Directed by Sidney Lumet, who had just made the gritty crime drama Serpico, this film utilized the Grand Hotel formula and contained a who’s who of Hollywood in the early 1970s: Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave, Anthony Perkins, Jacqueline Bissett, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Wendy Hiller, Rachel Roberts, Michael York, Richard Widmark, Lauren Bacall, and Ingrid Bergman in her Oscar-winning role as a traumatized missionary. Probably the most famous Agatha Christie adaptation is Murder on the Orient Express, which was first brought to the screen in 1974 (and later remade by Kenneth Branagh in 2017). Christie herself considered it to be the best adaptation of one of her works (she also liked the ’74 version of Murder on the Orient Express) and the film was nominated for six Oscars including Best Director, Best Supporting Actress, Best Actor, and Best Picture. The director, Billy Wilder, somehow makes this illogical plot make sense and it’s fun watching talented actors like Laughton, Dietrich, and Elsa Lanchester ham it up in and out of the courtroom. Dual identities, a shocking revelation, and an unexpected confession create a mystery that often strains credibility. Marlene Dietrich pops up as Vole’s wife, who, of course, has secrets of her own. A retired barrister (a typically droll Charles Laughton) agrees to take his case on. The plot is a doozy: Leonard Vole (Tyrone Power, in his final completed film role) is accused of killing a wealthy widow for her money. One of the most memorable Christie pictures, Witness for the Prosecution could have originated the term “spoiler warning” due to its twist ending, which shocked theater audiences when it debuted on the West End stage and later on Broadway. It’s dated, but And Then There Were None still largely holds up one of the most entertaining murder mysteries of the 1940s. Yet this 1945 film is pleasurable due to its cast of Hollywood’s best character actors (Walter Huston, Judith Anderson, and Barry Fitzgerald are some of the victims) and the sophisticated direction of Rene Clair, who had immigrated to Hollywood at this time after escaping Vichy France. This version softens Christie’s nihilistic ending by making Miss Claythorne and Phillip Lombard (who is revealed to be an imposter related to the real Lombard) innocent and punishing the mastermind behind the murderous scheme. The story is simple: Ten strangers gather at an isolated mansion on an empty island and are killed off systematically for crimes they committed (and got away with) earlier in their lives. The first significantly successful Agatha Christie adaptation, And Then There Were None was also the first of many interpretations of Christie’s most famous novel, Ten Little Indians.
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