Dieci piccoli indiani

Rene Clair's masterful direction takes Christie's classic novel up to a new dimension more suitable for cinema. Every character is perfectly realized by magnificent acting. My favorite is C. Aubrey Smith who portrays General Mandrake with a British subtlety that cannot be understood fully by today's American viewers. But why quibble?

Every cast member is perfect. Roland Young may actually be the most instrumental as Blore in keeping the films wit intact and never allowing it to get too serious. Barry Fitzgerald is terrific as the Judge, and Huston perfection itself as the charming, albeit alcoholic, doctor. Dame Judith Anderson, perhaps the best supporting actress of all time, dominates every seen she is in as a sinister spinster.

But, of course, there is a lead, and in the hands of a lesser actor, he could have wound up being a feckless straight man to all the great character actors around him. With Louis Hayward as Mr. Lombard, the character more than holds his own with all challengers, and has an especially nice chemistry with Young. And although June Duprez is slightly out of her league as a thespian, she is plucky and capable enough, with Hayward's help, to pull off her role just fine.

The atmosphere, photography, and soundtrack are all artistic perfection. This movie is a true treat for all the senses.

Here's another movie that I never felt was anything but fair, but I kept giving it more chances and every time I did, my rating went up. It seems to get better and better with multiple viewings. One of the reasons is that the more films I watch, the more I get familiar with all these actors.

If you didn't know any of these actors, the movie would be "fair" at best. You can bet if the story were re-done today, it would be faster moving. As it stands, its okay but a film in which 10 people are invited to an island and are systematically murdered one by one, should make for a tense thriller. Here, it's more of a study in paranoia, but that's interesting to view, too. I especially enjoy watching Walter Huston and Barry Fitzgerald banter back-and-forth.

The ending to this mystery was well-done, too, and not something you're likely to solve. So, if you like the old classic mysteries, this should be appealing. It features an interesting cast of young and old actors, male and female.

This may be the best mystery ever put to film. If it isn't totally true to the letter of the Christie book, it is totally true to the spirit of her writing. Ten unique individuals are lured to an old house on a deserted Channel island. One by one - but I'll say no more. Very good acting, especially Fitzgerald. If you don't know the plot, you won't figure out whodunnit, despite the fact that it plays fair. There is suspense, good humor that holds up today, fine acting and a wonderful plot. Grab a cup of hot chocolate, turn the lights down, snuggle in the blanket, and prepare to enjoy a wonderful, cozy mystery which hasn't been equaled since.

All right, I'm not going to bother with the movie's strengths, as they are covered by every other reviewer here. What I want to talk about is the one area where I think director Rene Clair missed the boat: mood.

The book is absolutely chilling, and manages to have you jumping at noises in the night far better than most any of today's attempts at horror writing. The movie, however, has a campy, needlessly humorous feel which detracted strongly from my enjoyment. An example? Casting Harry Thurston as the boatman. His is one of the first faces we see, and it is twisted into the best version of a Bud Abbott facial expression that he could muster. Mischa Auer's performance was ridiculous to the extreme, and made his character neither believable nor endearing. There are a few other gripes I have, but they're of the same ilk, so I'll just say that this reasonably faithful portrayal could have been one of the greatest mystery thrillers ever if it had been taken a little more seriously.

Out of the four film versions I watched thus far (the others being 1965, 1974, 1989 and I'm NOT counting the copious amount of rip-offs and imitations), this oldest version of Agatha Christie's monumental novel/stage play "Ten Little Indians" is inarguably the most memorable, sophisticated and superior! "And Then There Were None" simply forms the definition of a good old-fashioned and absorbing murder-mystery, complete with dazzling dialogs, exquisite acting performances and sublime plot twists that keep you guessing until the very end of the film. Perhaps it isn't as sinister and intense as I had hoped, but the whodunit-aspect keeps you glued to the screen at all times and there's a surprisingly large amount of unexpected macabre humor to compensate for the lack of thrills. The plot is world famous, but just in case you never heard of Agatha Christie before: ten people with no discernible connection are invited by an unknown host to spend the weekend at his/her isolated mansion on a private island off the British coast. Instead of meeting their host – the peculiar U.N. Owen – at the dinner table, they have to listen to a record with a strange voice accusing each and every one of them of a crime they didn't get punished for. Shortly after, they're being murdered one by one in imaginative methods that resemble the lyrics of the "10 Little Indians" nursery rhyme. After discovering they are the only ones on the island, the continuously shrinking group realizes that the killer must be one of them and becomes extremely suspicious. It's a downright beautiful and enchanting version, massively benefiting from René Clair's surefooted direction and the devoted performances of a terrific ensemble cast; including the almighty Walter Huston, Richard Haydn and C. Aubrey Smith. What I personally love most about 40's films are the intellectual, extended and almost poetic dialogs, and this film naturally features plenty of them. Being a forties' flick, you naturally shouldn't expect the murders to be graphical or even shown on screen. Still, there are a handful of suggestive and brutally playful sequences, including death by falling chimney. Together with the flamboyant 1974 adaptation of "Murder on the Orient Express", this is presumably the best Agatha Christie material turned into film.