This old school murder mystery written by Dame Agatha Christie was based on her novel "Ten Little Niggers" (which, of course, had to be re-named to Ten Little Indians, which in turn was changed again to And Then There Were None.) You have the normal Christie crew; a cast of suspects and victims with rotten pasts. These characters are lured to an island where they are picked off one by one. Closterphobia sets in as the remaining people realizes that the killer could be one of them. Now, this sounds like the makings of a wonderful movie, full of suspense, drama, horror, and perhaps romance? Sadly the seriousness of the plot is diminished as the whole thing is played up like a parlor game. There really is no suspense at all for the whole thing is made into a sort of comedy. Key elements of the book had been changed in this movie (and almost all others) as well. Many key characters had their names and character traits changed... for example: In the book, we are introduced to Anthony Marston, a shallow, suave, good looking fellow. To take his place in the movie is a Russian prince who cannot act for beans... There is also the gripe about the ending... The ending was supposed to follow the title And Then There Were NONE! They don't even make the climax exciting... just a bunch of talk and a suggestion of suicide... While this one is the only one (Out of the original 4 successful English/American versions) to get the setting right maybe one of the reasons it has been called the best of the versions. The only thing that I could find in this movie praise worthy was June Dupres's interpretation of Vera Claythorne whom I thought was wonderful... I am told the Russian version is great, but I have yet to see it.
My personal favorite versions are:
Ten Little Indians 1989 ( many consider this the worst, but I enjoyed it... at least it had an exciting ending!)
Ten Little Indians 1959 (this is a hard to find one... It stars Nina Foch... I think that's her name.)
Ten Little Indians 1975 ( another version the critics condemned, but I found it to be the only one to treat the plot seriously and give it suspense.)
And Then There Were None (yes, this version)
Ten Little Indians 1965? ( The poorest adaptation in my minds eye... every thing has been changed!)
