Ten Little Indians (1974) Blu-ray Review

3 Stars A darker, more sinister version of the famous Christie whodunit.
Ten Little Indians Review

An international co-production of one of Agatha Christie’s most famous stories, Ten Little Indians while not as adept as earlier filmed versions of the tale offers its own unique pleasures despite some definite weaknesses.

Ten Little Indians (1974)
Released: N/A
Rated: PG
Runtime: 98 min
Director: Peter Collinson
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Cast: Charles Aznavour, Maria Rohm, Adolfo Celi, Stéphane Audran
Writer(s): Agatha Christie (novel), Erich Kröhnke, Enrique Llovet, Harry Alan Towers
Plot: Ten people are invited to a hotel in the Iranian desert, only to find that an unseen person is killing them one by one. Could one of them be the killer?
IMDB rating: 5.8
MetaScore: N/A

Disc Information
Studio: Kino
Distributed By: N/A
Video Resolution: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HDMA
Subtitles: None
Rating: PG
Run Time: 1 Hr. 38 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray
Case Type: keep case
Disc Type: BD25 (single layer)
Region: A
Release Date: 06/20/2017
MSRP: $29.95

The Production: 3/5

One of the true masterpieces of mystery fiction and unquestionably one of the half dozen greatest novels ever penned by Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None has received four feature film English-language adaptations, three of them produced by the same man – Harry Alan Towers – who seemed to pull out his old, reliable script every decade or so with a few suitable updates and tweaks to fit the international casts and locations which were part and parcel of each version. The 1974 rendition entitled Ten Little Indians was its first in color, and it’s also the first which goes for more of a mood of sinister shock rather than for whimsical mystery. While it can’t hold a candle to Rene Clair’s 1945 masterpiece And Then There Were None, there is some genuine merit in this attempt even with some offbeat murder variations which veer from the nursery rhyme that serves as the heart of the story.

Ten people are lured to an abandoned hotel in a remote desert of Iran under one pretext or other, most of whom are unfamiliar with one another but all of whom are guilty of one of more crimes which, up until now, had been undetected and had gone unpunished. The party’s host U. N. Owen (voiced by Orson Welles) has brought together Dr. Edward Armstrong (Herbert Lom), private detective Wilhelm Blore (Gert Froebe), soldier of fortune Hugh Lombard (Oliver Reed), international movie star Ilona Morgan (Stéphane Audran), Judge Arthur Cannon (Richard Attenborough), reckless cabaret artist Michel Raven (Charles Aznavour), General André Salvé (Adolfo Celi), secretary Vera Clyde (Elke Sommer), and house servants Otto Martino (Alberto de Mendoza) and his wife Elsa (Maria Rohm). One by one, the guests begin dying under mysterious and rather brutal circumstances until everyone realizes that the deaths are related to a children’s nursery rhyme framed on the walls of each of their rooms. Eventually, the strangers sense that there is no actual Mr. Owen; one of the house party is secretly killing each of the guests one by one.

The basic plot of Dame Agatha’s 1943 stage adaptation of her work, the basis of all four of the feature films and which changed the book’s ending making the fates of some of the central characters something much less sinister and blood curdling than were contained in the original tome, holds up beautifully even with a change of setting and the nationalities of some of the inhabitants of this famous tale. Producer Harry Alan Towne, writing under the pseudonym Peter Wellbeck, recycles his 1965 script hewing very closely to the dialogue though some of the methods of murder are altered to fit into the desert setting rather than the snowy chalet of the 1965 version (dying of thirst in the desert rather than falling off an icy Alp, a poisonous snake bite instead of a poisonous injection from a syringe, plunged from a roof rather than being crushed by a falling statue). It’s not as tight or as foolproof as in the original book and film (the second murder here, for instance, couldn’t possibly have happened in this version and not have been seen by three other characters who had the victim in view). For his part, director Peter Collinson is going more for shuddery terror in this rendition filming many scenes from a low angle with an arid atmosphere only occasionally punctuated by spiky music intrusions on the soundtrack. The search of the hotel basement is handled with more astute suspense here than in the 1965 version with murky shadows abounding and the vicious stabbing murder of victim number three captured in silhouette on one of the wide columns holding up the ceiling.

