. Where can they find you?

Speaker 1 (01:13:05):
You can find me online at coloniabook dot com and
all my social media call outs are at Cheese not
your Mama and where can they find you?

Speaker 2 (01:13:12):
Or you said that all right?

Speaker 1 (01:13:13):
Did you?

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
No? I?

Speaker 6 (01:13:14):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:13:14):
I didn't you did? Okay? Brooklynfitchick dot com. That's my website.
I am at Brooklyn Fitchick for Threads and Instagram. I'm
at Brooklyn Margo for Blue Sky and four oh I
forget the other one, and my YouTube is at my
name's threads maybe Margo Brooklyn, Margo TikTok. No, it's at
the TikTok Thank you, and uh, I'm at my name

(01:13:35):
Margo Donna Hue on YouTube. So everybody, thank you so
much for listening. We're going to play one more clip
for you, and it's Peter ustonof you know, deducing what
happens in this story. We'll see you next week with
death and the Nile.

Speaker 5 (01:13:50):
You land down onto the beach.

Speaker 4 (01:13:52):
But Madame Atlena, where are you?

Speaker 2 (01:14:00):
I know you're here. I wanted to dub you. You
will you in a minute. Well, what is it?

Speaker 5 (01:14:21):
Look here, puaro, haven't we all heard just about enough
of this planning.

Speaker 6 (01:14:24):
Helena was not murdered with a blunt instrument.

Speaker 3 (01:14:26):
She was strangled.

Speaker 6 (01:14:28):
And if you would care to bend those beady Belgian
eyes of yours on Christine's hands, you'll see that they're
too small to have strangled anyone yeshratically.

Speaker 4 (01:14:36):
In fact, that was a major stumbling block to my theory.

Speaker 6 (01:14:39):
That right, this Noxier theory out of court, monsieur, oh
doubt please.

Speaker 3 (01:14:44):
You weren't even there and I was remember I saw
her line there strangled.

Speaker 6 (01:14:50):
Christine couldn't have done it.

Speaker 4 (01:14:52):
Oh, I'm absolutely of your opinion, madam.

Speaker 5 (01:14:54):
In fact, she did not do it. The murder was
committed by her husband, Patrick Red. Oh now you.

Speaker 6 (01:15:03):
Really are talking out on the top of your hat.

Speaker 1 (01:15:05):
Oh, for God's sakes, Patrick couldn't have.

Speaker 2 (01:15:08):
Done it anymore than his Why don't forget I was
with him the whole.

Speaker 1 (01:15:11):
Time between eleven thirty and twelve when we came into
the bay and saw.

Speaker 2 (01:15:15):
Her lying there.

Speaker 5 (01:15:16):
That is the whole point, madam.

Speaker 4 (01:15:19):
One moderately well made young woman is very much like another.
Two brown houms, two brown legs, and a little piece
of bathing.

Speaker 6 (01:15:27):
Shoot in between.

Speaker 2 (01:15:33):
Thank you so much for listening to the Book Versus
Movie podcast. We're a part of the Speaker podcast network.
Go to spreaker dot com to check out all of
the shows they offer. We asked you make sure to
subscribe to our podcast, Book vs. Movie and your podcast
app so that way you'll never miss an episode. If
you want to interact with the Margos, the best place

(01:15:55):
to do that is in our private Facebook group. Go
to Facebook and type in Book vs. Movie Podcast group
and asked to join on social media. You can find
us on Instagram and threads. You spell out book versus
and movie. Our email is book versus Movie Podcasts. Spelled
it all out at gmail dot com. This is Margo D.

(01:16:16):
And you can find me at my blog Brooklynfitchick dot com.
And I'm at Brooklynfitchick for threads and Instagram, and on TikTok,
I'm at Brooklyn Margo. I'm also at Brooklyn Margo for
Blue Sky Margo P. You can find her on all
social media at She's Natcho Mama. We really appreciate the

(01:16:36):
listen and if you have ideas for us, we not
only cover books, but also short stories, magazine articles, plays, songs, poems,
be creative. If it's been adapted into a movie, we
may just cover

All Episodes

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

.css-15opob5{left:0;position:absolute;top:0.8rem;} All Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Agatha Christie's "Evil Under the Sun" (1981) Maggie Smith, Peter Ustinov, Diana Rigg & Roddy McDowall

Episode Transcript

Popular Podcasts

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal

On Purpose with Jay Shetty

Dateline NBC

All Episodes

Agatha Christie's "Evil Under the Sun" (1981) Maggie Smith, Peter Ustinov, Diana Rigg & Roddy McDowall

NFL Daily with Gregg Rosenthal