MovieChat Forums > Evil Under the Sun (1982) Discussion > How did Patrick kill Alice Ruber?

How did Patrick kill Alice Ruber?

posted 16 years ago by MikeGrossman34
3 replies | jump to latest

Poirot comments that the same pattern of events that occurred on the island also occurred on the moors when Alice Ruber's strangled body was discovered -- i.e. an innocent witness, a change of time. How did the change of time play out on the moors? This is never clearly explained. If you notice, when the lonely hiker runs into the police station in the beginning to report the discovery of a body lying out on the moors, the clock in the police station reads something like 5:30. When the police arrive at the scene, they estimate the time of death to be about 4:00. We're told that Felix Ruber had a "cast iron alibi" that had been corroborated by an innocent witness who had found the body earlier in the day. I don't see how this provided Redfern with a cast iron alibi. Did anyone figure this out?

[–] perorewen 16 years ago

You shouldn't reveal the murderer in the title.

Well, it is important to remember that the "innocent wintess/lonley hiker" is in fact Christine Redfern. She changed the time on when she found the body to a earlier time of day, so Patrick (after having killed Alice) would have time to get back to town and get an alibi.

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They blew up Congress!!! HAHAHA!

[–] transmentalist 15 years ago

Just a guess, but maybe she claimed to have found the body at 4pm, when Patrick was on the train with his witnesses. She was a "hiker" after all, so maybe it would've taken her an hour to reach the police (when, in fact, the murder had occurred more recently and the "witness" had never been hiking at all).

[–] newtownduch 15 years ago

Transmentalist's "guess" is absolutely correct - in Agatha Christie's novel upon which this film is based, Christine Redfern, acting the part of a hiker, reports having discovered the body of Alice Corrigan twenty minutes prior to her actual murder, at a time when Patrick Redfern / Edward Corrigan had a cast iron alibi.