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Ten Little Indians (aka And Then There Were None) |  | Director: Peter Collinson
Actors: Oliver Reed, Elke Sommer
Studio: Charter Entertainment
Category: Video
Buy Used: $39.95
as of 9/4/2010 03:24 CDT details
Seller: katt30
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 5448
Format: Color, NTSC
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 98 Minutes
UPC: 258900083108
EAN: 0258900083108
ASIN: B0009LR0NU
Theatrical Release Date: 1974
Publication Date: 1986
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Plot Summary for
And Then There Were None (1974)
Updated version of the Agatha Christie book "And Then There Were None. In this version, the group is invited, under false pretenses, to an isolated hotel in the Iranian desert. After dinner, a cassette tape (voiced by the legendary Orson Welles) accuses them all of crimes that they have gotten away with. One by one they begin to die, in accordance to the Ten Little Indians Nursery rhyme. After a search is made of the hotel, they realize that the murderer is one of them. A few members of the group attempt to trust each other, but the question still remains, who can one trust? and who will leave the hotel alive?
Summary written by Nick Johansen
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| Customer Reviews:
 Yet Another Great Film Never Released On DVD!!! September 27, 2009
John Quantico Quimby (NJ)
The plot is very simple to explain: A group of individuals to varying degrees are placed in a desert mansion for a dinner party/weekender with a twist, murder. One by one, each member of the dinner party is eliminated in a cruel and particular way, so as to follow along with the rhyme involved in the title of the motion picture. But how they all arrive at their individual final destinations is marvelous! The setting and set pieces are magnificent and beautiful, touches of marble and lavish oriental rugs adorn the viewer's scope. This movie was claimed by many at the time to be a disappointment from the original motion picture from 1945 and its first remake in 1965, some twenty years later. Adversely enough, this film had an attractive setting in the exotic desert and a sprawling palace to view on a grand scale; contemporary actors from the 70's that were not the greatest of their day but good enough to make the word play work well for their characters.
All in all, I can't believe that this movie was never put on DVD, but as we all know if the demand is too low for the film to be made into a DVD then it will go off into the lost motion picture sunset as many other great films from the 60's and 70's have over the years. If you're lucky you can find this movie on VHS at a local video store that still carries VHS tapes as the one I bought has been. Of all of the adaptations of this story I find this one to be the most beautiful and scary of settings and plot dynamics: A palace in the middle of a desert. The thought alone makes me cautious, for one thing or another if you were on an island, there's an occasional boat that goes by or even water to swim across regardless of crocs, alligators or the essential shark, but in the desert you'll pass out from exhaustion/dehydration in little to no time at all. It's a shame this movie was never reproduced, I still hold out hope that some day it might.
Agatha Christies finest June 29, 2009
L. Rama (Long Island, NY)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This Movie has alot of older actors. But there is Nothing old in there performances. A real great Mystery. Secluded in a house, where no one knows one another, (but they secretly might) Our guests come to dinner to be plucked off one by one, Until the end when we see whether it is the mysterious orchestrator of this dinner or one of the guests who is the murderer. If you enjoy Murder on the Orient Express, You'll get this movie
 Oddly cast version of a classid mystery July 21, 2008
Donald D. Coney, Jr. (Fairfax, va United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I obtained this version of Dame Christie's classic murder mystery more out of curiosity than anything. While this film has several redeeming values, it is easily the oddest cast version of the tale (& I'm comparing it to the 1941 British and the 1965 & 1987/88 ish (largely) American versions).
First, the redeeming features: The film was shot at The Shah Abbas Hotel in Isfahan, Iran. The hotel and surrounding locale are really just amazing to look at. Several of the scenes take place in the ruins around the hotel and their decor/architecture of that of the hotel itself are really something to behold. In this sense this is a very pretty or attractive film. That said the sheer size of the place tends to distract/distort where the action is taking place - you're never quite sure where things and people are. Charles Aznavour's rendition of "Old Fashioned Way" was a really nice touch (I think it was put in to make up for his horrendously bad version of the title "Ten Little Indians" song).
