Rating: 
Summary: Stylish suspense that ranks with the greatest!
Review: By far the best screen adaptation of Agatha Christie, (not to be mentioned in the same breath with the tepid "Death on the Nile," and "Murder on the Orient Express") you have tantalizing mystery, thrilling suspense, black humor, splendid acting, perfect production, and almost geometrically brilliant direction all in one highly enjoyable package. Internationally famous director Rene Clair here presents the classic mystery with such style and skill, that you truly have no idea what's going to happen next. His craftsmanlike care and attention to detail make all ten characters at once capable and incapable of the murders. The careful casting is also inspired, a troupe containing no types to suggest assured innocence or guilt; yet hardly a collection of no-name fresh off his Oscar-winning performance; Louis Hayward, a now forgotten, but hugely appealing playboy sort; Roland Young, delightfully bumbling; and the adenoidal Richard Haydn, in his most winning performance. These are particular standouts in a sterling cast which also includes Judith Anderson, C. Aubrey Smith, and Mischa Auer. The great mansion is also a triumph of art direction, handsomely photographed in moody black-and-white by Lucien Androit; and music likewise assists to create tempo and atmosphere. Humor is also in generous doses, provided by scriptwriter Dudley Nichols, ("Bringing Up Baby,""Stagecoach," etc.) a master at pointing up the action with the humor, rather than interrupting it. Finally, like all great movies, this one gets better and better as it goes along, culminating in a classic denouement with a neat sting in its tail. Even after the culprit is revealed, you'll want to go back and study the skill at which the mystery was sustained! A true classic totally undeserved of its indifference from the Academy and today's top-ten lists. It will challenge any armchair sleuth out there!
Rating: 
Summary: Almost a perfect movie
Review: I thought the list of great characters was outstanding. To think of putting these greats actors and actresses was a geniously thought out idea. Just to have these certain ones is fabulous. Basically following the book, until the ending it is great. 10 people are invited to a deserted island. 8 guests arrive by boat, and the other two, the maid and the butler are already there. A tape recording on the gramyphone starts up accusing each person guilty of at least one murder. So one by one, they all start being murdered. They finally agree it is one of them doing the murders. Will they stop the fiend before he kills them all? Louis Hayward and June Duprez star as Phillip Lombard and Vera Claythorne. Walter Huston is superb as he takes on the role of Dr. Armstrong. Barry Fitzgeralrd if great as the sinister judge. Roland Young has some perfect lines as the mysterious Henry Blore. Judith Anderson play the evil witch, Emily Brent. C. Aubrey Smith is the old General Macarthur. Mischa Auer plays the comical, but always drunk Prince Nikita Startloff. Richard Hadyn and Queenie Leonard also famous play Thomas and Ethel Rogers, the butler and maid. The movie has fine performances by everyone and the movie is almost perfect except for a few problems. Maybe it's just me, but I was a little picky, because of the difference of the book and the movie. 1. They changed the names of the people who were murdered by the ten guest. That's not a majjor problem. 2. The characters unlike some of them in the movie, were much more sinister and cunning in the book. Even a more major problem is this. 3. In the book they are all killed, in the movie two escape. Eh, It's Hollywood! They want a happy ending, but the quality of the movie is fabulous. Hollywood never follows the great books, but this one is definatly the best version of this book. It just might be my pickiness, but the movie itself if great!