The romantic leads of the story Oliver Reed and Elke Sommer don’t have great chemistry (though not for his lack of trying; he’s pecking her on the cheek much more quickly in this version than actors who play Lombard do in the other versions), and their face-off near the end isn’t as suspenseful as it should have been. Reliable character actors like Herbert Lom, Richard Attenborough, Gert Froebe, and Adolfo Celi go through their paces well enough without investing any kind of eccentricities into their characters to make them really stand out (Lom and particularly Attenborough seem a trifle bored through much of the movie) though to be fair Robert Rietty dubs the voices of both Froebe and Celi on the soundtrack limiting any vocal nuances the actual actors may have wished to interject. Cabaret star Charles Aznavour does get a chance to warble his hit song “The Old Fashioned Way” before departing, and both Alberto de Mendoza and Maria Rohm as the servants seem younger and sexier than their counterparts in other versions of the story.

Video: 3.5/5

3D Rating: NA

Though the liner notes state the aspect ratio as 1.78:1, it’s actually a 1.66:1 transfer resulting in 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. Through much of the film, sharpness is very good and color is quite luscious, but there are some odd soft shots with a decidedly dated appearance, and the establishing desert shots are softer and grainier than the remainder of the movie. There are curious blips and specks in the frame, and there is a black or white scratch or two. Black levels are okay but not exemplary. The movie has been divided into 15 chapters.

Audio: 3.5/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix is a fairly undistinguished track. Dialogue has not been particularly well recorded with actors sometimes barely being heard due to either poor miking or their own mumbling without the benefit of post dubbing. The odd, atonal background score by Carlo Rustichelli is threaded at odd times through the movie but only occasionally achieves effectiveness with the tone of the moment. Atmospheric effects (wind, crashing thunder, numerous “bumps in the night”) are all fine. There is a bit of age-related crackle to be heard on a couple of occasions.

Special Features: 2.5/5

Audio Commentary: film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Howard Berger offer background on the original book and all of the various film and TV versions along with mentions of some of the casts’ claims to fame and information on the career of director Peter Collinson.

Italian Credits (2:52, HD): the opening credit sequence from the Italian version of the film.

Theatrical Trailers (2:38, 0:39, SD): a trailer and a spot ad which play one after the other.

Promo Trailers: City on Fire. Barbarosa, Saint Jack, Steaming, Killer Force.

Reversible Cover Art

Overall: 3/5

An international co-production of one of Agatha Christie’s most famous stories, Ten Little Indians while not as adept as earlier filmed versions of the tale offers its own unique perspective despite some definite weaknesses. It’s a pleasure to finally have a decent-looking high definition release of this rendition of the story after so many years of unavailability.

Matt has been reviewing films and television professionally since 1974 and has been a member of Home Theater Forum’s reviewing staff since 2007, his reviews now numbering close to three thousand. During those years, he has also been a junior and senior high school English teacher earning numerous entries into Who’s Who Among America’s Educators and spent many years treading the community theater boards as an actor in everything from Agatha Christie mysteries to Stephen Sondheim musicals.

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mark-edk

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I'm not sure if this is correct, but I read somewhere that the altered ending used in the films was one Agatha Christie herself came up with for her play based on the novel.
 

atfree

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saw this in theater in 1974, at age 11. My first exposure to the story, I really liked it then but haven't seen it since except maybe once on HBO in the 80s....I've had it pre-ordered, hope I enjoy it now.
 

Jack P

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I have to confess I found this version of the story to be awful especially since I found the 65 version to be a decent effort. I was struck by how the 74 managed to recycle the 65 script and yet because the actors delivery their lines so slowly the film ends up running so much longer! Also, notice how in recycling the script this results in a plot hole when Blore shouts at Vera, "I told you to stay in your room!" But that's what happened in the 65 version, there is no such moment here in the 74 one!
 