Elke Sommer (never unpleasant on the eyes) provided a surprisingly well done/acted Vera Clyde. It was also enjoyable to see not one but two James Bond villains (Gert Frobe [Goldfinger] as Wilhelm Blore and Adolfo Celi [Largo in Thunderball] as General Salve) together in the same film. Both turn in passable, if not very notable performances.
The shortcomings of the film are equally numerous. First off, Oliver Reed is unconvincing as Lombard. He projects the somewhat vague menace required of the character not to the same effect as Hugh O'Brien in the 1960's version but much better than Frank Stallone in the 1980's version. And the chemistry between Lombard and Clyde played so well in the 1940's version and so ham handedly in the 60's version never really shows up at all in this version. I've already mentioned Charles Aznavour's rendition of the title song. The less said about his heavy handed piano pounding the better (Fabian's 1960s rendition is much more enjoyable). The acting, as a whole, isn't bad but there is really nothing notable about it. Everybody seems to be phoning their performances in and just going through the motions. Even Orson Welle's recitation of the charges against the characters sounds flat and listless.
For me the biggest letdown of the movie is the lack of credible suspense. By this I mean there is no real drama to the various murders that take place. You never get the feeling that Mr. Owen is in control of the situation. The almost claustrophobic feel you get in the earlier versions is never present; the "ominous-ness" of Christie's original story is just never realized. Only a few of the murders appear to have occurred per Mr. Owen's planning, the rest you get the feeling could have been prevented and would have been in "real life". Other than a few choice moments, there is no menace to the situation the characters find themselves in.
Overall, as film unto itself this isn't bad. I probably gave it one too many stars because of the nostalgia I feel for the movie as a whole and for several of the performers. When compared to the other film versions of the story I would rate this well below the late 80's Russian, 1940's British and the 60's version but well above the late 80's American version with Frank Stallone (and Herbert Lom returns to play the General).
If it ever comes out on DVD I would recommend buying a copy if you can find it in the bargain bin.
An Excellent Murder Mystery/Thriller!!!RIP Oliver Reed October 1, 2005
John Baranyai
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
This is a very good adaptation of an Agathie Christie novel . A group of strangers arrive at a mansion and then are slowly killed off one by one. The late, great Oliver Reed gives an excellent performance in this film and is dark and brooding as always but he is attractive to women which was a part of his onscreen and offscreen Charisma and Presence and I don't use those words very often to describe most actors.Elke Sommer is also very good and sadly we do not see enough of her in movies these days. I have always admired Oliver Reed for his staunch refusal to "sell out" and become a Major Hollywood star and he chose rather to be found drinking with his Working Class Mates down at his favourite Pub.
Most competent adaptation of the story as a serious mystery May 13, 2005
viewer (USA)
7 out of 9 found this review helpful
Agatha Christie's 1939 story idea captures the imagination. Ten strangers who each, in different ways, have gotten away with murder gather by invitation at an isolated mansion. Then their unknown host U.N. Owen systematically and mockingly murders them one by one. The idea was adapted into a film in 1945, 1965, 1974, and 1989. Unfortunately, neither Christie nor the filmmakers succeeded in turning this captivating but confining plot concept into a truly fulfilling story.
The book's premise is clever. Careful attention is paid to plot detail. Compared to the films, the book's assortment of past crimes and depictions of the characters' attitudes toward them are more varied, subtle, and interesting. The book is the least sentimental about the characters, treating them vaguely and suspiciously. It maintains more of a sense of intensity and purpose than the films. It details why and how Owen carried out the scheme.
However, once the book establishes its imaginative premise, the story becomes thin and formulaic. There is little plot or character development. The storytelling seems flat, frigid, and, at times, slow-paced. There is no lead character to care about. The characters and their past crimes are sketched in summary fashion, and vary widely in quality. There are only two real plot twists. The second creates a major logical problem, which the book acknowledges and tries to overcome by weakly suggesting that the ploy would trick or "rattle" the murderer. The guests' murders are designed to follow the nursery rhyme and little more. Some cosmetic frills aside, the killings show, in themselves, no special cunning, skill, strategic advantage, or plausibility. Owen strikes crudely without detection too effortlessly.
