Trailer for the 1965 film version of Agatha Christie's 1939 novel, "Ten Little [whatevers, depending on how old you were when you purchased the novel]".
This was the first of three adaptations produced by Harry Alan Towers and uses a near identical script to the 1974 version. Moving the action away from an island off the English coast, 1965 finds the victims situated high in the Austrian alps; in 1974, they were relocated to an empty Iranian hotel; by 1989, the story inexplicably took place on an African safari.
Here, the titular ten are played by: Hugh O'Brian, Shirley Eaton, Stanley Holloway, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Dennis Price, Leo Genn, Daliah Lavi, Marianne Hoppe, Mario Adorf and Fabian. Christopher Lee provides the [uncredited] voice of Mr. U. N. Owen.
Personally, I consider this version the best of Towers' three efforts. He hired actors who, while not quite headliners, were still way up most cast lasts and so were both fairly cheap but highly recognisable. For example, Shirley Eaton had recently been covered in gold paint in "Goldfinger", while both Stanley Holloway and Wilfrid Hyde-White had appeared in the high-profile (indeed, Best Picture winner) "My Fair Lady". Dennis Price had been a huge matinee idol, although by 1965 his star was somewhat diminishing and he would soon be relegated to the domain of Brit-horror (and the far inferior world of Spanish horror). Daliah Lavi would have ensured bums of cinema seats on the continent, while presumably Fabian would sell the picture to the Americans. (If you aren't one of Fabian's fans, fear not, he's the first to die...) Towers also engaged the services of George Pollock, who had done a very creditable job of directing the four MGM Miss Marple films starring Margaret Rutherford.
The film was released in America by Warner Bros. on a DVD with excellent picture quality and a trailer. This release included the "Whodunnit Break" in the body of the film. Similarly, it was released in Europe by Studio Canal with the "Whodunnit Break" intact, but no trailer - in the UK, this Studio Canal disc was only available as part of The Agatha Christie Film Collection partwork. Otherwise, Britain was lumbered with a poor quality disc from Black Horse / Orbit which suffers from a ghosting problem - however, as a plus point, it only includes the "Whodunnit Break" as a [separate] extra - to my mind, this is a good thing as it kills the film stone dead, and offers no clues, but merely snippets of each preceding murder in turn.
The film is much better than this trailer suggests - and that bloody annoying child singing over the trailer is not included in the film.
Please do NOT ask for the whole film to be uploaded - in any event, it won't be. Also, any comments giving spoilers will be deleted.
8 сен 2024
