Thu 25 Feb 2021
A 1001 Midnights Review: AGATHA CHRISTIE – And Then There Were None.
Posted by Steve under 1001 Midnights , Reviews[6] Comments
by Bill Pronzini
AGATHA CHRISTIE – And Then There Were None. Dodd Mead, hardcover, January 1940. Pocket Books #261, US, paperback, 1944. Prior serialization in the Saturday Evening Post in seven parts from 20 May to 01 July 1939 Published first in the UK (Collins, hardcover, November 1939). Reprinted in both countries many times in both hardcover and paperback. Numerous film adaptations, beginning with And Then There Were None in 1945.
Perhaps the most famous of all of Dame Agatha’s novels, this is both a masterful cat-and-mouse thriller and a baffling exercise for armchair sleuths – a genuine tour-de-force. And like all of her best work, it has inspired countless imitations and variations – the ultimate compliment for any crime novel and crime-novel writer.
Ten men and women, none of whom know one another, are either invited or hired to spend a weekend on isolated Indian Island off the Devon coast. Their host is someone calling himself “U. N. Owen” (Unknown), and it soon becomes apparent that he is either a separate individual who is hiding somewhere on the island or that he is one of the ten. Each guest harbors some sort of dark secret or past indiscretion that makes him or her a target for homicide. And one by one, they begin to die in bizarre and frightening ways that loosely coincide with the ten verses of the nursery rhyme “Ten Little Indians,” wherein lies the novel’s primary clue.
But there is no detective, professional or amateur, here; no one left at all, in fact – except the reader – to explain the murders when the weekend (and the book) draws to a close. Thus And Then There Were None is a perfectly apt title.
The effects of the novel are multiple: a gradually mounting sense of terror and suspense that binds reader to chair; a skillful shifting of suspicion from one individual to another, principally through the introduction and manipulation of red herrings; in-depth characterization (not always Christie’s long suit); and a surprising denouement that perhaps justifies one critic’s judgment of the novel as “the ultimate in whodunits.”
And Then There Were None was filmed three times: in 1945, 1965, and 1975. The first of the three versions, directed by René Clair and starring Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, and Louis Hayward, is by far the best and most faithful to the novel – a small classic in its own right.
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Slightly revised with permission from 1001 Midnights, edited by Bill Pronzini & Marcia Muller and published by The Battered Silicon Dispatch Box, 2007. Copyright © 1986, 2007 by the Pronzini-Muller Family Trust.
February 25th, 2021 at 1:42 pm
Of course, in the brilliant Louis Hayward-Rene Clair version, there is a significant change in tone and in Hayward’s character, that makes it mesmerizing.
February 25th, 2021 at 2:07 pm
Add Dudley Nichols and Mario Castelenuvo-Tedesco to the indispensable talents above.
February 25th, 2021 at 3:57 pm
It’s a frightening novel; one that can envelop a reader with unease and dread.
What I recall most about it is the ‘trailing vines-flowers’ which spook the heroine so frequently, in that they always verge on reminding her of ‘seaweed’, (she has special reason to be nervous at seaweed). Something like that. It’s effectively handled.
The above review harkens back to a discussion of a month ago when someone referred to her ‘five or six best works’. This title would surely find a spot on that staggeringly good short-list that sets her so apart.
And it bears out what someone also said about Christie not being a ‘cozy’ writer at all. Agreed.
Sadly, the only movie version I’ve seen is the one with Hugh O’Brian; which fans always seem to give adequate ardor to. It sure doesn’t sound like it can rival the Rene’ Claire version.
Aptly titled novel yes, but I privately admit to a preference for, ‘Ten Little Indians’. I like the nursery-rhyme aspect of the novel, as I also do for, ‘Four and Twenty Blackbirds’.
February 25th, 2021 at 8:43 pm
The novel is a stunning one time read, but I think I prefer the ending to the play and the film, especially the unrivaled Rene Clair, where Mr. Owen gets his comeuppance too, those are equally fun every time.
If the O’Brien version was the only one I would rate it higher, certainly better than any of the other film adaptations though there have been some great ones done on television including a surprizingly good Russian multi part adaptation.
It is indeed one of Christie’s masterpieces, but while I may be in a minority I actually think the Rene Clair film is the finest incarnation of the story extant, or possible.
February 26th, 2021 at 8:06 am
Wouldn’t it be deadful if this were shunned because of Christie’s original title?
I quite agree, David. Clair treated Christie’s story as a comedy of manners, and the results are charming.
Now let me throw in a WARNING! to those who haven’t read or seen this one. I think it was Raymond Chandler who opined that Judges don’t get obsessed with Justice; they get obsessed with Law.
February 26th, 2021 at 10:44 am
One would hope that Christie’s fascinating life story (the exemplary rectitude she displayed in her personality, her habits, and her attitudes) would save her reputation from mudslinging ‘reformers’. But with the witch-hunts ongoing lately, who knows.