Day of the murder
The organisation of events in the movie is very linear. The day starts with everyone gathered in the lounge for breakfast. Miss Darnley, gossiping again, mentions a cave down Pixie Cove where she used to go when she was younger. Two persons in the room react suspiciously to that information. Blatt spills his drink and chokes in his drink. After that he makes a joke out of it. Barry asks for more information about it, yet he does not look surprised, maybe he pretends to not know about it. Rosamund mentions the cave is hard to find. The people gathered then arrange a game of tennis at noon. Hastings, Miss Darnley and Kenneth Marshall and a sad and delicate looking Christine Redfern joins, acting shy and looking serious with her strict hair cut.
A phone call is received for Arlena, who aggressively replies to her husbands question aboutwho it might be, by a list of names, of men who are probably he admirers. She looks as obnoxious as ever, unpleasant, proud of her long list of admirers, provocative and arrogant. She boats about having so many admirers. Christine follows her, saying she has to close her room’s window, but in fact she spies on Arlena, and verhears her conversation. Arlena Stuart seems to have trouble of some sort. The phone call definitely does not come from an admirer, it seems to be rather serious. She seems worried, upset, maybe even frightened.
Poirot has a private conversation with Patrick Redfern. We learn about him that he is a journalist, that he came to enjoy himself on the island, unlike his wife who has to look out for herself. When Poirot asks him why, if he wants to have an affair, he has to do it under the eyes of his very wife. Patrick reacts in a rather violent way, sounds aggressive and defensive when he defends his privacy against Poirot’s intrusive questions. He mentions Miss Darnley and Stephen Lane, blaming them for gossiping and defends Arlena. He says, just because she’s good looking, everybody has to come down on her.
The rest of the morning goes on as follows, shown with lts of close ups to people’s watches and clocks. At 9:30, Christine Redfern bumps into Lionel. Lionel comes back from the library on the mainland, and Christine was on her way out. She proposes him to go to the beach together at 10:30. She will go there sketching, and he will swim. At 10:12 precicely, miss Brewster comes back from a bike ride on the mainland and almost is hit by a falling bottle. She comes across Mr. Lane who leaves the island to visit friends. At 10:17, Poirot sees Mr. Barry spying on Mr. Blatt with binoculars. Mr Blatt is sailing on his boat, but has white sails on it this time. The he meets Arlena Stuart who’s going to Pixie Cove by boat, saying she wants to be alone, which Poirot does not believe the least bit.
At 10:20, the maid cleans the rooms, she knocks on Kenneth’s door, but he is typing letters and does not want to be disturbed. At 11:00 Miss darnley…; At 11:15, Hastings… Patrick and Miss Brewster take off from the beach to row around the island.
At 11:45, Lionel Marshall gets out of water after his swim. Christine Redfern leaves to get changed for tennis. Then Patrick and Brewster discover the corpse. Miss Brewster goes fetch the police by boat (because she thinks she won’t manage the ladder) while Patrick stays with the body in case the murderer would still be around. 11:55, the knocks at Marshall’s door, she hears water running. 11:58, Miss Darnley and Mr. Marshall are talking about how the typing went “have you get it done?” Kenneth seems confused when she asks that, not knowing what she means seemingly, before answering positively. They’re the first to arrive at the tennis court.
At 12:00 All have arrived at the tennis court. Miss Brewster arrives running, and announces Arlena’s death.