And Then There Were Many: Agatha Christie and the Modern Slasher Film

in #film5 years ago (edited)

TenLIttleIndians.jpg
Image courtesy of IMDb. DVD cover for Russian-language version of Ten Little Indians. #horror #mystery #film #movies #books #crime

Caution: Spoilers Ahead

Most horror historians date the rise of the modern slasher film to Black Christmas (1974), a Canadian film about sorority girls being picked off by an unknown killer who moves around undetected in their vast old house. Particularly chilling, we never even know much about the killer or why he’s targeting the girls. One of his victims, encased in plastic and hanging in the attic, is never even found.

The concept of a killer with a grudge picking off victims one by one wasn’t invented by the scripters of Black Christmas, however. Other films preceded it. There was M, starring Peter Lorre as a serial killer of children, way back in the early 1930s. There was The Spiral Staircase, the Robert Siodmak chiller from the 40s, about a serial killer who targets handicapped women. There was the Vincent Price film, The Abominable Dr Phibes (1971), which featured Price as an aggrieved widower methodically picking off the doctors who let his wife die. (Theatre of Blood, also with Price, had nearly the same plot two years later.)

And then there were a whole slew of films that masqueraded as a “murder mystery”, but which were really slasher films at heart. These are the films based on mystery writer Agatha Christie’s most famous novel, And Then There Were None aka Ten Little Indians. For the benefit of the three people who’ve never heard of it, the novel—and subsequent stage play based on it—features a group of eight strangers and two servants who are invited to a house party on a remote island by a mysterious benefactor, Mr. U. N. Owen. Once they arrive, they are each accused of murder and then picked off one by one by an unseen killer, according to the verses of an old English nursery rhyme. Christie took the serial killer one-by-one premise and added to the terror by trapping the victims in an inescapable place with no communications or possible transportation to the outside world.

Numerous films have copied the Christie format, including many from the horror genre, the most obvious being Friday the 13th and its sequels. Others include The Legacy (1978), Alien (1979), Devil (2010), Don’t Blink (2011), and many, many more. Ridley Scott, the director of the groundbreaking Alien, even referred to his film as “Agatha Christie in the old dark house.”

Ironically enough, the same year that Black Christmas debuted, the third big screen adaptation of Ten Little Indians also premiered, directed by Peter Collinson. This version is set at a vast deserted hotel/resort in the middle of the Iranian desert (pre-Islamic Revolution.) It has virtually the same plot as Black Christmas, but no one at the time would have considered it a “slasher film.” Instead, it was marketed as an “Agatha Christie mystery.” And it appealed to audiences who probably would not have wanted to see Black Christmas,--or, a few years later, Friday the 13th.

I’ve seen all of the versions of And Then There None/Ten Little Indians that are easily available. Most versions go with the “happy ending” variation of the stage play, which allows two of the most sympathetic characters to be declared innocent of their alleged crimes and survive. In the original novel, everyone dies, including the murderer.

Here are the most easily accessible versions, ranked from worst to best. I've also noted the two productions (1987 and 2015) that feature the novel's bleaker ending rather than the stage play's "happy ending."

Ten Little Indians (1989), directed by Allen Birkenshsw; starring Donald Pleasence, Brenda Vaccaro, Frank Stallone, and Herbert Lom.

This is the least effective version that I’ve seen. Set in the 1920s, the action has been moved from a remote island to an isolated bush safari camp in Africa. This film isn’t terrible, but it is very blah, with especially dull characters, changed radically in some cases from the book. There’s not much suspense or tension as the safari members are picked off one by one. Frank Stallone is awful as Captain Lombard and Donald Pleasence chews scenery with embarrassing verve as the judge. There's nice scenery, though, shot by British cameraman Arthur Lavis. No disc is available in the U.S.; a used VHS copy can be had from auction sites.

Ten Little Indians (1959), directed by Paul Bogart and two others; starring Nina Foch, Barry Jones, and Romney Brent. This b&w live television production from the 50s is a fan favorite. It has great atmosphere and a strong cast. However, I personally think that the running time of an hour is too short for the subject matter. There’s no time for character development or building dread; the bodies keep piling up one after another with no let up. The sets are cheap as well. But the performances are good and this would have probably been lovely with more time and a bigger budget. On disc.

Ten Little Indians (1974), directed by Peter Collinson; starring Oliver Reed, Elke Sommer, Charles Aznavour, Herbert Lom and Orson Welles. As noted above, this version is set at a huge, deserted hotel in the middle of an Iranian desert. The setting doesn’t really work, IMHO. The hotel is too vast to provide the claustrophobic, inescapable feeling that is called for by the plot. (Why wouldn’t the intended victims simply hide out from the others in one of the hundreds of empty rooms until help arrives?)

This so-so version is notable mainly for Charles Aznavour’s bizarre, floral-printed evening jacket, and for Orson Welles’s dramatic reading of the recorded welcoming message from Mr. Owen. Some nice scenery of ancient Persian ruins also relieves the tedium of the hotel lobby, where most of the action takes place. Interestingly, Herbert Lom, who portrayed the general in the 1989 version, appears in this version as the doctor.

