About

'The great French director Rene Clair worked in Hollywood during the 1930s and 1940s, creating such classics as the Veronica Lake comic fantasy I Married a Witch. His final American film was this adaptation of Agatha Christie's popular mystery thriller 'Ten Little Indians,' aka 'And Then There Were None'. Ten strangers, ranging from a Russian prince, a general and a judge (among others) arrive at a deserted mansion on an island; their mysterious host, never seen and heard only through a recording, accuses them all of certain crimes. Slowly, each one begins to die in ever more ingenious ways. Known for his fantasies and absurdist comedies, Clair appropriately keeps the action moving as crisply as possible, creating tension and suspense not from the gore of the murders but from the anticipation of murder. Much-loved and an inspiration for countless murder mysteries to come, Christie's novel was remade in 1966 and again in 1974 but none match the lightness and sheer wit of And Then There Were None.' Jason Sanders