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And Then There Were None
Theatrical release poster.
Directed by	René Clair
Produced by	René Clair Harry M. Popkin
Written by	Novel: Agatha Christie Screenplay: Dudley Nichols
Starring	Barry Fitzgerald Walter Huston Louis Hayward Roland Young
Music by	Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Cinematography	Lucien N. Andriot
Distributed by	Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation
Release date(s)	October 31, 1945 (U.S. release)
Running time	97 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

The 1945 movie And Then There Were None is one of several film adaptations of Agatha Christie's best-selling mystery novel And Then There Were None concerning several people summoned to an island retreat by a mysterious stranger, only to meet their ends one by one.

Apart from changing the ending and certain characters' names, the film is a good companion to the novel and is remniscent of some of Alfred Hitchcock's murder mysteries. Even though its subject-matter is dark, the film is actually quite humorous in places. It was directed by Rene Clair from a screenplay by Dudley Nichols. Its cast featured Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, Roland Young, June Duprez, Mischa Auer, C. Aubrey Smith, Judith Anderson, Richard Haydn and Queenie Leonard as the people stranded on the island. The film could arguably be seen as a precursor to the modern slasher film.

This adaptation of the novel took, overall, fewer liberties with Christie's plot than some of the other versions. The ending, though, is radically altered. Only the 1987 Russian film version kept the novel's ending. This film, like all the other Western versions, nixed the shooting of Philip Lombard (played by Louis Hayward) and the suicide of Vera Claythorne's character (played by June Duprez) in favour of a much happier Hollywood-ish ending. Interestingly enough, this cannot be seen solely as Hollywood tampering with an ending to the annoyance of the author's original intention; Agatha Christie herself had rewritten the ending for her 1943 stage version of the book. Screenwriter Dudley Nichols cannot be said to have changed Christie's ending - he simply used the play version's ending, though with one major alteration. In the play, Vera thinks she has shot Lombard, after which the murderer appears and attacks her; Lombard, who was only grazed, comes to at the last minute and shoots the murderer as he is about to strangle the terrified girl. The film, however, simply has Vera help Lombard fake his death outside the mansion, then confront the culprit who commits suicide after revealing his motive and murder techniques. All in all, the end result is the same; the two major characters are left alive and innocent of the crimes they were accused of. Later remakes in 1966, 1975, and 1989 (all using the title Ten Little Indians), also used Christie's revised happy finale.

• June Duprez as Vera Claythorne
• Louis Hayward as Philip Lombard
• Barry Fitzgerald as Judge Francis J. Quinncannon
• Roland Young as Detective William Henry Blore
• Walter Huston as Dr. Edward G. Armstrong
• Judith Anderson as Emily Brent
• Richard Haydn as Thomas Rogers
• C. Aubrey Smith as General Sir John Mandrake
• Queenie Leonard as Ethel Rogers
• Mischa Auer as Prince Nikita 'Nikki' Starloff
• Harry Thurston as Fred Narracott

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