Oliver Reed and Elke Sommer in And Then There Were None (1974)
Vitals
Oliver Reed as Hugh Lombard, adventurer and accused murderer (or is he?)
Fars, Iran, Fall 1973
Film: And Then There Were None
(also released as Ten Little Indians)
Release Date: September 24, 1974
Director: Peter Collinson
WARNING! Spoilers ahead!
Background
First released in West Germany four months earlier, the third major screen adaptation of Agatha Christie’s classic mystery And Then There Were None arrived in the United States fifty years ago today on the last day of January 1975*. This was actually the second of three versions of the story to be produced by Harry Alan Towers, the controversial British filmmaker who was evidently quite obsessed with making his mark on Christie’s famous story each decade. (For those who may be unfamiliar, the story centers around ten strangers summoned to a secluded island house, where a mysterious recording accuses them of getting away with murder in the past before each are systematically murdered themselves.)
Towers’ first attempt was the 1965 film Ten Little Indians, which was more of a remake of the 1945 screen adaptation of And Then There Were None (with its “happy” ending) than an original take on Christie’s source novel. The ’65 version also transported the story from a remote English island to an Alpine mansion and glamorized some of the characters, such as replacing the religious spinster with a glamorous actress and converting the drunken socialite into a popular singer—allowing for pop idol Fabian to croon on screen as part of his new contract with Fox. Among its other minor changes to the ten doomed guests was star Hugh O’Brian getting “the Tony Danza treatment” as Christie’s leading man, renamed from Philip Lombard to Hugh Lombard.
This latter change was inexplicably carried over to Oliver Reed’s characterization of the roguish Mr. Lombard in the 1974 adaptation, which borrowed liberally in many other ways from the previous version, including Towers copying much dialogue verbatim from his ’65 screenplay. Other than being the first major adaptation of the story to be filmed in color, the 1974 version also distinguishes itself with yet another new setting, this time moving the action to an elegant—but inexplicably abandoned—hotel in the Iranian desert. The interiors were mostly filmed on location at the Shah Abbas Hotel in Isfahan, represented on the outside by the nearby Shah Mosque. However, the setting was meant to be nearly 250 miles south in the Fars province among the Persepolis ruins, which feature prominently during the final act.
Reed is joined by an international cast that includes Elke Sommer as Lombard’s love interest Vera, Richard Attenborough as the judge, Herbert Lom as Dr. Armstrong, prolific French singer Charles Aznavour, erstwhile Bond villains Adolfo Celi and Gert Fröbe, and even the voice of Orson Welles as “Mr. Owen” reading each guest’s accusation.
*I’m not 100% sure about the date. Wikipedia lists its American release as January 31, 1975, though IMDB doesn’t show an American release date until its New York City premiere in April 1975. Whatever.
What’d He Wear?
Mr. Owen’s six male guests all don black tie for the first night’s dinner. As the danger escalates each day with the rising body count, only Hugh Lombard defies convention by keeping his more casual clothes on from the day into the evening—underscoring his more cavalier attitude compared to the older [remaining] men in the group.
Hardly a look I would have expected for the Iranian desert, Lombard’s most frequent outfit—worn across multiple days, including the finale—consists of a brown-and-cream houndstooth sports coat over a golden turtleneck. The aesthetic could be considered a trendy update to his 1965 counterpart (played by Hugh O’Brian) sporting a double-breasted blazer over a turtleneck in Ten Little Indians.
Note the scars over the left side of Oliver Reed’s face, the result of a barroom brawl a decade earlier when a small group of men attacked him with broken bottles in the bathroom of a Leicester Square nightclub.
The single-breasted sport jacket is woven in a brown-and-cream houndstooth check, a tessellated two-color pattern named for its resemblance to canine teeth. The soft fabric suggests a possible blend of wool and cashmere. The notch lapels are fashionably wide for the mid-1970s, rolling to a two-button stance positioned over Reed’s natural waist. The sleeves are roped at the shoulders and finished with three-button cuffs. The jacket has a long single vent, welted breast pocket, and straight flapped hip pockets, though the flaps often tuck into the pockets themselves.
Though Reed is able to—and frequently does—wear the jacket buttoned, it appears to pull a bit whether closed or not, perhaps not voluminous to fit over the actor’s stocky frame and heavy sweater.
Lombard’s golden-tan woolen turtleneck is styled like a classic submariner’s sweater with its wide-ribbed neck, cuffs, and hem that contrast against a plainer-knit body. The raglan sleeves are squared across the tops of each shoulder.
Lombard maintains tonal consistency with his dark-brown trousers, which appear to be styled with a darted front—a style frequently seen during the ’70s. Matt Spaiser describes darts for Bond Suits as “essentially a pleat that is sewn shut, but it’s not very noticeable,” allowing the trousers to curve over the hips more effectively than flat-front trousers. Lombard’s slacks have side pockets (but no back pockets) and the plain-hemmed bottoms gently flare out.
And then there were two…
Reed’s dark-brown leather cap-toe shoes close with a single monk strap positioned toward the rear of each vamp. While he keeps his outfit generally the same, he does [thankfully] change his socks, beginning with dark-brown socks on the second night, followed by mustard-yellow socks on the third night into the final morning.
As the guests realize they’re being systematically murdered, Lombard prioritizes comfort over convention and dresses casually for evenings while gents like Dr. Armstrong and Blore continue wearing black tie for dinner.
The Gun
Once it becomes evident that there’s a murderer among them, Lombard returns to his room to retrieve his Walther PP, which he keeps in a dark-brown leather shoulder holster, only to realize that it’s been taken! Unlike the original novel and other adaptations of it, Lombard doesn’t disclose to the other guests that he was traveling armed until he ultimately recovers his pistol.
Lombard is stymied by his empty holster.
The evening after he noticed it was taken, Lombard discovers his lost Walther during the confusion around Vera’s scream. He refuses to hand it over to Blore or Dr. Armstrong, but he ultimately gives it to Vera during a covert visit to her bedroom.
Vera: “You are a bastard, aren’t you?
Lombard: “Yes I am, but I’m not a killer.”
Walther introduced the PP (Polizeipistole) in 1929 as a concealable semi-automatic pistol for usage among German police forces, though it also found quick popularity among other European law enforcement agencies. The blowback-operated double-action pistol was offered for both the .32 ACP (7.65x17mmSR) and .380 ACP (9x17mm) cartridge, fed from box magazines with a capacity of eight and seven rounds, respectively.
The functionally similar PPK followed in 1931, with a shorter barrel, frame, and grip, which reduced the capacity by one round. Lombard’s Walther has the slightly longer 3.9-inch barrel that distinguishes it as the PP model, as opposed to the more compact PPK famously carried by James Bond.
How to Get the Look
Oliver Reed and Elke Sommer in And Then There Were None (1974)
As the closest thing in And Then There Were None to a leading male hero, Lombard maintains a fashionably smart casual sense of dressing in his houndstooth sport jacket, turtleneck, and trousers—a combination that still works fifty years later.
- Brown-and-cream houndstooth wool/cashmere single-breasted 2-button sport jacket with wide notch lapels, welted breast pocket, straight flapped hip pockets, 3-button cuffs, and long single vent
- Golden-tan wool turtleneck sweater
- Dark-brown darted-front trousers with side pockets and flared plain-hemmed bottoms
- Dark-brown leather cap-toe single-monk shoes
- Mustard-yellow socks
Do Yourself a Favor and…
Check out the movie.
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