It was Lombard I believe (a little over halfway through the movie) who alluded to something that I'd been thinking of from the very beginning. I don't remember his exact words but it was something along the lines of people only getting killed when they're alone with someone, so as long as you stay in threes you'll be fine. Exactly. So, almost from the start (or at least as soon as it was figured out that the killer had to be one of the original group of ten) - why not just stay together as a group? Always? For the entire weekend? Why keep separating to go to their separate bedrooms for the night, where they' be alone and at the mercy of the killer. Was it modesty? Because there were both men and women? Sleep on the couch. Sleep on the floor. But stay together. There's a murderer among you! As long as you stay together you'll be safe. But it took more than half the movie for one of the characters to figure that out, and even then - they (or what was left of "them") didn't do it!
The movie is based on the Agatha Christie novel of the same name. To be honest I read a lot - but I tend toward non-fiction (history, biographies) so I've never read the novel. The basic plot has 10 complete strangers being invited by a U. N. Owen to spend the weekend in a big house on a mysterious and deserted island off the English coast. Once they arrive and start to get to know each other it becomes clear that each of them have something shady in their past, and it also becomes clear that someone wants to make them pay for their past misdeeds. So one by one they get picked off, with the murders living out a nursery rhyme about "Ten Little Indians." Incidentally - that was a "nursery rhyme"? Seriously? Setting aside the obvious racism (which, I concede, wouldn't have been a huge issue in 1945) that's not the sort of ditty I'd want my kids singing. Oh well. Different times.
There is a decent enough mystery here. One can keep guessing, but there's really nothing in particular that I saw that gave away who the murderer was. It did at times feel like I was watching a game of "Clue" being played out. It's not a fancy movie. I'd assume that there weren't many "fancy" movies made in England in 1945, with England just coming out of World War II, but this one would have filled the time of the war weary population. The cast was sometimes guilty of over-acting. The very first death scene (portrayed by Mischa Auer) was actually funny as he stumbled around, apparently poisoned by something. I felt sorry for the butler (Richard Haydn) who was still expected to get breakfast and dinner even after his wife fell victim to the killer. The famous old "stiff upper lip" of the British, I guess.
This was all right, but I'd personally say that I think it's a bit over-rated. (5/10)
The movie is based on the Agatha Christie novel of the same name. To be honest I read a lot - but I tend toward non-fiction (history, biographies) so I've never read the novel. The basic plot has 10 complete strangers being invited by a U. N. Owen to spend the weekend in a big house on a mysterious and deserted island off the English coast. Once they arrive and start to get to know each other it becomes clear that each of them have something shady in their past, and it also becomes clear that someone wants to make them pay for their past misdeeds. So one by one they get picked off, with the murders living out a nursery rhyme about "Ten Little Indians." Incidentally - that was a "nursery rhyme"? Seriously? Setting aside the obvious racism (which, I concede, wouldn't have been a huge issue in 1945) that's not the sort of ditty I'd want my kids singing. Oh well. Different times.
There is a decent enough mystery here. One can keep guessing, but there's really nothing in particular that I saw that gave away who the murderer was. It did at times feel like I was watching a game of "Clue" being played out. It's not a fancy movie. I'd assume that there weren't many "fancy" movies made in England in 1945, with England just coming out of World War II, but this one would have filled the time of the war weary population. The cast was sometimes guilty of over-acting. The very first death scene (portrayed by Mischa Auer) was actually funny as he stumbled around, apparently poisoned by something. I felt sorry for the butler (Richard Haydn) who was still expected to get breakfast and dinner even after his wife fell victim to the killer. The famous old "stiff upper lip" of the British, I guess.
This was all right, but I'd personally say that I think it's a bit over-rated. (5/10)