Rating:
Summary: Film, like book, unable to fully realize idea as a story
Review: Agatha Christie's 1939 story idea captures the imagination. Ten strangers who each, in his or her own way, 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. Each adaptation is worth seeing as an attempt to bring the idea to life. Unfortunately, neither Christie nor the filmmakers succeed in turning this compelling but at the same time confining plot concept into a truly fulfilling story.The book's premise is clever and fascinating. 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 gives the highly contrived events a certain plausibility. It is the least sentimental about the characters, treating them vaguely and suspiciously. This helps, even if it does not entirely succeed, in making them convincing as people who have killed in the past and could do so again. The book maintains more of a sense of fear, dread, menace, suspense, and purpose than the film versions. It explains at some length why and how Owen carried out the scheme. However, once the imaginative premise is established, 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. Those crimes vary widely in originality, depth, and genuineness. The best are Claythorne's, the general's, Brent's, and the Rogers'. The past crimes of Blore, the doctor, the judge, and Lombard are trite, unexplored, and ineffective. 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 of survival, justice, and criminality that are 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? How do they try to survive? Also by its very nature -- as the book's last pages acknowledge -- this is a morality play. How is each character a "criminal"? How is each "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. Overall, the films are worse in some respects and better in some respects than the book. The 1945 version develops the plot better in some ways. While as tightly written as the book, it is richer in deductive theories, in taking stock at each stage of the story, and in survival techniques. The dialogue seems sharper than in the book and provides some memorable lines. This adaptation pioneered the technique (repeated in 1965 and 1974 and omitted only from the 1989 version, to its detriment) of playing the Ten Little Indians nursery rhyme on the piano. This brings it to life and sets the stage for what is to come. The cast is mostly outstanding. Many characters -- Lombard, Claythorne, doctor, judge, Blore, Brent -- seem as smart, strong, or distinctive as in the book, or more so. They are more entertaining. Generally, the films do a better job of showing characters interact. Except in 1989, the films make more of an effort than the book to explain the relationship that develops between two characters. However, the 1945 version handles the past crimes even less effectively than the book. The movie presents the general and his past crime in an obscure, lifeless way; even the weak 1989 adaptation does better. The 1945 version makes a ludicrous change to the judge's past crime. It waters down Brent's. In changing the story to allow characters to survive, it distorts their identities and/or crimes in fundamental ways. In the process, it replaces the book's most complex, interesting past crime with one that is bland, superficial, and false. This confuses the meaning of the host's actions, although it does suggest, but not develop, a new theme of false accusation not present in the book. Generally, the film's attempts to make the characters entertaining (a re-named Marston, Rogers, doctor, judge, Blore) come at the expense of their plausibility as villains and of the story's seriousness. Characters confess their secrets and treat the horror unfolding around them as if it were a parlor game. Mischa Auer's farcical, clownish performance is a disaster. The character was poorly drawn to begin with, and the 1945 film does a particularly poor job of presenting his past crime. This, and the changed ending, are only the most extreme examples of a general problem with taking such a lighthearted approach to a fundamentally serious story. Worst of all, the climactic scene, which reveals Owen's identity, means, and motives, is short, sedate, droll, unsatisfying, and leaves a lot unexplained. In 1945, Owen has a weary, rational, amiable armchair chat with the final victim precisely when the character should come alive as someone triumphantly and credibly capable of inflicting such horror. It is left to the otherwise flawed 1974 version to capture more of the tone and intensity of the book and to the generally inept 1989 film to provide an ending that is dramatic, reflects that a deadly serious killer has been at work, conveys a sense of Owen's menace and lunacy, and most fully explains Owen's behavior.
Rating:
Summary: "THE" CLASSIC CHRISTIE FILM.
Review: Ten people - who are strangers to each other - are invited to Indian Island by an unseen host. The guests strangely "die off" one by one, and their deaths seem to follow suit & are vaguely similar to an old children's nursery rhyme.........This movie is a great adaptation of Agatha Christie's TEN LITTLE INDIANS, which is generally considered to be her finest novel. The actors fit their character roles brilliantly, with Dame Judith Anderson standing out as Emily Brent who wonders whether the "eggs are fresh". June Duprez is surprisingly modern in her playing, rather like a forties version of Diana Rigg (a'la THE AVENGERS). Walter Huston and Barry Fitzgerald are a most fascinating duo who SEEM to be "in cahoots" with each other. Richard Hadyn possessed one of the most comically unique voices of any actor in films; he and Mischa Auer give the film its best comical moments. The film is unfortunately a bit house-bound but it's VERY atmospheric due to Rene Claire's special touch.
Rating: 
Summary: And then there were none
Review: The story AND THEN THERE WERE NONE,is about 10 guests invited to a party on a deserted island called Indian island, throughout the story the guest are life threatened and stuck on this island also.
