Ten Little Indians – 1965 | 91 mins | Thriller, Mystery | B&W

Plot Synopsis

This “swinging” ’60s third version of Agatha Christie’s famed 1930s novel was directed by George Pollock, who had early worked on four Margaret Rutherford Miss Marple films during the early 1960s. This flat adaptation is overshadowed by Rene Clair’s 1945 definitive version And Then There Were None. The action is moved to a mountain castle high in the Alps (filmed in Ireland) and a dependable group of British character actors including Dennis Price, Stanley Holloway, Leo Genn and Wilfrid Hyde-White are on hand – with love interest provided by Hugh O’Brian and the appealing Shirley Eaton. Associate producer Harry Alan Towers went on the produce two more versions in 1974 and 1989. In the cinemas the film was shown with a two-minute whodunit break to allow the audience time to guess the identity of the killer.

Ten disparate strangers meet at an isolated Austrian ski resort for a weekend party held by anonymous host U.N. Owen at his mountainous castle retreat high in the Alps and accessible only by cable car. A tape recording from their unseen host informs the ten guests they are all guilty of perceived murders of innocent individuals. The old nursery rhyme Ten Little Indians is hung in every guestroom and provides both the framing and the method of execution for each victim. Pop singer Mike Raven (Fabian) is the first victim after drinking from a poisoned wine glass, hapless maid Elsa Grohmann (Marianne Hoppe) follows when falling to her death from a sabotaged cable car, then General Mandrake (Leo Genn) is stabbed in the cellar, the maid’s husband Joseph (Mario Adorf) dies when trying to escape down the cliff face, Ilona Bergen (Daliah Lavi) is injected with a poison, Judge Cannon (Wilfrid Hyde-White) is shot, Dr. Edward Armstrong (Dennis Price) is found dead in the snow-covered grounds, private detective. Blore (Stanley Holloway dies when hit by a falling statue and Hugh Lombard (Hugh O’Brian) is shot by the only remaining guest Ann Clyde (Shirley Eaton). But in Agatha Christie’s world all is not what it seems.