7.6 | / 10 |
Users | 3.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Rene Clair's adaptation of the Agatha Christie classic. Ten people are invited to a distant mansion by a mysterious host. When the host fails to appear, they settle down to dinner and find themselves all accused of murder by a disembodied voice on a gramophone player. Then a guest turns up dead, then another, and another, and as the surviving accused struggle to discover which among their number is responsible for the killings, the corpses continue to surface with disarming regularity.
Starring: Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Roland Young, Louis Hayward, June DuprezThriller | Insignificant |
Crime | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Mystery | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-2
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1
English: LPCM Mono
English SDH
25GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 2.5 | |
Audio | 3.0 | |
Extras | 0.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Dame Agatha Christie was responsible for some of the most iconic mysteries in the entire history of the genre, as well as a number of legendary characters like the fastidious Hercule Poirot or the seemingly addle-pated Miss Jane Marple. For all of her incredible successes and scores of famous novels and short stories, it may surprise some to hear that her all time bestselling tome is Ten Little Indians (this review will refrain from using the original title, which many will know and will therefore hopefully understand why it’s not being utilized here). Many mystery writers have exploited the so- called “locked room” murder trope, but Christie did something quite remarkable with this same basic premise, positing a group of disparate characters on what might be called a “locked island”, an isolated spot from which there was no escape and no obvious way for an intruder to arrive unseen and commit the killings. What that implies, obviously, is that one of the people already on the island is the culprit, and that in turn creates one of the great whodunits in the history of fiction. Ten Little Indians has been adapted into several media, including a stage version written by Christie herself, but it’s probably this 1945 film version directed by René Clair which is the best known and for many the best loved. Though this was a rather popular Fox release in its day, like many films, it fell into the public domain and its home video history has been a rather spotty one, with many substandard releases in a variety of formats culled from pretty horrid looking prints. Image released a rather nice looking DVD a few years ago that was arguably the best available version, outshining other efforts by both VCI and Madacy. VCI is now back with what they’re trumpeting as a “newly restored” version on a new Blu-ray. VCI has had some issues with its Blu-ray releases, including some that seem to have been authored badly (Romeo and Juliet), but their releases have improved markedly over time ( Gorgo), and now this small label has recently signed a distribution deal with Gaiam Vivendi and seems poised to try to take its efforts into more of a mainstream presence.
And Then There Were None is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of VCI with an MPEG-2 encoded 1080p transfer in 1.39:1. This transfer is a mixed bag, and that starts right off the bat with VCI's perhaps surprising decision to use an older compression regimen when at least some of their recent Blu-rays have used newer protocols like VC-1. Whether or not better compression could have improved the image quality in any substantial way is debatable, for what seems to ail this presentation the most, even more than the still very visible damage like scratches, is variable contrast and a really dark overall ambience, much darker than on the Image DVD. While I have absolutely no evidence to support this, my hunch is this may have been a deliberate decision to try to mask some of the damage these elements show. On the plus side, those who dislike DNR have nothing to fear about this release—it is overflowing with grain, some of which is pretty overwhelming in some of the optical shots. Sharpness is middling at best, with a lot of midrange shots appearing downright fuzzy, though with close-ups at least approaching more of an acceptable high definition appearance. Another kind of odd thing is the unusual aspect ratio, though as students of this technical side of filmmaking know, aspect ratios have hardly been the hard and fast rule that many seem to think they've been, as evidenced by so-called "Academy Ratio" films we've seen released that have varied from, say, 1.32:1 to 1.37:1 or wider. What strikes me about this release is that it seems—seems being the operative word—that this has perhaps been just slightly anamorphically stretched with an attendant slight loss of the frame at the outer edges. I'd love for some enterprising individual to do actual measurements of figures in the frame between the Image and VCI releases to see if this impression of mine is correct or not. Part of what may ultimately ail this release is VCI's press reports touting it as being "newly restored". Had they simply released this without any accompanying fanfare, it might have passed as a reasonable if not fantastic looking outing.
And Then There Were None's lossless LPCM Mono track (delivered via LPCM 2.0) sounds reasonably problem free, given realistic expectations. There's some very slight distortion evident in the music, but dialogue comes through nicely, albeit with a fair amount of hiss and boxiness. There are a few pops that haven't been completely eliminated, but overall everything is easy to hear, if not endowed with much dynamic range.
No supplements are included on this Blu-ray disc.
And Then There Were None is a perfect gem of a film but its sad devolution into public domain source material has not been a good thing, unfortunately. VCI probably did the best it could with whatever elements it was able to scrape together, but their efforts are hampered by some odd decisions, notably making this release so very dark. Things aren't horrible here—there's still abundant grain, so whatever clean up was done was done with a naturally filmic look in mind—but my sense is someone is going to need to find much better elements and then really meticulously restore them frame by frame in order for And Then There Were None to really pop in high definition.
1978
1982
Includes They Call Me MISTER Tibbs! and The Organization on standard BD
1967
1980
Warner Archive Collection
1950
1944
1942
Warner Archive Collection
1946
1946
4K Restoration
1973
1995
1971
Limited Edition to 3000
1959
1944
Hot Spot
1941
Limited Edition to 3000 - SOLD OUT
1950
1947
Limited Edition to 3000
1954
Limited Edition
1980
1997