DISPENSING JUSTICE

The crime films have both form and substance. The substance deals with the textual issues, while the form deals with how the textual issues are sent as a message. We talked about how “time was running out” in M and how the idea of time as a kind of fate was expressed in the clock like circle of the children with the young girl choosing who is the next “victim”.

CONCEPTS

The administration of justice is seen in the last to films. In The Great Train Robbery a kind of vigilante group simply goes off after the robbers who are killed in a shoot out.

In M a large group of people holds a trial, but the argument is that the trial itself is illegal.

Arguments pro and con the trial:

There is a reasonable number of people (more than in a jury) who are agreed the confessed killer should be killed. The defense attorney argues several things:

Similar problems occur in other films as well. See, for example Murder on the Orient Express. Questions about the restrictions the law places on police will recur later in the term. The US system deals with “guilty” and “not guilty” (Not guilty does not mean that the person is innocent. It simply means that the case has not been proved beyond a reasonable doubt – the bar which the district attorney must pass.).

The idea that a court of law with opposing attorneys, a judge and a supposedly impartial jury will protect the rights of the accused and allow for a conviction if the person is guilty. The problem is when guilt seems obvious and the person gets off on a “technicality” people feel there is a miscarriage of justice – that adherence to the rules has become more important than guilt or innocence. The opposing side feels that it is preferable to let 100 guilty people go free than to punish an innocent man. Liberals tend to hold the latter position and conservatives the former. This leads to the idea that “Nothing turns a liberal into a conservative as fast as a good mugging” and the opposite form “Nothing turns a conservative into a liberal as fast as getting arrested”.

Today’s film is And Then There Were None.This is an Agatha Christie story and considered by some her best and by others the most perfect mystery ever written although the film alters this

The story has been made into a film more than once generally under the title of 10 Little Indians

The first was adapted for the cinema screen in René Clair's successful 1945 US production.

The second cinema adaptation of the book was directed by George Pollock in 1965; Pollock had previously handled the four Miss Marple films starring Margaret Rutherford. This film transferred the setting from a remote island to a mountain retreat in Austria.

Another variant of And Then There Were None made in 1974 was the first color English-language film version of the novel, directed by Peter Collinson from a screenplay by Peter Welbeck (who co-wrote the screenplay for the 1965 film). This version was set at a grand hotel in the Iranian desert.

A version from the USSR, Desyat' negrityat (Десять негритят Ten Little Negroes) (1987) was written and directed by Stanislav Govorukhin and is the only cinema adaptation to use the novel's original ending.

The most recent film, Ten Little Indians, directed by Alan Birkinshaw, was made in 1989 and is set on safari in the African savannah.

The uncredited Hindi film adaptation Gumnaam (1965) adds the characteristic Bollywood elements of comedy, music and dance to Christie's plot.

The film April Fool’s Day is based on this book.

TEN LITTLE INDIANS

Rene Clair

(1945)

Agatha Christie is a famous British mystery writer whose writings often depict the adventures of Miss Marple, and Hercule Poirot, two detectives of her creation. Both occur in a large number of movies made from her books. And Then There Were None is perhaps her most famous and praised film although it lacks any detective at all.Aside from the Russian version, all versions of the film deviate from the actual ending of the book.

The book has a number of problems which have been associated with the original title Ten Little Niggers. The name was changed to Ten Little Indians based (correctly) on the idea that ther term "Indians" was not offensive whereas "niggers" was. (Simlar problems have plagued the opening line of Showboat "Niggers all work on the Mississippi" which has been altered as well (although a recent recording reverts to the original line and there were problems reported with some members of the cast refusing to sing the line). In more recent times, American Indian (or just Indian) has been altered to Native American with the problem that it is indistiguishable from native American - i.e. a person born in America). So another title change was made to Ten Little Soldiers on the grounds that soldiers are neutral. There is no insult meant in the little poem which motivates the story "Ten Little Indians" which was well known. Ten Little Soldiers however is a recent construction although the rhyme has many variations although the basic idea remains the same. All the "Indian" versions start "Ten little Indians went out to dine..." and a;; versions end with the line "And then there were none." These two lines open the film and rely on the viewer having knowledge of the rhyme.

The film is made in 1945 during the period which most the classic film noir films are made. These films are rooted in the German expressionist style, whihc seems admirably suited to the crime/mystery genre. Images of entrapment and duplicity abound. In a sense the problem facing directors is how to tell the story (text and/or subtext) visually. This visual language was elaborated during the silent film era and films like M show expressionist directors like Lang began to develop interesting ways to make sound equally expressive and not simply a way of recording sounds that would occur during the action. Sounds may vanish, be accented, may occur with no visible source, may overlap from one scene into the next either lingering into the next scene or preceding the image. Voice overs and other techniques expand this area and expand the world on the screen since off screen sounds remind us that the world continues on beyond the screen.

