Les dix petits indiens

Ten strangers are lured to a remote mansion on the Austrian Alps in the middle of winter. They have nothing in common except that each of them harbours a guilty secret and they have all been invited by a mysterious host (whom none of them has met) called Mr U.N Owen. The guests are Judge Arthur Cannon (Wilfrid Hyde-White), Harley Street practitioner Dr Armstrong (Dennis Price), private eye William Henry Blore (Stanley Holloway), actress Ilona Bergen (Daliah Lavi), pop star Mike Raven (Fabian), retired army officer General Sir John Mandrake (Leo Genn), engineer Hugh Lombard (Hugh O' Brien), secretary Ann Clyde (Shirley Eaton) and housekeepers Joseph and Elsa Grohmann (Mario Adorf & Marrianne Hoppe). They are curious and slightly annoyed that their host isn't their to greet them. However, after dinner and cocktails, a tape recorder bursts into life and the disembodied voice of their host accuses each of them of a past crime. Initially, they treat it as a sick joke in the poorest taste. But after Mike Raven has drunkenly sang a rendition of the Ten Little Indians nursery rhyme on the piano, he confesses to a crime before choking on his drink and falling down dead. The others realise that this isn't a joke and that their host is a psychopath delivering retribution for their sins and even more disturbingly, their killer is one of them. In addition, there is a centerpiece on the dining room table, which contains ten figurines and as they are murdered one by one in ways parallel to the old nursery rhyme, the killer removes one figurine from the centrepiece at a time.

Ten Little Indians was the third film version of Agatha Christie's marvelous mystery thriller, which was first published in Great Britain in 1939. Four years later, it was adapted for the stage by the author making its debut at London's St James Theatre in November 1943. It had been previously filmed in Hollywood in 1945 as And Then There Were None (Dir: Rene Clair) and featured an all-star cast (for the time) including Barry Fitzgerald and Walter Huston and in 1949, the BBC produced a TV version starring Bruce Belfrage and Campbell Singer. The 1965 version made a few notable changes, the most significant being the change of setting from an old house on a remote Devonshire island to a mansion on top of the Austrian Alps. The picture was actually shot in an empty mansion in Rush near Dublin, Southern Ireland. The film was produced by Harry Alan Towers whom at this time was enjoying success with the splendid schoolboy's adventure yarn The Face Of Fu Manchu, which starred Christopher Lee as Sax Rohmer's fiendish Oriental mastermind. Interestingly, it was Lee who provided the disembodied voice of U.N Owen on the tape recording heard at the beginning of the film. Towers would subsequently go on to film the story again on two more occasions. First as And Then There Were None (Dir: Peter Collinson 1975), in which the setting was changed yet again to a luxury hotel in the Iranian desert and the second time in 1989 with the drama unfolding from a big game African safari.

All in all, Ten Little Indians is quite a good film. The script penned by Towers as Peter Welbeck does reasonable justice to Christie's wonderful source novel and the change of locale does it no harm at all. A marvelous cast was chosen for the film with Wilfrid Hyde-White perfectly cast as the intelligent and resourceful Judge Cannon while Dennis Price offers a fine portrayal as the upper class Dr Armstrong. Leo Genn gives just the right amount of authority to the role of General Sir John Mandrake and Hugh O' Brien is suitably smooth as Lombard and works well with Shirley Eaton's Ann Clyde, the picture's love interest. Also of note is American pop singer Fabian who does well in portraying Mike Raven an updated version of Christie's original character called Anthony Marston in the book. The character wasn't a pop star in the book at all, but he still resembles the way that Christie described him, irresponsible, and whose only interest in life was "for kicks" as the film puts it.

On the downside, the film lacks the tension and the sense of menace that I was expecting mainly due to an unsuitable jazz style music score and while the black and white camera-work is good, I couldn't help but think that a few more shadows would have helped here and there. Director George Pollock (fresh from shooting the Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple films) shows a steady hand at the helm of the picture and brings the storyline together beautifully but he doesn't bring the same level of charm and well-meshed humor and mystery, which he brought to the Marple series here. Another slight disappointment is the climax, which resembles the happy and romantic one from the stage play. In the novel (I won't give it away for those who haven't seen the film or read the book) but there is no sense of relief at all and as a result the film isn't as dark and surprising as I was hoping it would be. I also felt that the 60-second whodunit break just prior to the ending didn't really fit in the with the general aura of the movie and seemed to be nothing more than a gimmick. Overall, however, this is still the film which I return to of one of my all time favorite mysteries because the cast play it straight here whereas in the 1945 version, they overplayed the comedy meaning that it sat uneasily with the plot and a lot of the film's thrills took place off screen which isn't the case here. And finally, I cannot resist a picture that brings such wonderful actors as Wilfrid Hyde-White and Stanley Holloway together -not in a million years!