Will Krupp

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I had to have it even though it's a terrible version of the story (and it is, make no mistake.) Maybe it's the complete ineptitude and shoddy waste of real talent but I've always had a soft spot for it.

When the movie opened in the US in the spring of 1975 (at NYC's state-of-the-art Loew's Astor Plaza no less!) with a print marketing campaign meant to invoke the recent success of MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS, Vincent Canby's very funny NYT review called it a "Global Disaster" in Iran!

"Ten Little Indians," the latest remake of the Agatha Christie story, looks less like a movie than a movie deal, the kind that gets put together over drinks at the Carlton Hotel bar during the Cannes Film Festival.

Somebody says he can get the screen rights to the true story of Omar Khayyam if somebody else can get a couple of "bankable" English actors. Another conferee promises to buy the French distribution rights in advance if there are some French stars in the film too. Italian, German and Ruritanian rights are disposed of in the same fashion. The basic financing is promised by still another party who keeps all his money in Iran and who requires that the film be shot there.

So far, so good. Then, at the last minute, the producer loses his rights to the Khayyam screenplay and shoots, instead, the Christie story. "What the hell," he may say to his startled cast, "all we have to do is change some of the lines, update the costumes and cancel the order for the bread and the wine."

"Ten Little Indians" is an international movie mess of the sort that damages the reputations of everyone connected with it, including Charles Aznavour, Richard Attenborough and the incomparable Stephane Audran. It was directed by Peter Collinson, who has made some bad movies in the past but nothing to compare with this lethargic, seemingly post-synchronized version of Miss Christie's great old story. You probably remember the plot about 10 people invited to an isolated house party in the course of which, one by one, each is systematically murdered.

For reasons that I suspect could have to do only with the picture's financing, the setting has been changed from England to what the production notes call "the fabulous Shah Abbas Hotel" in Isfahan, Iran. For reasons that apparently have to do with Mr. Collinson's concept of menace, and how to create a sense of it, most of the movie seems to have been shot by a camera 14 inches above the floor, or maybe by a cinematographer who is only 14 inches tall. After about an hour of this, you know how the world looks to a miniature poodle.

Oliver Reed, an able English actor, moves through the film like a cruise director on a sinking ship. He pretends to a cheerfulness that has absolutely nothing to do with the story or with the quality of the movie being made. He slaps Mr. Attenborough on the back and gives Herbert Lom an encouraging squeeze on the arm. Playfully he pats Elke Sommer's bottom. Nothing helps. They—and we—know they are in the middle of a disaster.

For the record: the same Agatha Christie story has been filmed twice before, in 1945 by Rene Clair with a cast that included Walter Huston and Barry Fitzgerald, and in 1966 by George Pollock with, among others, Fabian and Hugh O'Brian.
 
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Matt Hough

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For me, I think the oddest thing about this version is the weird use of music. Places where music could be used to ratchet up the tension or sustain the frightful atmosphere are strangely silent and other places where music isn't so necessary, there it is.
 

Dick

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Matt Hough

Ten Little Indians (1974) Blu-ray Review
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An international co-production of one of Agatha Christie’s most famous stories, Ten Little Indians while not as adept as earlier filmed versions of the tale offers its own unique pleasures despite some definite weaknesses.

