And Then There Were None (1945)

Ten strangers to are invited to an isolated island off the coast of Devon, England, by a "Mr. and Mrs. Owen". They settle in at a mansion tended by two newly hired servants, Thomas (Richard Haydn) and Ethel (Queenie Leonard) Rogers, but their hosts are absent. When the guests sit down to dinner, they notice the centerpiece, ten figurines of Indians.

Thomas puts on a gramophone record, and a man's voice accuses them all of murder:
General Sir John Mandrake (C. Aubrey Smith), of ordering his wife's lover, a lieutenant under his command, to his death
Emily Brent (Judith Anderson), of the death of her young nephew
Dr. Edward G. Armstrong (Walter Huston), of drunkenness which resulted in a patient dying
Prince Nikita "Nikki" Starloff (Mischa Auer), of killing a couple while speeding
Vera Claythorne, of murdering her sister's fiancé
Judge Francis J. Quinncannon (Barry Fitzgerald), of being responsible for the hanging of an innocent man
Philip Lombard (Louis Hayward), of killing 21 South African tribesmen
Detective William Henry Blore (Roland Young), of perjury, resulting in an innocent man's death
Thomas and Ethel Rogers, of the demise of their previous employer, an invalid

None of the ten knows "U. N. Owen". They realize the name stands for "unknown." They also cannot leave the island, as the boat will not return for 3 days.

Starloff admits his guilt, then dies from a poisoned drink. Mrs. Rogers dies in her sleep. One figurine is broken and another missing. The two deaths match the "Ten Little Indians" nursery rhyme. They search the island for "Mr. Owen".

General Mandrake is stabbed to death, and the judge declares that Owen must be one of them. They each vote on who they suspect Owen is. Rogers is the only one to get more than one vote, so he is made to sleep in the woodshed. The next morning, they find him dead, his head split open with an axe. Miss Brent dies next, her body found with a hypodermic needle nearby. Armstrong discovers that both his needle and Lombard's revolver are missing.

At dinner, Quinncannon, Armstrong, Blore, and Lombard all confess to their crimes. When it is Miss Claythorne's turn, she excuses herself to get her coat and the others hear her shriek and rush to her. In the confusion, a single gunshot is heard. They find her shaken after being brushed by seaweed hanging from the ceiling. They also find Lombard's gun. Quinncannon is dead from a shot to the head.

Miss Claythorne insists she is innocent, but Armstrong suspects her and locks her in her room. That night, Claythorne admits to Lombard that her sister killed her own fiancé, and that Claythorne helped her cover up the crime and took the blame. The two later realize Armstrong is missing.

The next morning, Blore is struck by stonework toppled from the floor above. Lombard sees Armstrong's corpse on the beach. Miss Claythorne holds Lombard's gun against him, certain that Lombard is the killer. He tells her that his real name is Charles Morley, and that the real Lombard was his friend who committed suicide. Morley has a flash of insight and urges her to shoot him.

Miss Claythorne fires and Morley drops. She finds a noose hanging in the parlor and discovers Quinncannon is Owen, and he's very much alive.

The judge tells her that all his life he had searched for perfect justice. After learning that he was terminally ill, he concocted this plan. He persuaded Armstrong to help him fake his own (Quinncannon's) death, supposedly to help catch Owen, then murdered Armstrong. He tells her that she can either hang herself or be sent to the gallows (as the only possible perpetrator). He drinks poisoned whiskey, while Morley appears behind him, alive, as Vera had purposely missed shooting him. Quinncannon dies and the boat arrives, rescuing Morley and Miss Claythorne.

A 1945 American black & white mystery crime film directed by René Clair, produced by Clair and Harry M. Popkin, screenplay by René Clair, adapted from Agatha Christie's 1939 mystery novel of the same name, cinematography by Lucien N. Andriot, starring Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, Roland Young, June Duprez, Mischa Auer, C. Aubrey Smith, Judith Anderson, Richard Haydn, and Queenie Leonard.

The original title was based on a rhyme from minstrel shows and children's games, "a rhyme so macabre and distressing one doesn’t hear it now outside of the Agatha Christie context. This has a notably different resolution than the original novel, which involves all ten characters meeting their end. Christie changed the ending for the theatrical adaptation, as she felt that wartime audiences would find it too harrowing.

In 1945, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times wrote: "René Clair has produced an exciting film and has directed a splendid cast in it with humor and a light macabre touch. The temptation to the horrifying is intelligently dismissed."

Winner of the Golden Leopard and Best Direction Award at the 1946 Locarno International Film Festival.