As in Agatha Christie's original, ten people converge on an isolated place only to learn that they are stuck there and will be killed one by one. During the first ten minutes, Fabian portrays a Playboy and his performance is so dreadful that you thank heaven when he sits down at a piano and begins to perform, only to quickly realize he's an even worse singer than actor! Happily, he's the first to 'go,' and from then on, things get considerably better. A focus on three old English gents played by Leo Genn, Wilfred Hyde White, and Leo Genn - each more brilliant than the next - allows a film that appeared ready to flop to truly take off. Hugh O'Brian is acceptable as the hero, but most of his mannerisms are far too reminiscent of Wyatt Earp on TV. But don't turn it off - at least not if you are among us who consider Shirley Eaton (The Goldfinger girl) the most underrated blonde beauty ever. She is dazzling, and even appears in skimpy black lingerie near the film's end. When Hugh lifts her up in his arms, it's hard not to wish you had been born Hugh O'Brian. Never in a class with the earlier version, AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, but solid enough - once Fabian's out of the picture.

...the 1945 classic "And Then There Were None". This one also follows the script of the earlier film rather than the Agatha Christie book. It has two cast members who recently were in box office smashes-Shirley Eaton was the golden girl in the James Bond blockbuster "Goldfinger" and Stanley Holloway had been Oscar nominated in the multi award winner "My Fair Lady". Fabian was brought in to attract the younger crowd, and he plays an obnoxious pop singer who gets dispatched early. There is some great eye candy with gorgeous blond Eaton and exotic beauty Daliah Lavi. TV star Hugh O'Brien plays the rugged macho male lead. One of the best things in this film was a well done scene where Eaton holds a gun on O'Brien, the only improvement on the original film.

Agatha Christie's oft-filmed whodunnit (and dunnit and dunnit!) gets an updating here to the mid 1960's with a pretty odd international cast selection and a less skillful presentation than in the first adaptation, 1945's "And Then There Were None". Still, this is better than any of the following versions (two of which were made by this same producer, Harry Towers! Apparently, he liked the story?!) The credits open on a Swiss mountainside with the cast making it's way up to a remote castle. Sleigh ride-a-go go music plays, instantly dating the film even more than its black and white photography. The credits are fun, though, with each actor being shown along with his or her name to help keep everyone straight. Once at the top, the gathering of eight assorted personalities and the two staff members find that they have each been invited there by a person they have never met and that the person wants to pay them back for crimes they've supposedly committed, yet never paid for. Chief people include brylcreamed hunk of man O'Brian, stiff, blonde Eaton, yammering recording artist Fabian, mod-actress Lavi and wry, elderly Hyde White among others. Before anyone can really determine how to get out of the place, the first victim falls dead on the floor. They then realize that they are being offed in the manner of the famed title nursery rhyme. One by one, the murderer knocks them off until the surprise ending reveals how and why it was done. The set up is irresistible and not even a rather lame script, nor some wooden acting can mar it completely. The thing is, in a story like this, the actors are not permitted to display very much of their character, lest they spoil the mystery and ruin the ending. They all have to be simultaneous victims/suspects and all that really leaves is a lot of worried expressions. That said, O'Brian was at the peak of his handsomeness with his parade of macho sexuality "Love Has Many Faces" just around the corner. Eaton, one of the most noted Bond girls due to her gold body paint in "Goldfinger", doesn't exactly exude screen charisma, but she and O'Brian are attractive in their ski lodge wear. Fabian plays a highly annoying character and does it a bit too convincingly, creating animosity from many audience members. Lavi gets to trot around in some couture clothes while trying to balance a massive, lacquered wig on her head. The butler and housekeeper couldn't be more mismatched as a couple with her looking like his mother (and old enough in real life to be!) Of the remaining male guests, only Hyde White makes much of an impression with his customary glint in his eye, though Holloway has a few nice moments as well. Most versions are now minus the campy "murder minute" which gave audiences a chance to try to figure out who the killer was.

While the ending of the novel is changed in this 1965 remake of Agatha Christie's novel AND THEN THERE WERE NONE, it's still an OK murder mystery, a kind of modern version of an old dark house chiller, with an excellent cast of UK veterans and US imports Hugh O'Brian and Fabian. A mysterious "Mr. Owen" invites ten strangers, all of whom seem to be guilty of some crime, to spend a weekend in an isolated mountain home. They gradually get killed one by one. My wife felt that the only interesting character in the film was the one who is killed first (you'll have to watch it to see who that is), but I found the whole thing to be entertaining and the ending to be surprising (although the clues ARE planted, when you watch it a second time). Like any Harry Alan Towers production, this is low budget but well cast, and once again Towers wrote the script himself under his Peter Welbeck pseudonym. The recent DVD reissue of this includes the infamous "Whodunit Break" (which appeared at the film's climax in its theatrical run but was cut from all TV prints) as an "extra" but does not edit it back into the film, which is good because it would make second and third viewings of the film painful. Watch that scene once, marvel that anyone would ever attempt anything so cheesy, and then watch the uninterrupted movie again. Nice to see Shirley Eaton as always (The Girl From Rio and Su-Muru), Hugh O'Brian is a charming and masculine lead, Fabian is entertaining, and the British veterans are as colorful as you'd expect, although some Americans may have trouble telling them apart initially, except for Dennis Price. Worth renting, but I can't say it's worth fifteen dollars. Maybe $8.99 or so.