And Then There Were None (1945 film)

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And Then There Were None

Theatrical release poster.
Directed by René Clair
Produced by René Clair
Harry M. Popkin
Written by Novel:
Agatha Christie
Screenplay:
Dudley Nichols
Starring Barry Fitzgerald
Walter Huston
Louis Hayward
Roland Young
Music by Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Cinematography Lucien N. Andriot
Distributed by Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Release date(s) October 31, 1945 (U.S. release)
Running time 97 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

And Then There Were None (1945), directed by René Clair, is one of several film adaptations of Agatha Christie's best-selling mystery novel And Then There Were None concerning several people summoned to an island retreat by a mysterious stranger, only to meet their ends one by one.

The film changes certain characters' names and adheres to the ending of the play rather than that of the novel. Though its subject matter is dark, the film is humorous in places. It was directed by Rene Clair from a screenplay by Dudley Nichols. Its cast featured Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, Roland Young, June Duprez, Mischa Auer, C. Aubrey Smith, Judith Anderson, Richard Haydn and Queenie Leonard as the people stranded on the island. The film could arguably be seen as a precursor to the modern slasher film.

Though it was produced by a major studio, 20th Century Fox, the copyright to the film was allowed to lapse and it has now fallen into the public domain. As a result several different editions are available of varying quality.

[edit] Comparison with novel

This adaptation of the novel took, overall, fewer liberties with Christie's plot than some of the other versions. The ending, though, is radically altered. Only the 1987 Russian film version kept the novel's ending. This film, like all the other Western versions, nixed the shooting of Philip Lombard (played by Louis Hayward) and the suicide of Vera Claythorne's character (played by June Duprez) in favour of a happier Hollywood-ish ending. In this, the film follows the altered denouement Christie herself had rewritten for her 1943 stage version of the book. There is one major alteration - in the play, Vera thinks she has shot Lombard, after which the murderer appears and attacks her; Lombard, who was only grazed, comes to at the last minute and shoots the murderer as he is about to strangle the terrified girl. The film, however, simply has Vera help Lombard fake his death outside the mansion, then confront the culprit who commits suicide after revealing his motive and murder techniques. All in all, the end result is the same; the two major characters are left alive and innocent of the crimes they were accused of. Later remakes in 1966, 1975, and 1989 (all using the title Ten Little Indians), also used Christie's revised finale.

[edit] Cast

[edit] References


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