Ten Little Indians (1965), directed by George Pollock; starring Hugh O’Brien, Shirley Eaton, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Stanley Holloway and Fabian. This b&w version is charming and cool in the way that only a mid-60s film can be. It’s light-hearted and suspenseful at the same time. The action has been moved from the island to a Swiss Chalet on a mountaintop in the alps. The acting is good for the most part (especially Hyde-White as the judge and Holloway as the private detective), the pacing is taught, the camerawork is great, and the score is jazzy and cool. All in all, it’s not a masterpiece, but it is a wonderful little film.

This version is known for the “Whodunnit Break”; the action is stopped and the story recapped toward the end to allow the audience to guess the identity of Mr. Owen. On a personal note, this was the first version I saw of the famous plot, on television when I was about eight or nine. I’m proud to announce that I correctly guessed the identity of the killer. On disc and streaming.

And Then There Were None (2015), a three-hour, BBC/A&E joint television miniseries, directed by Craig Viveiros and two others; starring Maeve Dermody, Aidan Turner, Charles Dance, Sam Neill, Toby Stephens, and Miranda Richardson. This British miniseries is stunningly produced, with brilliant sets and costumes, sterling acting from heavy-hitters like Dance, Neill, and Richardson, and an erudite, engrossing script. The atmosphere is grim and moody; there’s no light-hearted banter as in other versions. There's also some straight-out horror content in the form of ghostly visions that the guilty have of their victims. This production also returns to the original ending of the novel, in which everybody dies.

The action returns to a mansion on a deserted island off the coast of Devon, set in the 1930s. As the murders unfold, they are cross-cut with flashbacks detailing the crimes of the victims. Some fans, however, object to the plot changes that make the victims guilty of actual murders, not deaths that can't be punished by the law. For example, in the novel, the general (played here by Sam Neill), sent a subordinate he detested on a suicide mission that meant certain death; here, the general is shown in a flashback shooting the subordinate dead—which is of course, actual murder under the law. These changes undermine Christie’s original point about achieving justice for crimes that can’t be prosecuted. These changes bothered me greatly thoughout the series, but I still loved this production anyway. On disc and streaming.

And Then There Were None (1945), directed by Rene Clair. The first onscreen version of Christie's opus, and still one of the best, directed by the esteemed French auteur Rene Clair. It features an unbelievable cast that includes Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Dame Judith Anderson, Mischa Auer, and Sir C. Aubrey Smith. Clair was an exile in England from Nazi-occupied France when he made this film.

The setting is again on the island off the coast of Devon, although some of the characters and their back stories have been changed. This b&w film is excellently paced, light-hearted at times but not cutesy or sentimental, and there are some genuinely chilling scenes. The acting, as one might expect from the illustrious cast, is superb (especially Fitzgerald as the judge). The house and island setting are both memorable, and the script is smart and funny. On disc and streaming; it’s also on YouTube.

Ten Little Indians aka Desrat Negrityat, (1987), directed by Stanislaus Govoruhkin, starring Valdimir Zeldin, Tatyana Drubich, and Aleksandr Kaydanovskiy. This Russian-language version just edges out the 1945 Rene Clair opus for top honors. It’s very close to the book, and includes the much darker original ending, in which everyone dies. The superb atmosphere is grim and noirish, and the characters are the least sympathetic of any of the versions I’ve seen. Instead of the usual “glamorous” Christie cast, they’re grimy, double-dealing, and shifty. (Maybe because this Soviet-era production was trying to make a point about decadent Western capitalists?) It can be difficult to judge acting ability in another language, but to my eyes, the acting here is tremendous. The setting is also brilliant -- a dark, old house on a huge, gull-haunted rock in the middle of the ocean.

Note: The Russian title means “Ten Little Negroes”, which was wisely changed for the U.S. release. However, the statues that are removed as each victim dies are traditional African sculptures, in keeping with the Russian title. I didn’t find this offensive as the statues aren’t demeaning, but some viewers might. On disc and streaming; there are no embedded subtitles so turn on closed caption.

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Fabulous recap, and there are a slew of these I've never seen, not to mention a few I never knew existed. Time to see if any of these beauties made it on to laserdisc. :)

Also, slightly off-topic, but I'm curious if you're familiar with Michael Slade's novel Ripper? It's a phenomenal read, and basically Slade's love letter to the great mystery writers of old--mainly to the locked room mysteries of John Dixon Carr, but the second half of the book is an homage to ...And Then There Were None, only far more brutal. It's basically what you'd get if someone decided to shoot Agatha Christie's story as a straight-up horror movie instead of a more staid and approachable mystery. :)

I've heard of it but haven't read it. Sounds good!

Sounds excellent! Great review. I confess I don't read as much as I used to, as I've been concentrating on writing my own stories, but I do need to stay up with the trends. Thanks for the recommendation!

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Hey nice review! I didn't know there were so many, I'm looking forward to watch some of them, thanks to this. Nice job!
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