Absolutely brilliant

How wonderful it is to see this fine actress carry a film and carry it so beautifully.

It isn't all that great, actually. Really cheesy and very predicable of how certain scenes are gonna turn play out. However, I guess that's the charm of it all, because I would consider this one of my guilty pleasures.

an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Charles Aznavour, Maria Rohm, Adolfo Celi, Stéphane Audran, Alberto de Mendoza, Richard Attenborough, Gert Frobe, Herbert Lom, Oliver Reed and Elke Sommer are summoned to a hotel in Iran by the mysterious U.N. Owen (get it?) and all accused of having murdered someone. They start getting bumped off one-by-one and realize that one of them must be Owen. This pan-European production (English, French, German, Italian and Spanish money went into it) of the Agatha Christie chestnut has a great cast but is a really slow and listless adaptation. Harry Alan Towers seems to have little thought or resources into this one after coming up with the idea and casting it ... he even used exactly the same script as his 1965 version.

The Agatha Christie classic remade for the second time; this time the setting is the Iranian desert and a huge mansion in the middle of it.This strange fusion of Christie's classic and obvious giallo influences is a fun ride for those who really like the story. The story undeniably is great; 10 strangers on a remote place start dying one by one and soon it becomes apparent that the killer is one of the group.Most viewers will know the story by heart. The story's execution is what's important here. It basically follows the book; the murders happen in the same order while the method differs somewhat, the murderer's the same and the conclusion is the same as Christie devised in her version when she made it into a play (which, funny enough, renders the title quite pointless).The setting is quite strange but the mansion fits the bill well enough, the actors are a curious assembly of notable Brits and Europeans and the overall feel of the film is certainly Italian/Spanish. I tend to think of Dario Argento at the helm, Bruno Nicolai composing the score, an older Mario Bava assisting with cinematography and Dardano Sacchetti writing the script. It's certainly reeking with giallo influences throughout.In the end; this version is more or less pointless and doesn't add anything of value not already existing in the other two versions. But that doesn't mean it isn't entertaining. It is.Now I just want to track down the Russian version if I can; where "And then There Were None" actually has some meaning.

This film always seems to get to much criticism, especially when compared to the 1945 version. Personally though I love it, I love the fact that they captured some of the claustrophobic feeling which you get very much in the book but not in any of the other versions. It has such a British feel to it, even though it's set in such an elaborate setting. I'm halfway through watching the Optimum DVD release and its amazing to see how vivid the colours are in it, the sets are amazing. Yes the acting is a little wobbly in parts, Elkie Sommer is very good but maybe someone else would have been better, I'm half expecting her to say to the Doctor 'Hello How are your doings?' (Carry on behind was done about the same time) Oliver Reed is very masculine in the role, again something i feel no other version had. The closing scene is very well done, understated and quite chilling. I'm glad this finally had a quality DVD release. Flawed but excellent whodunit.Update, I've just acquired the Spanish Blu Ray release, and it does manage to explain the name of Rik Battaglia in the credits, as there is about an additional ten minutes of material, including a longer start, and cutaways to Iran, the only trouble with this release is that big chunks are in Spanish. So the mystery of Rik Battaglia is partially explained. Sadly not being fluent in Spanish I can't understand the content, and its relevance to the film.

Agatha Christie's "Ten Little Indians" is one story that always struck me as intriguing but hopelessly implausible and grotesque. Just think about it: if YOU were to receive an invitation from a complete stranger, requesting you to come to an unknown location (in this case in a hotel in the middle of the godforsaken Iranian desert, of all places) and spend a vacation with nine other people you've never seen or heard about before in your life … would YOU go? I certainly wouldn't… But hey, that's just the story and already proved itself to be hugely successful since it was first published in 1939. "And then there were none" could have been a great black comedy thriller, especially if you take a look at the talented director and the literally amazing cast, but somehow they messed up badly here. The atmosphere of mystery completely falls flat and, for a movie that constantly features murders and accusations, there's very little excitement to be found. The ensemble cast of wonderful actors and actresses (including Oliver Reed, Herbert Lom and Gert Fröbe) manifests very few interests in the concept and the production in general, illustrated through some of the most unsavory performances ever seen. It literally hurts to see great names like this give away such lousy and lifeless performances. A wide variety of people, ten in total and all from different backgrounds, assembles in a luxurious but abandoned Iranian hotel after they all received an invitation from a mysterious individual named U.N. Owen (read = unknown). After diner and the inevitable chant of supportive French star Charles Aznavour, they are forced to listen to a tape (apparently voiced by Orson Welles, but I wouldn't know as I saw a German dubbed version) which accuses each and every one of them of having committed murder(s) in the past. Immediately after they start dying one by one, exactly like in the nursery rhyme of "Ten little … um … colored people". As stated before, the plot is already quite preposterous, so it definitely doesn't help to bring the whole formula in the most unconvincing fashion imaginably. People are dying left and right, yet none of the remaining survivors seems to be very nervous or in a hurry to out of there. Heck, even when half of the guest list is already dead, the remaining ones still carelessly smoke cigars in the lounge, play games of pool or even engage in romantic liaisons with each other! The killings are dull, commonplace and a vast number of them even occur off-screen; God forbid! The twist in the end is reasonably unpredictable, I guess, but nonetheless another very abrupt and random event in an overall uninteresting movie. Apparently this is the only film ever shot in the Iranian deserts, but I hardly consider that a motivation to watch it.