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All this relates to my film project, which is ultimately catching up on movies I have yet to see because of my fear of cataract surgery. I had just re-read the Agatha Christie novel, after a string of highbrow fiction. I needed something light and frothy and this work delivers. I think it is Dame Agatha's best.
Now, for years, girls, I had heard about Rene Clair's 1945 film version of this story, which was famous for his direction and a wonderful cast. The cast is indeed wonderful but let me voice my first reservation; though Clair's direction is adept enough, too often this film is played for wit, like a British drawing room comedy. I think the film would have been better served had it been directed by Alfred Hitchcock. He may have been wanted, and may have wanted to do it, but don't forget he was still under contract to David O. Selznick, who kept him on a short leash. Also, since Twentieth Century-Fox made the film, and given June Duprez' startling resemblance, couldn't they have had her role played by Gene Tierney??????????????????
The plot remains the same. Ten unknown people are invited to a remote island by an injustice collector who wants to mete out the justice he/she thinks they deserve. One by one, the guests are killed off in mysterious, unsolvable ways. Now, the film is faithful to the book, up to a point. But there is a part which it disengages.
Everyone in the novel is killed, including the perpetrator. In the film, the two lovers--Louis Hayward and June Duprez, escape, while the alleged killer hints at suicide, but disappears, so does he really die or not? This ruined the film for me.
Nevertheless, the actors are strong, and so are the stylized Hollywood sets. A real period feel is captured. The costumes designed by Rene-Hubert do help, as does the art direction and set design of Ernst Fegte and Edward G. Boyle. Their work is atmospheric and masterful.
I am glad I finally got a chance to see this film For those who have not, I urge you to do so. Even more if you haven't, I urge you to read the book first.
The real thrills are all there, darlings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
5 comments:
We saw the movie, read the book,, and enjoyed two community theater productions, all wonderful in their own way!!
Victoria, You bring up a good point. How come stage thrillers like this, "Witness For The Prosecution," and of course "The Bad Seed" among others are never revived?
While this 1945 version is absolutely worth a look, my first exposure to this tale was via the later 1965 version "Ten Little Indians" which I saw on the late late show as a pre-teen. Being alsio proto-gay, I was instantly smitten with hunky Hugh O'Brian (the Temu discount Rod Taylor: you might say I have a type, and it wasnt his boyish costar Fabian).
This variation has other things going for it besides male (and female) eye candy, chief among them that ineffable yet so-very-specific mid-1960s vibe and style. Nearly everyone in the film, even Wilfred Hyde White, seems so cool and with-it. The whole shebang screams post-war Eurotrash decadence before that was even a term in conversation. In my memory, I average the two film versions together and the mash-up becomes a perfect incarnation of Christie's story.
My Dear, I never saw Ten Little Indians, though I remember it. Are you saying Wilfred Hyde White was in that? I liked the 1945 film version, but due to the time I think the book's impact had to be blunted.
Yes, Wilfred Hyde White is indeed in "Ten Little Indians", joined by Hugh O'Brian, Shirley Eaton, Fabian, Sterling Holloway, Daliah Levi, and Christopher Lee (as the voice of Mr U N Owen).
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