Ten Little Indians (1974)
Released: N/A
Rated: PG
Runtime: 98 min
Director: Peter Collinson
Genre: Mystery, Thriller
Cast: Charles Aznavour, Maria Rohm, Adolfo Celi, Stéphane Audran
Writer(s): Agatha Christie (novel), Erich Kröhnke, Enrique Llovet, Harry Alan Towers
Plot: Ten people are invited to a hotel in the Iranian desert, only to find that an unseen person is killing them one by one. Could one of them be the killer?
IMDB rating: 5.8
MetaScore: N/A

Disc Information
Studio: Kino
Distributed By: N/A
Video Resolution: 1080P/AVC
Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
Audio: English 2.0 DTS-HDMA
Subtitles: None
Rating: PG
Run Time: 1 Hr. 38 Min.
Package Includes: Blu-ray
Case Type: keep case
Disc Type: BD25 (single layer)
Region: A
Release Date: 06/20/2017
MSRP: $29.95

The Production: 3/5

One of the true masterpieces of mystery fiction and unquestionably one of the half dozen greatest novels ever penned by Agatha Christie, And Then There Were None has received four feature film English-language adaptations, three of them produced by the same man – Harry Alan Towers – who seemed to pull out his old, reliable script every decade or so with a few suitable updates and tweaks to fit the international casts and locations which were part and parcel of each version. The 1974 rendition entitled Ten Little Indians was its first in color, and it’s also the first which goes for more of a mood of sinister shock rather than for whimsical mystery. While it can’t hold a candle to Rene Clair’s 1945 masterpiece And Then There Were None, there is some genuine merit in this attempt even with some offbeat murder variations which veer from the nursery rhyme that serves as the heart of the story.

Ten people are lured to an abandoned hotel in a remote desert of Iran under one pretext or other, most of whom are unfamiliar with one another but all of whom are guilty of one of more crimes which, up until now, had been undetected and had gone unpunished. The party’s host U. N. Owen (voiced by Orson Welles) has brought together Dr. Edward Armstrong (Herbert Lom), private detective Wilhelm Blore (Gert Froebe), soldier of fortune Hugh Lombard (Oliver Reed), international movie star Ilona Morgan (Stéphane Audran), Judge Arthur Cannon (Richard Attenborough), reckless cabaret artist Michel Raven (Charles Aznavour), General André Salvé (Adolfo Celi), secretary Vera Clyde (Elke Sommer), and house servants Otto Martino (Alberto de Mendoza) and his wife Elsa (Maria Rohm). One by one, the guests begin dying under mysterious and rather brutal circumstances until everyone realizes that the deaths are related to a children’s nursery rhyme framed on the walls of each of their rooms. Eventually, the strangers sense that there is no actual Mr. Owen; one of the house party is secretly killing each of the guests one by one.

The basic plot of Dame Agatha’s 1943 stage adaptation of her work, the basis of all four of the feature films and which changed the book’s ending making the fates of some of the central characters something much less sinister and blood curdling than were contained in the original tome, holds up beautifully even with a change of setting and the nationalities of some of the inhabitants of this famous tale. Producer Harry Alan Towne, writing under the pseudonym Peter Wellbeck, recycles his 1965 script hewing very closely to the dialogue though some of the methods of murder are altered to fit into the desert setting rather than the snowy chalet of the 1965 version (dying of thirst in the desert rather than falling off an icy Alp, a poisonous snake bite instead of a poisonous injection from a syringe, plunged from a roof rather than being crushed by a falling statue). It’s not as tight or as foolproof as in the original book and film (the second murder here, for instance, couldn’t possibly have happened in this version and not have been seen by three other characters who had the victim in view). For his part, director Peter Collinson is going more for shuddery terror in this rendition filming many scenes from a low angle with an arid atmosphere only occasionally punctuated by spiky music intrusions on the soundtrack. The search of the hotel basement is handled with more astute suspense here than in the 1965 version with murky shadows abounding and the vicious stabbing murder of victim number three captured in silhouette on one of the wide columns holding up the ceiling.