Mystery films (and And Then There were None is certainly one) allow the audience to compete with the detective in the film as to who can come to the correct conclusion. In this sense, most film analysts play this same game with all films, trying to read the coded message that the film maker has produced in making a film.

The opening 5 minutes of And Then There Were None has no dialogue, but a great deal of information and mood is relayed to the audience.

The opening of the film shows a circle of little Indians as a centerpiece on a dining room table. This sets the visual imagery to match the rhyme about the "Tem Little Indians". The opening and closing lines appear "Ten Little Indians went out to dine...." "And then there were none" The idea of the Indians and dining are visually produced on the dining table with the small statues of the Indians.

The there is an image of an island with a single house (the setting for the entire film) which appears behind the opening titles.

The scenes which follow are of a coast line with a cloudy sky and a sea. Soon a small boat appears, isolated and moving across the screen towards an island with a single house on it.

The camera then shows the boat with 8 people, four on each side. Shortly a ninth is revealed steering the boat. His "otherness" is clearly marked by his clothing and the fact that unlike the other passengers, the movement of the ship does not have any impact on him, as we will see him munching away on a sandwich. We are introduced to the other passengers through a sequence of "one shots" The first shows a young man as a woman's scarf blows acreoss his face, linking him to the woman who sits next to him. She appears in the next shot, also alone and adjucts her scraf which we see blow off screen and cover the face of another man sitting to her left. He too is in a one shot. The veil might almost be seen as shroud-like anticipating the murders which are to followl The man's arm bumps a medical bag next to him and knocks it into the lap of yet another man sitting next to him. Someone on the boat is clearly a doctor. The camera continues with one shotsslowly revealing each of the characters whose clothign and behavior give us some information about each of the characters social status.The one time two people occur in the frame happens when the two move towards one another and then move apart returnong again ot the one shots.

It is cleear that these are people who do not know each other.

Once the boat arrives at the island, two more characters appear - a maid and a butler, also identifyable by their clothing. The boatman hands a letter to the butler, and the people from the boat come onto the island. The boatman does not stay having delivered both passengers and note.

At this point there are 10 people (8 guests and two servants) on the island and the ten people = the ten little Indians.

So withiin the opening 5 minutes Clair has visually made connection to the poem, established an isolated atmosphere and presaged the events which are to happen.

The film shows the isolation of the setting, but at the same time, traps individuals in various images. Shots of tje guests. even in groups often have a variety of forms that separate the, The "prince" is seen during his toasts to the missing Mr. and Mrs Owen surrounded by the ornamental grillwork of a chair back. People are seen in "frames" that is surrounded by doorways, through panes of glass and so on. There are many shots of people watching and looking. There are shots that are ostensibly through binoculars, keyholes and so on.

The final denouemoent delays the revelation of who the actual killer is. The killer is heard whistling (not unlike M) and the sound of billiars being played is heard. As Vera enters the house, the camera dollies back and a noose hanging from the ceiling is revealed - the final "Indian" hangs himself. The music plays the song "The Little Indians" emphasizing the point. As Vera approaches the table the camera reveals the billiard player from the waist down. As the camera pans up, a lamp hanging over the billiard table obscures the face of the murderer. Vera backs away and the klller steps forward and out from behind the lamp. The final revelation!

Remember that each genre has certain "set pieces" (sometimes called "the money shot". Each genre in effect has something about it that people who like that genre come to see. For westerns it may be the scenery, the show down or some other high point. The first appearance of the monster in monster films is also a crucial moment. It is often helpful to look at the opening shot (the director is going to make a splash right at the start - see films like Fargo and Touch of Evil

Another moment is the final shot is also important because it is the last chance to impress the audiencce. (See for example the last shot of The Third Man) In crime films, some of the set pieces may be during the commission of the crime, the apprehension of the criminal, an important revelation on the stand, or in who dunnit its tje revealing of the killer (usually) or whatever.

And Then There Were None textually deals with the question of the administering of justice in cases where the law has been unable to exact punishment. Like M the idea that the guilty go free through some technicality or other is handled by a force outside the law. How does the film maker regard this situation. The Great Train Robbery accepts it without questioning anything about it M rejects the idea, And Then There Were None implies that the person administering the justice is a bit mad. Zfilms like Murder on the Orient Express