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If Alfred Hitchcock is considered to be the Master of Suspense, then by all means should Agatha Christie be declared Mistress of the same arena. Her works of mystery have sparked countless stage and screen adaptations, one of the best-known being 1945's And Then There Were None. Boasting an impressive cast that includes the likes of Walter Huston and Barry Fitzgerald, this film, based on the novel Ten Little Indians, has long since proven itself to be the veritable template for a big chunk of the murder mysteries to follow in the years after its release. At first it was considered cliché by genre standards, but by no means does that deter from the suspenseful magic that the picture manages to weave over the course of the running time.
The set-up is simple. Ten seemingly random individuals have been
June Duprez
brought together under rather unusual circumstances. The group, which ranges from a wise judge (Fitzgerald) and an alcoholic doctor (Huston) to a shy secretary (June Duprez) and a dashing explorer (Louis Hayward), has been invited to a sprawling island mansion as the guests of host U.N. Owen. Not a one of them knows who the elusive Mr. Owen is, but he's certainly familiar with them, as a record he leaves to be played condemns each of the ten for a past crime they may or may not have committed.
Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, June Duprez, Barry Fitzgerald, and Roland Young
The situation turns more grim when one of the guests mysteriously dies, with another strange death following the next day. The survivors quickly determine that these deaths were no coincidences. They surmise that their homicidal host has taken it upon himself to punish them for their misdeeds, picking them off one by one in the style of the "Ten Little Indians" nursery rhyme. But as the guests start attempting to weed Mr. Owen out, they come to another shocking conclusion: the killer they're searching for may just be one of their own.
And Then There Were None isn't an especially complex or convoluted mystery, but it doesn't need to be. It's just a simple "whodunit" that coasts along rather well on the effective, bare-bones nature of its story. You just have to know what happens next, and for the most part, director Rene Clair does a nifty job of always keeping the story moving in an intriguing direction. He does this by making the wise decision to cast suspicion on each and every one of the characters.
In retrospect, the one who turns out to be the mysterious Mr. Owen is a no-brainer, but watching the film for the first time, the viewer is in a true state of suspense, as little hints and red herrings are scattered throughout, endowing all of the characters with the potential to commit murder. With an island setting that proves to be as expansive as it is claustrophobic, And Then There Were None really knows how to keep one on his toes, cooking up an atmosphere that goes along perfectly with the story.
The few speed bumps encountered along the way aren't crippling, but the distractions they provide are definitely noticeable. As there tends to be with a lot of murder mysteries, there's quite a bit of down time in between killings. This leaves portions of the film in which the characters just wander around until the next addition to the body count furthers the plot.
There's some investigation involved, but a lot of the time, we get Fitzgerald's character serving as a one-man army, coming up with explanations left and right while the others sit around waiting to be knocked off. The pacing tends to get a little wobbly and repetitive as a result, but as I mentioned before, it's not enough to completely ruin the flick as a whole.
The varied selection of actors and characters make sure that the viewers are involved one way or another. The film's finest performances belong to Huston as the disgraced doctor and Richard Haydn as the obligatory butler, who, in one of the script's more darkly comedic moments, refuses to serve dinner after being accused of being the killer.
And Then There Were None is the sort of material that was born for the stage, this medium being able to increase the viewer's potential to be immersed in the mysterious goings-on. As a film, the premise doesn't work as brilliantly as it could, but nevertheless, it does just the trick in providing a little over an hour and a half's worth of good, sound, and engaging thrills.
Director: Rene Clair
Writer: Dudley Nichols - screneplay, novel - Agatha Christie
Cast: Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, Roland Young, June Duprez, Mischa Auer, Sir C. Aubrey Smith, Judith Anderson, Richard Haydn, Queenie Leonard
Rating: No MPAA Rating (some offscreen violence)
Classic Movie Guide Rating: 3 stars out of 5
Run Time: 97 minutes
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Format: Black-and-white, Fullscreen
Photo credits: 20th Century Fox
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