Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Fresh and Exciting

A story that's too fascinating to pass by...

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Charles Aznavour, Maria Rohm, Adolfo Celi, Stéphane Audran, Alberto de Mendoza, Richard Attenborough, Gert Frobe, Herbert Lom, Oliver Reed and Elke Sommer are summoned to a hotel in Iran by the mysterious U.N. Owen (get it?) and all accused of having murdered someone. They start getting bumped off one-by-one and realize that one of them must be Owen. This pan-European production (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish money went into it) of the Agatha Christie chestnut has a great cast but is a really slow and listless adaptation. Harry Alan Towers seems to have little thought or resources into this one after coming up with the idea and casting it ... he even used exactly the same script as his 1965 version.

Ten Little Indians (AKA: And Then There Were None) is directed by Peter Collinson and adapted to screenplay by Peter Wellbeck (AKA: Harry Alan Towers) from the Agatha Christie novel. It stars Charles Aznavour, Stephane Audran, Elke Sommer, Gert Frobe, Herbert Lom, Oliver Reed and Richard Attenborough. Music is by Bruno Nicolai and cinematography by Fernando Arribas.Agatha Christie's famous novel gets another make-over, this time the action is located at a near empty hotel in the Iranian desert. Premise is exactly the same as the 1965 version, 10 people gather at the location on the request of the mysterious U.N. Owen (here voiced by Orson Welles), who via a tape recorded message calls them out for dastardly deeds committed in their respective lives. When they start being killed off one by one it becomes apparent that the price they have to pay for said crimes is death. But who is doing the killing?Well it's the first version in colour and it has what can only be described as a pretty formidable cast, yet it's as bland as bland can be. Especially if you have seen the superior 45 and 65 versions. The murders lack vitality, the cast go through the motions, seemingly just happy to be on location in Iran, while suspense is in very short supply. The only mystery is who is doing the killings? And once revealed at pic's finale it just isn't enough to warrant having sat through over an hour and half of mundane scripting and zero chills. 4/10

Ten people are invited to stat at a remote mansion in Iran . As they get to know one another they're intrigued that their host seems to be missing . They hear a tape recording from U N Owen who holds them responsible for deaths which he considers to be nothing less than murders and for which they are to pay a heavy price The old well worn cliché of the old dark house in a remote location based on the Agatha Christie story where the audience have to guess who did it . The film does convey a sense of remote isolation and this is one thing that the film does very well . The problem is that's the only thing the film does well It's often said that big name casts don't make for good movies and this was probably true when this film was released in 1974 when New Hollywood was making films with relatively unknown casts where the director was more than the people appearing in front of the cameras . If there's a problem with this version of the story it's that the logic behind a great number of scenes is entirely missing and the plot has to constantly rely on someone doing or someone not doing something sensible . Take the scene the first victim dies and ask yourself how did the villain manage to do this ? And the rest of the film splutters along in the same manner where if you examine something everything falls apart

Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" is one story that always struck me as intriguing but hopelessly implausible and grotesque. Just think about it: if YOU were to receive an invitation from a complete stranger, requesting you to come to an unknown location (in this case in a hotel in the middle of the godforsaken Iranian desert, of all places) and spend a vacation with nine other people you've never seen or heard about before in your life … would YOU go? I certainly wouldn't… But hey, that's just the story and already proved itself to be hugely successful since it was first published in 1939. "And then there were none" could have been a great black comedy thriller, especially if you take a look at the talented director and the literally amazing cast, but somehow they messed up badly here. The atmosphere of mystery completely falls flat and, for a movie that constantly features murders and accusations, there's very little excitement to be found. The ensemble cast of wonderful actors and actresses (including Oliver Reed, Herbert Lom and Gert Fröbe) manifests very few interests in the concept and the production in general, illustrated through some of the most unsavory performances ever seen. It literally hurts to see great names like this give away such lousy and lifeless performances. A wide variety of people, ten in total and all from different backgrounds, assembles in a luxurious but abandoned Iranian hotel after they all received an invitation from a mysterious individual named U.N. Owen (read = unknown). After diner and the inevitable chant of supportive French star Charles Aznavour, they are forced to listen to a tape (apparently voiced by Orson Welles, but I wouldn't know as I saw a German dubbed version) which accuses each and every one of them of having committed murder(s) in the past. Immediately after they start dying one by one, exactly like in the nursery rhyme of "Ten little … um … colored people". As stated before, the plot is already quite preposterous, so it definitely doesn't help to bring the whole formula in the most unconvincing fashion imaginably. People are dying left and right, yet none of the remaining survivors seems to be very nervous or in a hurry to out of there. Heck, even when half of the guest list is already dead, the remaining ones still carelessly smoke cigars in the lounge, play games of pool or even engage in romantic liaisons with each other! The killings are dull, commonplace and a vast number of them even occur off-screen; God forbid! The twist in the end is reasonably unpredictable, I guess, but nonetheless another very abrupt and random event in an overall uninteresting movie. Apparently this is the only film ever shot in the Iranian deserts, but I hardly consider that a motivation to watch it.