And Then There Were None (1945)

And Then There Were None (1945) – Ten people are invited to a remote island by an unknown host.  Each carries a secret crime in their past.  Their mystery host kills them one by one as the dwindling remainder desperately tries to figure a way out.

Directed by Rene Clair                                        Starring Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Roland                                                                                                       Young

What you get here is a perfect mix.  Mystery writer extraordinaire Agatha Christie is skilled at weaving an entertaining and challenging mystery for the story.  She is at her best in the material that inspired this movie. When you add in a veteran cast of character actors the result is a movie that gets every ounce of enjoyment out of the story.  The movie starts off with five dialogue-free minutes and then takes off running for then on.

As is generally true with her mysteries, Christie leaves clues lying around for the reader/viewer to pick up, if they are clever.  The movie gives you every chance to figure out who the killer is before the end.  I jumped the wrong way twice before figuring it out.  The twists and turns keep you wrapped up in the mystery right to the very end.

Originally a novel by Christie, it was later converted to a stage play and then a movie.  Curiously, the novel ends with one set of victims, while the play and movie have another.  Many critics consider the novel the best of all Christie’s work.  The original title in England was “Ten Little Niggers”, the title of the song that is featured in the mystery.  When the book came to America, the song became “Ten Little Indians” and the title took the final line of the lyric.