And Then There Were None (1945)

Director: René Clair
Starring: Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, Roland Young, June Duprez, Mischa Auer, C. Aubrey Smith

Based on the novel by Agatha Christie

SYNOPSIS

A group of people are gathered together at a house on a deserted island, only to be confronted by a recording accusing them all of murder... and a mysterious stranger killing them off one by one according to an old children's rhyme.

REVIEW

Despite its influence on modern horror and thriller genres, And The There Were None (or to give its original, highly non-PC title - Ten Little N*ggers or Ten Little Indians) is a novel I had never gotten around to reading despite owning most of Christie's novels. That's something I hope to rectify very soon, as this is an excellent little mystery thriller.

The movie essentially starts with some hoary old clichés - probably already clichés when Christine first wrote the novel. We follow as characters are introduced to each other, then they find out that nobody is as they seem and the group starts to fragment as they accuse each other of murder. There's a couple of dull moments near the start, but it soon picks up as we discover that not only is everybody in the group guilty of something, but the killer also has an ornament with 10 figures that get broken off as people die. Therefore, somebody in the group must be the killer...

Some sources point to this film as being the first slasher movie, and it's easy to see why - people killed off in different ways by a mysterious killer whose identity remains secret until the end. However, what really struck me here is how funny the film was at times. Sure, it's a macabre type of humour, but whereas most movies of the period would have shoehorned in an annoying comic relief character, the humour is shared among the group. With some interesting third act revelations, the movie keeps you guessing till the end, and has some great and memorable sequences.

If that intrigues you, it appears that the movie is now in the public domain, so you can either buy the DVD or download the movie free and legally from archive.org.

8 / 10