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| Hugh O'Brian and Shirley Eaton |
TEN LITTLE INDIANS (1965). Director: George Pollock.
Ten people, including two servants, are given invitations to work or play at an isolated estate located high atop a mountain and accessible only by cable car. They discover the strange nursery rhyme about "ten little Indians" in each of their rooms The mysterious voice (Christopher Lee) of their unseen host declares that they have each gotten away with killing someone, and now it is time to pay the piper. The first to go is singer Mike Raven (Fabian), who ran over two people and barely got a slap on the wrist -- he dies by arsenic -- and then more murders occur, somehow each corresponding to the method of death mentioned in the rhyme. Will anyone be left alive?
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| Leon Genn and most of the group |
George Pollock had previously directed four Agatha Christie "Miss Marple" adaptations, and he does a good job adapting her "And Then There Were None/Ten Little Indians" to the screen. While I might have preferred a little more tension, this is not quite as "cutesy" -- for lack of a better word -- as the forties film
And Then There Were None. Hugh O'Brian pretty much smirks his way through the movie, as if he were above it all (which he isn't), but his performance is adequate, although the other cast members are more on target. Stanley Holloway, Shirley Eaton, Dennis Price, Leo Genn, and Mario Adorf (as the houseman) deliver adept performances, while Fabian gets an "A" for effort and Wilfrid Hyde White seems to think he's back in that forties adaptation and can best be described as annoyingly impish. Surprisingly Daliah Lavi has a very good turn as the high-maintenance actress Ilona Bergen, and comes through in her scene when she admits all about her past. As the cook and housekeeper Marianne Hoppe is, perhaps, a bit too hysterical.
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| Dennis Price and Wilfrid Hyde White |
This version transplants the story from an island to a mountaintop and two of the murders center on falls from great heights, one in a cable car whose cable snaps, and the other while a character attempts a climb down the mountain to get help; these are well-handled, and the film has genuine suspense. O'Brian and Eaton are given a love scene that seems a bit out of place. Malcolm Lockyer's jazzy score does little for the picture, but the lensing is sharp thanks to cinematographer Ernest Stewart. This was George Pollock's last theatrical feature.
Verdict: Very entertaining Christie picture with some fine performances. ***,
4 comments:
Need to see this one again, it's a lot of fun. Love the 60s flavor combined with Christie's excellent plot making. Wonderful cast, and too bad Hugh O'Brien doesn't get more love from classic film lovers...he was handsome and always solid.
-Chris
Hugh had a solid career even if no one saw him as a Laurence Olivier. He did some good work, too. I remember him when he guest-starred on Perry Mason when Raymond Burr was sick, playing another character. His biggest successes were on TV.
I seem to recall that this movie got bad reviews when it opened and Fabian was mercilessly savaged with the general note that it was good he was the first of the victims! I expected to see a stinker but it's not a bad movie at all.
Oh my I remember seeing this as a kid and falling head over heels for Hugh!! That shirtless scene definitely left an impression. And he was so darn handsome. Fabian was also very easy on the eyes.
Yes, they were both handsome hunks -- no doubt that had something to do with their casting!
Thanks for your comments!
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