Ten Little Indians (1965 film)
| Ten Little Indians | |
|---|---|
UK release poster
|
|
| Directed by | George Pollock |
| Produced by | Harry Alan Towers |
| Screenplay by |
Peter Welbeck Peter Yeldham Erich Kröhnke Enrique Llovet |
| Based on |
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie |
| Starring |
Hugh O'Brian Shirley Eaton Fabian Leo Genn Stanley Holloway Wilfrid Hyde-White Daliah Lavi Dennis Price Marianne Hoppe Mario Adorf |
| Music by | Malcolm Lockyer |
| Cinematography | Ernest Steward |
| Edited by | Peter Boita |
|
Production
company |
Tenlit Films
|
| Distributed by |
Warner-Pathé (United Kingdom) Seven Arts (United States) |
|
Release date
|
June 1965 |
|
Running time
|
91 minutes |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Ten Little Indians (1965) is the second film version of Agatha Christie's detective novel of the same name.
Although its background story is the same as the 1945 adaptation (And Then There Were None), with ten people invited to a remote location by a mysterious stranger, this one takes place on an isolated snowy mountain. The house used in the film was Kenure House in Rush, County Dublin, Ireland. This version is also the first adaptation of the novel to show the murders on screen. Actor Christopher Lee (uncredited) provided the pre-recorded gramophone voice of "Mr. U.N. Owen".
Ten people travel by aerial tramway to a snowbound mansion, invited there by a Mr. U.N. Owen to spend the weekend. They discover that none of them has actually ever met Owen, including his secretary as well as a married housekeeper and cook, all hired through an agency.
Framed copies of the children's nursery rhyme "Ten Little Indians" are hung on the walls of each guest's bedroom. Dinner is served by the butler Grohmann on a tray adorned with ten little Indian figurines, as well. At exactly 9 p.m., as instructed, Grohmann switches on a hidden tape recording. A man identifying himself as Owen reveals that each of the 10 guests has a scandalous secret, their involvement in various innocent people's deaths.
One by one, the guests begin dying off. Mike Raven chokes after taking a drink and dies, and a little Indian from the centerpiece tray is broken away. In the morning, the cable tram is cut, killing the cook, Mrs. Grohmann who attempted to escape. General Mandrake conducts a search of the chalet's catacombs, splitting everyone into pairs, ultimately leading to his demise, stabbed after being led to a planted distraction (a cat). It becomes clear that their unseen killer is following the nursery rhyme. Ann Clyde, the secretary, enters into a romantic relationship with engineer Hugh Lombard as they and the others begin a deadly cat-and-mouse game, ultimately deducing that Owen is not their host but, in reality, one of them.
After falling under suspicion from the others, Grohmann attempts to make his escape down the mountain peak, Devil's Leap, ending in his death after his lifeline is severed with an axe. Ilona bitterly confesses to having driven her husband to suicide, and is later found dead in her bedroom, killed with a syringe. By now, the five remaining guests fall under distrust of one another, and alliances are formed as the generator shuts down, casting the mansion into total darkness. At dinner, each person reveals the nature of their accusations, but before Ann can attest to her crime, she separates from the group to her room, where she screams upon discovering an Indian decoy hung from the ceiling. In the confusion, Judge Cannon is found with a gunshot wound to his head.
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