Ten Little Indians

I won't rehash the storyline which everyone knows but just a few comments:

Plus points: -the first film adaptation which sticks to the ending as outlined in the novel

-dialogue is very much as per the novel. If you know the book well, the subtitles are almost superfluous as you will know what the characters are saying

-the choice of location for filming was inspired. Oddly, the external shots feel more claustrophobic than those inside the house. The crucial scene at the end between Vera and Lombard is powerfully shot with the sea almost a background character on its own.

Minus points: -At times it can be difficult to distinguish Lombard from Blore. Facially, they are very alike.

-The actress playing Emily Brent is too young...equally, the character playing Anthony Marston is some 10 years too old.

-There's something lacking with the interior shots which fail, at times, to convey the cloying claustrophobia so evident in the book. It may be that there are simply too many daylight scenes.

While I prefer the 2015 BBC adaptation, this 1987 Soviet version is in second place, well ahead of any of the previous adaptations.

However, no film version will ever beat the novel itself and the imagery those words conjure up in the reader's imagination. It's still the only book I can pick up and read from start to finish without a break.

I've seen many adaptations of this story but this one is really unrivaled. From the very beginning, you can see the talent of the director. When he's filming the guests waiting to depart, you can feel the tension among them, and the culpability too. On the contrary of the other adaptations, this movie doesn't only show the action, the murder series, but also (and it seemed capital to me) what's in the victims' minds. I appreciated in particular the flashes back. Personally, I only deplore the location. The place where the movie was shot is too well known, and doesn't fit with the idea one could have of the island. To adapt such a famous book is always tricky, but not for Govorukhin ! Mankiewicz couldn't have done better.

I must say first off that I am a HUGE Christie fan; Ten Little Indians was the first Christie novel I had read and I was just blown away! The story was so complex and the resolution so brilliant that I was left speechless. What made this story so great is the fact that everything one usually suspects to happen in a book... for instance, one realises early in to tha book that everyone on the island is marked for death... but almost always there are usually two heroic characters who fall in love and overcome the antagonist. When one thinks that, one tends to look at Miss Claythorn and Lombard as the two who likely fit the bill... but this is not so, for they never fall in love, nor are they by any means likable people (they both were murderers and one even killed a little boy). Then, of course there is the fact that they both die.

One would think that this would be the subject of a thousand wonderful adaptation... Well, it's almost right. There were many film versions but none matched up to the book's splendor. Then I finally get my hands on this (not easy) and I was stunned at how good it was... it follows the book all the way down to the original ending. The characters were well played, the plot was quick, and the scenery was beautiful.... all in all I I've this film a 9/10.

This is not the type of movie that a typical moviegoer will seek, so, instead I will give some other insight.

This was the only movie that ever gave me nightmares when I was a kid. Mostly, I think it's because the movie achieved a rare feat of actually transforming not only the book and it's characters to the screen but also the atmosphere.

Many people will not watch this movie just based on it's original name, but I can assure you, the name conveys no negative information. That leads to believe that it's P.C title, is just a cop-out.

As far as adaptations done, there are no better versions of any ever made.

10/10

Desyat Negrityat is a 1987 Soviet film based on the Agatha Christie novel Ten Little Indians. Its director, Stanislav Govorukhin, also wrote the script. This adaptation draws attention with the fact that almost no part of the novel has changed.

This adaptation draws attention with the fact that almost no part of the novel has changed. Unlike previous Hollywood/British adaptations of the same story, none of the characters or their crimes have been changed, and the film ends with the original brutal finale of Agatha Christie's novel.