And Then There Were None (1945 film)
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

''And Then There Were None'' is a 1945 film adaptation of
Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictiona ...
's 1939
mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...
novel of the same name, directed by
René Clair René Clair (11 November 1898 – 15 March 1981), born René-Lucien Chomette, was a French filmmaker and writer. He first established his reputation in the 1920s as a director of silent films in which comedy was often mingled with fantasy. He wen ...
. It was released in the United Kingdom as ''Ten Little Indians'', in keeping with the third United Kingdom title of Christie's novel.


Plot

Eight people, all strangers to each other, are invited to a small isolated island off the coast of
Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devon is ...
, England, by a Mr. and Mrs. Owen. They settle in at a mansion tended by two newly hired servants, Thomas and Ethel Rogers, but their hosts are absent. When the guests sit down to dinner, they notice the
centerpiece A centrepiece or centerpiece is an important item of a display, usually of a table setting. Centrepieces help set the theme of the decorations and bring extra decorations to the room. A centrepiece also refers to any central or important object ...
, ten figurines of Indians. Thomas puts on a
gramophone record A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English), or simply a record, is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The groove usually starts nea ...
, through which a man's voice accuses them all of murder: * General Sir John Mandrake, of ordering his wife's lover, a lieutenant under his command, to his death * Emily Brent, of the death of her young nephew * Dr. Edward G. Armstrong, of drunkenness which resulted in a patient dying * Prince Nikita Starloff, of killing a couple while speeding * Vera Claythorne, of murdering her sister's fiancé * Judge Francis J. Quinncannon, of being responsible for the hanging of an innocent man * Philip Lombard, of killing 21 South African tribesmen * William H. Blore, of perjury, resulting in an innocent man's death * Thomas and Ethel Rogers, of the demise of their previous employer, an invalid It becomes apparent that none of the ten knows or has even seen "U. N. Owen"; they then realize the name stands for "unknown." They also cannot leave the island, as Rogers informs them that the boat will not return until Monday, and it is only Friday. Starloff admits his guilt, then dies from his drink, which was poisoned. The next morning, it is discovered that Mrs. Rogers died in her sleep. The guests notice that one figurine is broken and another missing after the two deaths. With the two deaths matching the
Ten Little Indians "Ten Little Indians" is a traditional American children's counting out rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12976. The term "Indians" in this sense refers to Indigenous North American peoples. In 1868, songwriter Septimus Winner adapt ...
nursery rhyme, they search the island for "Mr. Owen" without success. After General Mandrake is stabbed to death, the judge declares that Owen must be one of them. They vote on who they suspect Owen is; as the only one to get more than one vote, Rogers is made to sleep in the woodshed. The next morning, they find him dead, his head split open with an axe. Miss Brent dies next, her body found with a
hypodermic needle A hypodermic needle (from Greek ὑπο- (''hypo-'' = under), and δέρμα (''derma'' = skin)), one of a category of medical tools which enter the skin, called sharps, is a very thin, hollow tube with one sharp tip. It is commonly used w ...
nearby. Armstrong discovers that his needle is missing and Lombard's revolver is lost as well. At dinner, Quinncannon, Armstrong, Blore, and Lombard all confess to their crimes. When it is Miss Claythorne's turn, she excuses herself to get her coat and the others hear her shriek and rush to her. In the confusion, a single gunshot is heard. They find her shaken after being brushed by seaweed hanging from the ceiling. They also find Lombard's gun; Quinncannon is dead from a shot to the head. Miss Claythorne insists she is innocent, but Armstrong suspects her and locks her in her room. That night, she admits to Lombard that her sister killed her own fiancé, and that Miss Claythorne helped her cover up the crime and took the blame. The two later realize Armstrong is missing. The next morning, Blore is struck by stonework toppled from the floor above. Lombard sees a corpse on the beach: Armstrong. Miss Claythorne holds Lombard's gun against him, certain that Lombard is the killer. He tells her that his real name is Charles Morley, and that the real Lombard was his friend who committed suicide. Morley has a flash of insight and urges her to shoot him. Miss Claythorne fires and Morley drops. She finds a noose hanging in the parlor and discovers who Owen is: Quinncannon, very much alive. The judge tells her that all his life he had searched for perfect justice. After learning that he was terminally ill, he concocted this plan. He persuaded Armstrong to help him fake his own (Quinncannon's) death, supposedly to help catch Owen, then murdered Armstrong. He tells her that she can either hang herself or be sent to the gallows (as the only possible perpetrator). He drinks poisoned whiskey, and Morley appears behind him, alive, as Vera missed the shot intentionally. Quinncannon dies and the boat arrives, rescuing Morley and Miss Claythorne.