The book was good; it had a very unusual ending. The begining I say was very weak because it was very hard to keep with all the characters because the they were coming into the story without being presented, what made you read the begining of the story 2 or 3 times to understand the beginning.The good thing about this book was the mystery and that's what kept me reading it, it will keep you in suspence.
Rating:
Summary: Agatha Christie's Classic Murder Made Real
Review: Rene Claire's AND THEN THERE WERE NONE is a wonderful version of the classic only Agatha Christie could plot. This movie stays extremly true to the original thrillar and kept me guessing till the end. Ten people are invited to what they think is a party on an island off the coast of Devon. While relaxing in the lounge, a recording comes on, accusing each guest of murder. After this quite suprising event, the party becomes a funeral, as one of the guests suddenly falls dead. Eventually, the death is traced to murder. Then, after more murder, 8 remaining guests realize the are being murdered according to the nursery rhyme Ten Little Indians. Soon enough the race is on to discover the killer before he or she strikes again. One by one the guests fall dead to the mercyless rhyme. The cast is amazing. June Duprez's portrayal of Vera Claythorne is stunning. Louis Hayward is the handsome yet sly Phillip Lombard. Barry Fitzgerald is the exact match to Judge Quinncannon. Roland Young has lines that are a less bit serious then Christie's version, yet still entertaining, for the part of Henry Blore. The movie is suspensful, unpredictable and even funny at points. Rene Clair's ending for the movie is different then the book but ends the movie on a the...oh, but you'll have to see the movie yourself. So turn out the lights, grab some popcorn and enjoy the murder...I mean the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Stylish suspense that ranks with the greatest!
Review: By far the best screen adaptation of Agatha Christie, (not to be mentioned in the same breath with the tepid "Death on the Nile," and "Murder on the Orient Express") you have tantalizing mystery, thrilling suspense, black humor, splendid acting, perfect production, and almost geometrically brilliant direction all in one highly enjoyable package. Internationally famous director Rene Clair here presents the classic mystery with such style and skill, that you truly have no idea what's going to happen next. His craftsmanlike care and attention to detail make all ten characters at once capable and incapable of the murders. The careful casting is also inspired, a troupe containing no types to suggest assured innocence or guilt; yet hardly a collection of no-name fresh off his Oscar-winning performance; Louis Hayward, a now forgotten, but hugely appealing playboy sort; Roland Young, delightfully bumbling; and the adenoidal Richard Haydn, in his most winning performance. These are particular standouts in a sterling cast which also includes Judith Anderson, C. Aubrey Smith, and Mischa Auer. The great mansion is also a triumph of art direction, handsomely photographed in moody black-and-white by Lucien Androit; and music likewise assists to create tempo and atmosphere. Humor is also in generous doses, provided by scriptwriter Dudley Nichols, ("Bringing Up Baby,""Stagecoach," etc.) a master at pointing up the action with the humor, rather than interrupting it. Finally, like all great movies, this one gets better and better as it goes along, culminating in a classic denouement with a neat sting in its tail. Even after the culprit is revealed, you'll want to go back and study the skill at which the mystery was sustained! A true classic totally undeserved of its indifference from the Academy and today's top-ten lists. It will challenge any armchair sleuth out there!
Rating:
Summary: And Then There Were None
Review: This dvd made me so mad. First of all it is in black and white. Second, it said on Amazon that it stayed true to the book. However, it didn't. It was no where near the book. In fact at the end two of the characters live to tell about it. They fall in love and live happily ever after. The dvd should be called And Then there were two.
Rating:
Summary: And then there were none
Review: I saw this movie on t.v. years ago. I am a fan of Agatha Christie. I thoroughly loved this movie!!! If you love mysteries you'll love this movie!!
Rating:
Summary: Fun Until The End!
Review: I loved this movie! Although the ending is different from the book, I thought this movie was very well done and well worth the money. I did notice however some parts where the movie was supposed to taken seriously, but ended up being funny through bad lighting or whatnot. But you must realize that this movie is older, so appreciate it. The story line is very well done, and the acting is surprisingly well done. PURCHASE THIS MOVIE! I know you'll love it to death and watch it over and over :D
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