by Frank Calvillo
When I had heard that one of my favorite novels of all time, “And Then There Were None” (also known as “Ten Little Indians”) by Agatha Christie, was finally being revisited as a top-scale miniseries with acclaimed actors and lavish production values, I couldn’t have been more ecstatic. After all, the novel has served as one of the most instrumental blueprints for the classic whodunnit where characters are picked off one by one. Titles such as Clue, Identity, Devil, Harper’s Island, and even a special episode of Family Guy owe so much to Christie’s novel.
The first time I read “And Then There Were None” 20 years ago I was chillingly mesmerized by its ingeniously dark plot, which concerned ten strangers (eight guests and two servants) who had gathered together in a large mansion on an isolated island by a mysterious host whom no one had met and referred to only as U.N. Owen. When it’s revealed that each person has been brought to the island under false pretenses and instead are being made to own up to previous murders they are each charged with committing, things get more interesting for sure. However, when each guest turns up murdered in a manner similar to the verses in the classic British nursery rhyme “Ten Little Indians,” the intense mystery really comes alive, especially when it is suspected that the mysterious Owen is actually one of the guests.
“And Then There Were None” has been adapted numerous times for the screen, with varying degrees of success. As an expert on the different versions (the English-language versions anyhow, excluding the 1959 one made for British TV), it was so incredibly refreshing to finally see Christie’s novel brought to life with the same sort of panache and gothic feel that the mistress of crime committed to the page.
While the various film adaptations weren’t horrible by any means, they do exist as products of the times in which they were made, rather than true Christie adaptations. In celebration of And Then There Were None’s arrival on Blu-ray after drawing sizeable TV numbers on both sides of the pond and impressing nearly all who saw it, I thought I’d examine the past adaptations leading up to this newest and now definitive version of one of the greatest mysteries ever created.
And Then There Were None (1945)
The first official feature film adaptation of the novel is also the one which for years was considered the most acclaimed. The film, directed by Rene Clair, keeps the majority of the plot and its characters intact. However heavy censorship meant for an altering of the crimes the guests were accused of and extremely minimalist death scenes, with only one character actually being killed on camera. No change was more noticeable than the ending, which was oddly optimistic, even containing music more suitable for skipping than a dark mystery. There’s a welcome amount of dark humor throughout And Then There Were None, such as when Rogers (Richard Haydn), after being accused of poisoning cocktails, proceeds to drink every drop of alcohol in the room before proclaiming, “And if that’s how you feel about it, I’m not going to serve any dinner!” as he exits the room with the rest of guests following behind in an uproar.
Ten Little Indians (1965)
Coming two decades after the original, and bearing the novel’s original title, Ten Little Indians is a film of the 60s first, and a Christie novel a (very close) second. There’s enough of the core plot included to make the film feel like an authentic Christie mystery, but the many glaring differences practically scream swinging sixties. Beginning with the casting, there’s James Bond’s Goldfinger beauty Shirley Eaton as the secretary and Western hero Hugh O’Brian as the leads while the characters of the spinster and the playboy have been replaced by Daliah Lavi as a Sophia Loren-like actress and real-life popstar Fabian as…a popstar. The switching of locales from the English oceanside to the more fashionable Swiss Alps seems unnecessary, but at least the filmmakers were able to show the actual murders this time. Despite the inclusion of a love scene and fist fight (no doubt to satisfy audiences), the film carries with it an undeniable grandiose feel, keeping the mystery alive until the final scene.
Ten Little Indians (1974)
This version of Christie’s story has been largely forgotten due to its relative obscurity within the US as well as the fact that the whole exercise moves at a snail’s pace. With a cast that includes the likes of Richard Attenborough, Elke Sommer, Oliver Reed, Gert Forbe, Herbert Lom, Stephane Audran, and even Charles Aznavour, this Ten Little Indians is more in keeping with international cinema of the early ’70s than an actual Christie adaptation. This fact is made all the more apparent with the shifting of the story’s setting yet again to an isolated hotel in the Iranian desert. The cast is great, but the film is so dry and slow you hardly notice any of their work. Working off a script that is almost a page by page copy of the 1965 version, only two moments stand out; the first takes place as everyone stops and watches as Aznavour croons a love song minutes before dying, and the second features an uncredited Orson Welles in a voice-over cameo as Owen himself, providing the film’s only moment of suspense.
Ten Little Indians (1989)
This late-’80s version of the mystery has been more or less ignored for two reasons: first, its production company was Cannon Films, which never gained any serious respect in the film industry, and second, the reception for the last two adaptations proved so unsatisfactory for some that no one cared much about another version. While the minds behind this version care enough about restoring the original nature of some of the guest’s crimes, have no qualms about onscreen deaths, and populate the cast with dependable character actors including Donald Pleasence, Brenda Vaccaro, and even Lom (who takes on a different role than he did in the ’74 version), it’s hard to ignore the various factors that go amiss. There’s the African safari setting, the lazy script featuring a handful of filler scenes, and insipid dialogue and a lack of overall suspense that the story should naturally generate.
And There Were None (2016)
The ultimate version of Christie’s novel has arrived with this sprawling take of the famous novel. Apart from re-branding the novel’s poem to Ten Little Soldiers, every aspect of this adaptation has been so carefully handled and thought out. The setting has finally reverted back to the English seaside, and esteemed actors such as Sam Neill, Charles Dance, Aidan Turner, and Miranda Richardson do some truly fine work, and exploration into the characters’ backstories finally happens. The grisly nature of the guests’ crimes and their own deaths are front and center, finally capturing that sinister grimness none of the other adaptations were ever able to capture. While the end of the miniseries strays from the novel only just, it’s the closest any adaptation has ever come, ensuring that Christie herself would no doubt have been proud.
And Then There Were None is now available on Blu-ray from Acorn Media.
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And Then There Were None — [Blu-ray] | [DVD]