Worst of all, the book (and each film) has nothing serious to say about the powerful themes at the heart of the story. The story is inherently an observation of human nature in a desperate situation. How do the characters behave? How do they try to reason, to survive? Also by its very nature -- as the book's last pages show -- this is a morality play. How is each character a "criminal" and "beyond the law"? Does each get "justice"? Is justice the point, or simply a "lust" to torture and kill? Is the story about breaking the law or enforcing it, about mistakes or abuses in pursuing justice? None of this is meaningfully explored.
In some respects, the films are worse and better than the book. The lighthearted approach of the 1945 and 1965 adaptations is entertaining, but comes at the expense of the story's plausibility and seriousness. Characters confess their secrets and treat the horror unfolding around them as if it were a parlor game. The 1974 film took a decidedly different tone, for good and ill. Gone from both 1945 and 1965 is the comical opening sequence and its catchy, upbeat music. The 1974 film has no opening music, just simple credits and silence invaded by the sound of an approaching helicopter. Its storytelling is cold and clinical. This matches its setting -- a palatial, ornate, immaculate hotel, shuttered and alone amid ruins in the Iranian desert.
The 1974 movie captures more of a sense of fear, menace, and suspense. This includes the selection of Orson Welles to narrate the tape recording charging the guests with past crimes and also the way in which the killings are depicted. The characters are more serious. They are played, with authority, more like real people than caricatures. Richard Attenborough's judge is more stern, less folksy, than in prior versions. Stephane Audran is excellent as actress Ilona, radiant and charming on the surface but troubled and lonely at the core. The maid and butler are believable as hard, smooth con artists. In this important sense, the 1974 version is truest to the book and to those who want to see it presented as a serious mystery (the 1989 adaptation ends well but is low-budget and generally inept).
Overall, however, the 1974 film is less substantial and entertaining than prior versions. The storytelling is so spare and unartful it can feel sterile and uninvolving, lacking in wit, ingenuity, eloquence, and energy. The only moment of real charm comes early and abruptly, when Charles Aznavour performs a song, "Dance in the old-fashioned way," with Audran looking on, enchanted and lovely. By contrast, Aznavour's rendition of Ten Little Indians is disappointing. At "six little Indians," he starts pounding the piano keys and shouting the words, only to let the music die out in anticlimax before "one little Indian."
The outstanding cast is unable to breathe much life into the characters or interactions. Herbert Lom lends an air of authority, reserve, and intelligence (perhaps too much) to the doctor. But his restrained, stiff performance lacks any truly memorable quality, like Walter Huston's buffoonery and charm in 1945 or Dennis Price's vanity and arrogance in 1965, and he is unconvincing as a drunkard. Adolfo Celi can do nothing much with his role, and Gert Frobe little more with his. Elke Sommer, unflatteringly filmed, makes no impression as Vera and has no chemistry with Oliver Reed. Reed gives an impenetrable, impish performance as Lombard.
The 1974 film copies from the imperfect 1965 script, and loses some memorable lines in the translation. Also, by 1974, Lombard has no career. The 1974 film is least faithful to the nursery rhyme. Events are out of Owen's control, as when a snake is let loose, an uncertain murder weapon; one character simply wanders off into the desert; and another screams when a candle blows out by chance, in prior adaptations a diversion engineered by Owen. The location is so faraway and desolate it raises questions about why the guests would be willing to go there, without at least investigating, and how Owen could have made the arrangements. The film lapses back to 1945's short final exposition scene. Re-writes to reflect the end of hanging as a form of capital punishment, and to make Owen choke out incoherent last words, rob that crucial scene of even the inadequate dramatic effect of its predecessors.
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