Main Cast: Hugh O'Brian, Shirley Eaton, Fabian, Leo Genn, Stanley Holloway
Release Year: 1965
Country: UK
Run Time: 90 minutes
Plot
The third of many film and TV adaptations of the popular Agatha Christie novel And Then There Were None (Ten Little Indians is the title of the American edition, the hit play, and most of the movies), this 1965 version moves the action from a remote island to an isolated ski resort and otherwise rearranges the plot. The basic premise, however, remains the same. Ten strangers, eight of them guests and two of them servants, are lured to a dinner party and then trapped there to be killed one at a time by an unseen host who wishes to punish them for their disparate perceived crimes. The old nursery rhyme provides both the framing device, and, in the source material, the method of execution for each victim. In this version, however, the revised murder scenes include a hapless servant (Marianne Hoppe) falling to her death from a booby-trapped ski lift. Ten Little Indians features a varied cast that ranges from future Bond girls Shirley Eaton and Daliah Lavi to former teen idol Fabian and former Wyatt Earp TV star Hugh O'Brian. It also reunites My Fair Lady co-stars Stanley Holloway and Wilfrid Hyde-White. The film was the final directorial effort of George Pollock, who had previously helmed several adaptations of Christie's popular Miss Marple mysteries, starting with 1962's Murder, She Said. Christopher Lee makes an uncredited appearance as the recorded voice of absentee host/villain Mr. Owen. Despite its mountain setting, the picture was filmed in Ireland. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Review
Dumbed down, wooden, and possessed of an ersatz "swinging '60s" feel, this Agatha Christie adaptation nevertheless remains watchable thanks to the old biddy's sturdy plot twists and the borderline camp appeal of the remarkably varied international cast. Although the source material has been leavened with premarital sex, gruesome murder scenes, and a Eurotrash setting, such second-stringers as Fabian and Shirley Eaton give the proceedings a TV-movie air, thereby saving director George Pollack from committing the worst sin of all: treating this patently silly tripe like a serious film. Shot in drab black-and-white, the movie looks like it was staged in a cavernous, leftover set from a glitzier spy thriller. Nevertheless, the pacing is brisk and the twists and turns engaging enough that 90 minutes go by rather painlessly. Christie's novel recieved a higher-concept treatment in René Clair's 1945 And Then There Were None. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
Frank White - Art Director, George Pollock - Director, Peter Boita - Editor, Malcolm Lockyer - Composer (Music Score), Malcolm Lockyer - Musical Direction/Supervision, Ernest W. Steward - Cinematographer, Ernie Stewart - Cinematographer, Oliver A. Unger - Producer, Harry Alan Towers - Screenwriter, Peter Yeldham - Screenwriter, Agatha Christie - Play Author
The 1965 version of Ten Little Indians is the third film version of Agatha Christie's detective novelAnd Then There Were None. Although its background story is the same as the 1945 version (ten people invited to a stranded area by a mysterious stranger), this one takes place on an isolated snowy mountain. Most of the murder methods were just like the 1945 version, with some minor variations. This version is also the first adaptation of the novel to show the murders on screen.
An uncredited Christopher Lee provides the pre-recorded voice of "Mr. Owen".
This adaptation has been retooled to fit the attitude of the "swinging sixties," such as changing the character of a sinister spinster into a glamorous movie star, adding a lot more action to complement the mystery, a fight scene and even a sex scene. The film is 91 minutes long and is in black and white.
The ending was changed to a less pessimistic one, heavily borrowing from the upbeat finale Christie wrote for the stage version of the story. In the end, upon finding the dead body of Doctor Armstrong (Dennis Price), Hugh Lombard (Hugh O'Brian) and Ann Clyde (Shirley Eaton) realize they are apparently the only two left and suspicion almost drives them to the breaking point. The film pauses for a "whodunit" minute to give viewers time to decipher the clues and arrive at a solution. When the movie resumes, Clyde draws Lombard's revolver, which he had given her earlier, shoots, then returns to the house. When Clyde enters the house, she discovers a noose hanging there, with a chair under it, and Judge Arthur Cannon alive!
Cannon (Wilfred Hyde-White) explains how he carried out the murders and tricked the doctor. He then invites Clyde to kill herself rather than remain there alone to take the blame when the police arrive. Then he sips a glass of poison that he had prepared. But as he is about to succumb to the poison, Lombard walks in—they had faked his death. Seeing he has failed in causing the deaths of his last two victims, Cannon dies ("Never trust a woman" are his last words) leaving Clyde and Lombard to await the arrival of the police.