Cast

The cast included: *
Barry Fitzgerald William Joseph Shields (10 March 1888 – 14 January 1961), known professionally as Barry Fitzgerald, was an Irish stage, film and television actor. In a career spanning almost forty years, he appeared in such notable films as ''Bringing Up Ba ...
as Judge Francis J. Quinncannon *
Walter Huston Walter Thomas Huston ( ;According to the Province of Ontario. ''Ontario, C ...
as Dr. Edward G. Armstrong *
Louis Hayward Louis Charles Hayward (19 March 1909 – 21 February 1985) was a Johannesburg-born, British-American actor. Biography Born in Johannesburg, Louis Hayward lived in South Africa and was educated in France and England, including Latymer Upper Scho ...
as Philip Lombard/Charles Morley *
Roland Young Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as the ...
as Detective William Henry Blore *
June Duprez June Ada Rose Duprez (14 May 1918 – 30 October 1984) was an English film actress. Early life The daughter of American comedian Fred Duprez and Australian Florence Isabelle Matthews, she was born in Teddington, Middlesex, England, during ...
as Vera Claythorne *
Mischa Auer Mischa Auer (born Mikhail Semyonovich Unkovsky (Михаил Семёнович Унковский; 17 November 1905 – 5 March 1967) was a Russians, Russian-born American actor who moved to Hollywood in the late 1920s. He first appeared in fi ...
as Prince Nikita "Nikki" Starloff *
C. Aubrey Smith Sir Charles Aubrey Smith (21 July 1863 – 20 December 1948) was an English Test cricketer who became a stage and film actor, acquiring a niche as the officer-and-gentleman type, as in the first sound version of ''The Prisoner of Zenda'' (1937) ...
as General Sir John Mandrake *
Judith Anderson Dame Frances Margaret Anderson, (10 February 18973 January 1992), known professionally as Judith Anderson, was an Australian actress who had a successful career in stage, film and television. A pre-eminent stage actress in her era, she won two ...
as Emily Brent *
Richard Haydn Richard Haydn (born George Richard Haydon, 10 March 1905 – 25 April 1985) was a British-American comedy actor. Some of his better known performances include his roles as Professor Oddley in ''Ball of Fire'' (1941), Roger in '' No Time for Lov ...
as Thomas Rogers *
Queenie Leonard Queenie Leonard (born Pearl Walker; 18 February 1905 – 17 January 2002) was a British actress. She was the last surviving cast member of ''And Then There Were None'' (1945) until her death in 2002. Biography She was born as Pearl Walk ...
as Ethel Rogers * Harry Thurston as Fred Narracott


Reception

On first release in 1945,
Bosley Crowther Francis Bosley Crowther Jr. (July 13, 1905 – March 7, 1981) was an American journalist, writer, and film critic for ''The New York Times'' for 27 years. His work helped shape the careers of many actors, directors and screenwriters, though his ...
of ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' wrote: "René Clair has produced an exciting film and has directed a splendid cast in it with humor and a light macabre touch. The temptation to the horrifying is intelligently dismissed". The film kept its audience involved "from fear and trembling, not from gore." Several performances were commended, especially Walter Huston and Barry Fitzgerald. ''
Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...
'' magazine, however, described the film as a "dull whodunit" which "rarely rises to moments of suspense and despite the killings it gives the appearance of nothing ever happening". Most of the cast, ''Variety'' thought, seemed out of place. Film critic
Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...
awarded the film four out of four stars, calling it "Highly suspenseful" and praising the film's script, music score, and visuals. On
Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, the film holds an approval rating of 100% based on , with a
weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...
rating of 8.1/10.


Awards

The film won the
Golden Leopard The Golden Leopard () is the top prize at the Locarno International Film Festival, an international film festival held annually in Locarno, Switzerland since 1946. Directors in the process of getting an international reputation are allowed to be ...
and the Best Direction Award at the 1946
Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...
.


Distribution and copyright

Though it was distributed by a major studio,
20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...
, the copyright was allowed to lapse and the film is now in the
public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...
. Several different editions of varying quality have been released to home video formats. The name of the film sometimes varies with who listed it. In 1960, ''Radio Times'' altered the title to ''Ten Little Niggers'' for an airing of Clair's film on BBC television on 9 July, the original title of the novel as published in the UK. Sensitivity to the original title of the novel was remarked by Sadie Stein in 2016, commenting on a BBC miniseries with the title ''And Then There Were None'', which she said "has been an enormous hit in the UK." In general, "Christie’s work is not known for its racial sensitivity, and by modern standards her oeuvre is rife with casual Orientalism." The original title was based on a rhyme from minstrel shows and children's games, "a rhyme so macabre and distressing one doesn’t hear it now outside of the Agatha Christie context." Stein quotes Alison Light as to the power of the original name of the island in the novel, Nigger Island, "to conjure up a thrilling ‘otherness’, a place where revelations about the ‘dark side’ of the English would be appropriate." Speaking of the "widely known" 1945 movie, Stein added that "we’re merely faced with fantastic amounts of violence, and a rhyme so macabre and distressing one doesn’t hear it now outside of the Agatha Christie context." She felt that the original title of the novel in the UK, seen now, "that original title, it jars, viscerally."


Later film versions

Multiple versions of Christie's mystery have been filmed, including ''
Ten Little Indians "Ten Little Indians" is a traditional American children's counting out rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12976. The term "Indians" in this sense refers to Indigenous North American peoples. In 1868, songwriter Septimus Winner adapt ...
'' (1965), ''
Ten Little Indians "Ten Little Indians" is a traditional American children's counting out rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12976. The term "Indians" in this sense refers to Indigenous North American peoples. In 1868, songwriter Septimus Winner adapt ...
'' (1974), ''
Desyat Negrityat ''Desyat Negrityat'' (russian: Десять негритят, 'Ten Little Negroes') is a 1987 Soviet film adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1939 novel of the same name, now known as ''And Then There Were None''. It was directed by Stanislav Govorukh ...
'' (1987) and ''
Ten Little Indians "Ten Little Indians" is a traditional American children's counting out rhyme. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 12976. The term "Indians" in this sense refers to Indigenous North American peoples. In 1868, songwriter Septimus Winner adapt ...
'' (1989), with variations to its characters and locale.


See also

*
List of films in the public domain in the United States Most films are subject to copyright, but those listed here are believed to be in the public domain in the United States. This means that no government, organization, or individual owns any copyright over the work, and as such it is common property ...


References


External links

* * * * * {{And Then There Were None 1945 films 1945 mystery films American mystery films 20th Century Fox films American black-and-white films 1940s English-language films Films based on And Then There Were None Films directed by René Clair Films set in country houses Films set in Devon Films set on islands Golden Leopard winners Films with screenplays by Dudley Nichols Films scored by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco 1940s American films