The Cozy Mystery List Blog

Cozy Mystery (and Other Favorite) Books, Movies, and TV

“Evil Under the Sun” – Poirot Comes to Life in Peter Ustinov’s 1982 Portrayal

Agatha Christie Mysteries Collection [DVD] A while back I wrote about the series of shows starring David Suchet as Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot. I said then that all of the actors in those shows portraying Christie’s characters “‘became’ the characters they portrayed….” I still believe that Suchet’s portrayal of the little Belgian detective (who was Agatha Christie’s most popular detective) is definitive, and I might say the “last word.”

However, I  recently watched the 1982 version of  Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun in which Peter Ustinov played Poirot, and I must say I thoroughly enjoyed the acting and the movie – I was quite pleasantly surprised. I guess I was especially surprised because I remembered having seen Ustinov’s Poirot in other movies (he played Poirot a total of six times between 1978 and 1986) and, although I remember enjoying the movies, I didn’t remember his Poirot as completely hitting the mark. Now I think he does a perfect job. Ustinov is able to give Hercule a certain (dare I say it!) normalcy of sorts, and also plays Hercule with a twinkle in his eye. I truly enjoyed him in this movie.

Maybe it was something about this production – Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun – that caused me to see Ustinov’s Poirot in a different and better light. The story takes place in a fictional island off the coast of Albania.  The movie is set in a beautiful location (it was actually filmed on location in Spain’s Majorca) and has a high quality cast – Maggie Smith, James Mason, Roddy McDowall and Diana Rigg (among others) each performing splendidly in the idyllic setting of a hotel/villa overlooking the sea.

The film is filled with gorgeous costumes – beautiful colors surround the wonderful acting by this veteran cast.  It just leaps off the screen that the actors were having a good time together. To cap it all off, the use of Cole Porter songs as (mostly) background music was a brilliant stroke. The setting, the cast, the costumes, the music, the period, and of course Agatha Christie’s classic story beautifully told make for a great couple of hours of movie watching.

P.S. Agatha Christie’s Evil Under the Sun is available on Netflix.

2014 Nero Award Finalists

For those of you who have visited the Cozy Mystery site’s Mystery Book Awards page, you will know that the Nero Awards are given out each year by The Wolfe Pack. This is a group of people who are fans of all of Rex Stout’s Nero Wolfe works. They have their Black Orchid Banquet each December, which is when they announce the winner of the Nero Award.  In 2008 they started the giving out their Black Orchid Novella Awards, and the chair for that award is Jane K. Cleland!

2014 Nero Award Finalists:

Ask Not by Max Allan Collins

Three Can Keep a Secret by Archer Mayor

Murder as a Fine Art by Charles Morrell

A Study in Revenge by Kieran Sheilds

A Question of Honor by Charles Todd

Congratulations to ALL!

Also, the Ninth Annual Black Orchid Novella Award Contest is currently looking for great novellas to be submitted. Here is the information about the contest that I received:

The Wolfe Pack & Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine (AHMM) proudly announce the Ninth Annual Black Orchid Novella Award Contest, to celebrate the novella format popularized by Rex Stout.

Each entry must be an original unpublished work of fiction that conforms to the tradition of the Nero Wolfe series, and:

Contains no overt sex or violence

Emphasizes the deductive skills of the sleuth

Does not include characters from the original series

First prize: $1,000 and publication in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine*

Contest Entries must be 15,000 to 20,000 words in length, and must be postmarked by May 31, 2015. The winner will be announced at The Wolfe Pack’s Annual Black Orchid Banquet in New York City, Saturday, December 5, 2015. To enter, please read the official rules and procedures to submit your novella:

Literary Awards: Black Orchid Award

Good luck to ALL who submit a novella!

It Looks Like We Know When Enough is Enough!

loveFirst of all, let me tell you ALL how much I have enjoyed reading all of your comments to the last entry posted! Donna, you certainly had a great idea! (When Is Too Much Romance Not a Good Thing?) Usually, I try to answer all of your comments (other than the monthly recommendations entry), but this particular entry seemed to just take off. So I’m going to address the general impressions I got from your comments:

I just re-read all of your comments, and it looks like the majority of us don’t mind a little romance, but we don’t want it to become a major component in our Cozy Mysteries. We don’t mind it, but it’s not a definite requirement. Most of us agree there is a definite difference between a Cozy Mystery and a Romance novel with a little mystery in it. We are reading Cozy Mysteries because they are, indeed, mysteries!

Several of the comments reflect that one of the reasons we like the Cozy Mystery genre is because of the fleshing-out of the characters and their relationships with other characters, whether they are romantic interests, or not. We want our characters to interact with each other; to be like the type of people we know in “real life”.  (After all, not all of the people we know “in real life” have significant others.)

I love that some of you were able to cite some really iconic sleuths who have loving, committed relationships. Those of us who are Ngaio Marsh fans can remember how smitten Roderick Alleyn was with Agatha Troy; however none of us was privy to their “romantic” life. It wasn’t a subject which took up a lot of the books. Same goes for Dorothy L. Sayers’ Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane. We see the same thing with Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence. The authors focused on the mysteries, not the couples’ courtships and/or marriages. The authors’ abilities to write good mystery novels with engaging mysteries is what keeps us coming back for more.

P.S. As an aside to love triangles, which were brought up a few times:  It looks like a lot of us agree that you should be able to decide on one suitor. It’s realistic that you would have a few doubts, and that it might take you a little time to find the person who is right for you, though here’s a thought >>> If you can’t decide between two potential love interests, then neither of them is probably right for you! (Maybe I’m just jealous, though. I don’t remember any time in my life where I had two men who desperately wanted to be with me, and who didn’t mind that I was dating the other!)

When Is Too Much Romance Not a Good Thing?

loveA little while ago, Donna wrote me a letter asking me about romance in our Cozy Mystery series. Hmmm… I know there is some romance in most of the series I read, but note, I said some. I find that in the series I follow, there may be a possibility of a romance evolving (usually between the sleuth and a person who is in a law enforcement line of work – sheriff, detective, lawyer, judge, ETC.) However, in some of my series there is a definite couple. But the series I read don’t dwell a lot on the couple or the courting/possibility. Let me get to Donna’s question.

Donna:

I would love to know if any of the other readers enjoy when there is romance involved with the main characters. I have been reading one series for several years but the last book I read I felt like I was reading a romance book. In fact, I forgot someone had been murdered. The theme seemed to be more on if the main character and her boyfriend were going to get back together and if they had sex yet. Needless to say as much as I enjoyed the series at the beginning I will most likely not continue with it. There is another series I read and the focus seems to be more on their relationship instead of the mystery. Does anyone else feel this way?

So, what do you all think? Do you like your Cozies to have a lot of romance in them? Or is too much romance not at all appealing in your Cozy Mysteries?

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