A tightly self-winding contraption

Nearly perfect mystery. Clair's best English language film

10 strangers arrive on an island, each persuaded to come under false pretenses and each guilty of a horrific crime. One by one they start to die, victims of an elaborate plot to right past wrongs. The question is: who's doing the killing? Terrific little murder mystery that blends intrigue, suspense and humor to deliver an hour and a half of blissful skulduggery.

I've read quite a few Agatha Christie books and, for all its ingenuity, "And Then There Were None" is one of the silliest. It's a good, fun read but the outrageous plot completely falls apart under even the mildest scrutiny. For example, you'd think that pulling off ten [sic] murders without getting caught would be a thorny enough problem for a homicidal maniac, without the added artistic flourishes of referencing a nursery rhyme and removing/destroying symbolic figurines! The longer the story goes on, the dafter it gets, because the simple fact is you cannot shepherd intelligent people to their doom quite so easily; heaven knows, I've tried! Only kidding! Anyway, for the most part, René Clair's film wisely opts to play for laughs. The performances are a bit hammy at times, but delightfully so. The ending, which is based on Christie's own 1942 stage adaptation, will seem radically different to those familiar with the novel. As a product of Clair's tenure as an exile in the US, I much prefer "I Married a Witch", with Veronica Lake.