The romantic leads of the story Oliver Reed and Elke Sommer don’t have great chemistry (though not for his lack of trying; he’s pecking her on the cheek much more quickly in this version than actors who play Lombard do in the other versions), and their face-off near the end isn’t as suspenseful as it should have been. Reliable character actors like Herbert Lom, Richard Attenborough, Gert Froebe, and Adolfo Celi go through their paces well enough without investing any kind of eccentricities into their characters to make them really stand out (Lom and particularly Attenborough seem a trifle bored through much of the movie) though to be fair Robert Rietty dubs the voices of both Froebe and Celi on the soundtrack limiting any vocal nuances the actual actors may have wished to interject. Cabaret star Charles Aznavour does get a chance to warble his hit song “The Old Fashioned Way” before departing, and both Alberto de Mendoza and Maria Rohm as the servants seem younger and sexier than their counterparts in other versions of the story.

Video: 3.5/5

3D Rating: NA

Though the liner notes state the aspect ratio as 1.78:1, it’s actually a 1.66:1 transfer resulting in 1080p resolution using the AVC codec. Through much of the film, sharpness is very good and color is quite luscious, but there are some odd soft shots with a decidedly dated appearance, and the establishing desert shots are softer and grainier than the remainder of the movie. There are curious blips and specks in the frame, and there is a black or white scratch or two. Black levels are okay but not exemplary. The movie has been divided into 15 chapters.

Audio: 3.5/5

The DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 mono sound mix is a fairly undistinguished track. Dialogue has not been particularly well recorded with actors sometimes barely being heard due to either poor miking or their own mumbling without the benefit of post dubbing. The odd, atonal background score by Carlo Rustichelli is threaded at odd times through the movie but only occasionally achieves effectiveness with the tone of the moment. Atmospheric effects (wind, crashing thunder, numerous “bumps in the night”) are all fine. There is a bit of age-related crackle to be heard on a couple of occasions.

Special Features: 2.5/5

Audio Commentary: film historians Nathaniel Thompson and Howard Berger offer background on the original book and all of the various film and TV versions along with mentions of some of the casts’ claims to fame and information on the career of director Peter Collinson.

Italian Credits (2:52, HD): the opening credit sequence from the Italian version of the film.

Theatrical Trailers (2:38, 0:39, SD): a trailer and a spot ad which play one after the other.

Promo Trailers: City on Fire. Barbarosa, Saint Jack, Steaming, Killer Force.

Reversible Cover Art

Overall: 3/5

An international co-production of one of Agatha Christie’s most famous stories, Ten Little Indians while not as adept as earlier filmed versions of the tale offers its own unique perspective despite some definite weaknesses. It’s a pleasure to finally have a decent-looking high definition release of this rendition of the story after so many years of unavailability.


Due to today's draconian political-correctness, I can't actually name it here, but the title Ten Little Indians (and I would suggest that "Indians" isn't terribly P.C. these days, either), didn't begin life that way. "Indians" was originally the "n" word. In fact, on the DVD's of AND THERE WERE NONE there is an alternate title sequence that features that title card, which was later dropped. Christie wasn't even using the word as a racial affront. A pretty good Wiki essay can be found here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Little_Indians

All of which reminds me -- we still await a decent Blu-ray of the brilliant 1945 Rene Clair film, which looks soft and generally crappy after two different releases. This is a four-star thriller that just never grows tiresome....if the image is sharp enough to enjoy.
 

Will Krupp

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Due to today's draconian political-correctness, I can't actually name it here, but the title Ten Little Indians (and I would suggest that "Indians" isn't terribly P.C. these days, either), didn't begin life that way. "Indians" was originally the "n" word. In fact, on the DVD's of AND THERE WERE NONE there is an alternate title sequence that features that title card, which was later dropped. Christie wasn't even using the word as a racial affront.

Well, glossing over the fact that it's only "draconian political-correctness" that's preventing you from using the word with abandon, I will say that the original British title (based on the children's rhyme) was never used in U.S publications of the book. The two countries had far different histories with that word.

The title card using the original British title of the book that appears as an extra on the very good Image DVD was the title of the movie as it was renamed and released in the UK to conform to how British audiences knew it. We have it for reference because the Image DVD uses a good British print as its source material with rough looking original American credits grafted onto it.
 
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