Old Movie Time - "Evil Under The Sun" (1982)

I have just spent a deolightful 1 hour and 57 minutes watching this 1982 movie version of Agatha Christie's whodunit of the same title.  It had everything you would want in an Agatha Christie story....a murder of someone in a confined setting....a limited number of suspects, each of whom had a motive to kill the victim and each of whom had an alibi.  Unfortunately, for the killer, Christie's most famous sleuth, Hercule Poirot also happened to be on the scene.

And as far as a movie goes, it had Peter Ustinov, once again playing Poirot brilliantly, a beautiful  setting, an exclusive resort hotel on an island in the Adriatic Sea, gorgeous costumes, music by Cole Porter, and an all-star cast including James Mason, Roddy McDowell, Sylvia Miles, Jane Birkin, and best of all...Maggie Smith and Diana Rigg.

The movie is worth seeing just to watch Smith and Rigg chew up the scenery as two old stage rivals. Rigg's character made it big time, and Smith's is now forced to running the hotel on the island.  Their meeting once again on the island gives them both some wonderfully bitchy dialog such as this between Smith as Daphne and Rigg as Arlena:

Daphne:  Arlena and I were in the chorus of a show together, not that I could ever compete. Even in those days, she could always throw her legs up in the air higher than any of us... and wider. 

and this:

Arlena : Oh, dear! I'm the last to arrive. 

Daphne: Have a sausage. You must be starving having to wait all that time in your room.

As you can see, Maggie Smith was great at delivering bitchy wisecracks long before "Downton Abbey."

There is also a great scene where Rigg hogs the attention of guests by singing Porter's "You're the Top" while Smith tries to horn in on her.  

Speaking of dialog, the screenplay for this one was written by Anthony Shaffer, who also wrote the screenplay for Hitchcock's "Frenzy", which I wrote about in this space a few days ago.  A look at his credits in IMDB includes other goodies like "Sleuth", "Death On The Nile", and "Murder on the Orient Express."  Quite a resume.

"Evil Under the Sun" will go on nobody's list of all-time great movies, but it was beautiful to look at, fun to watch, and very entertaining.  What more would you want in a movie?

Some photos of Miss Smith and Miss Rigg from the movie....

See what I mean about the costumes?

Old Movie Review - "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" (1969)

 

When I did my Absent Friends tribute to Dianna Rigg last month, I made mention that while she was a Bond Girl, she did it in 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service", the Bond movie that starred George Lazenby, which probably made it the least viewed film in the entire Bond Franchise. This comment caused one of my movie maven pals, Bob Cassinelli, to comment that OHMSS gets a bad rap because Lazenby had the nerve to not be Sean Connery.  This was the first Bond movie made without Connery, and the Aussie Lazenby was relatively - completely? -  unknown to American audiences.  Bob told me that the the production values were high, Telly Savalas was great as the villain Blofeld, and that Rigg's performance was spectacular.  Also, in light of the fact that several actors have now played the role, Lazenby's performance deserves a second look and a re-evaluation.

George Lazenby

as

"Bond. James Bond"

I got around to getting hold of a DVD of the movie, watched it last night, and Bob was right on all counts.

The plot.....an evil villain has a plot that will destroy humans' ability to procreate....unless his demands are met, he will unleash it...Bond has to stop him...Bond falls in love....you pretty much get the idea.  In the end, though, who cares about PLOT in a James Bond movie?  The people are handsome and beautiful, the wardrobes are extravagant, the scenery is gorgeous.  There are explosions, fights, lovemaking, and chase scenes.  What more do you need?  There was even one perfectly meta moment, before anyone even know that "meta" would one day become a thing, when Bond/Lazenby looks into the camera and says "This never happened to the other guy."

Did I mention chase scenes?  The movie opens with a mini-chase between two cars that ends on a beach.  Throughout the rest of the movie we see a chase scene on skis going down the Alps (pretty spectacular), a chase on a stock car race track, a chase between two bobsleds, and, just because that wasn't enough, we get another chase scene on skis with an avalanche thrown into the mix.

As for Diana Rigg, she was indeed terrific in the role, and absolutely gorgeous.

Diana Rigg as Tracy

See what I mean?

As an aside, in some of the stuff I read after Rigg's death, some speculated that, in another era, Diana Rigg would have been absolutely perfect to be the first woman to play "James Bond."  Couldn't agree more.

She also pulls off what no other Bond Girl before or since ever managed to do.  She married James Bond......

Mr. and Mrs . James Bond

We all know that that didn't last, but why didn't it?  Well, even in a 51 year old movie, The Grandstander is not about to give any spoilers, but he will give "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" Three Stars.  Well worth tracking down and watching.

To Absent Friends - Diana Rigg

Diana Rigg

1938 - 2020

If you were a normal teenaged boy in America in the 1960's, you were well aware of   British actress Diana Rigg, who died yesterday at the age of 82.

Miss Rigg, of course, played the sexy and lethal British secret agent Emma Peel in the 1960's TV series "The Avengers", and like I said, what hormonally charged teenaged boy of that era didn't want to watch that show?  She went on to have a distinguished career in movies and the stage, primarily in Great Britain, but not exclusively.  She won a Broadway Tony Award in 1994.  What I didn't know until I read her obituaries is that she was an American television star once again as recently as the 2010's, starring in HBO's "Game of Thrones", and, in fact, had received multiple Emmy nominations for her role in that series.  (Sorry, but I'm not a G.O.T.  Guy.)

She also was a "Bond Girl" in 1969's "On Her Majesty's Secret Service."  That was the one where George Lazenby played 007, so it's probably the least-viewed movie of the Bond Franchise.  Certainly through no fault of Diana Rigg.

Her acting credits in IMDB begin in 1959 and end in 2020.  That's eight decades in which Diana Rigg was acting before her public.  That is one terrific run.

RIP Diana Rigg.