Let's Talk About: And Then There Were None

I recently re-read And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie. (Review to come)

My copy of the book is the one I used in middle school for my English class. They provided us with little paperbacks that had pictures in the middle. The pictures were from a 1945 film adaptation of the book. I had never seen it and this made me really want to. I checked with my local library and they had a copy!

Wednesday night Doug and I watched it together. Doug has never read the book but I did talk to him about it a few days before watching so he knew the general story line already. 

We both really enjoyed it. 

*Some spoilers ahead*

Ten people are invited to Indian Island by Mr. Owen. Once there they are having dinner when a record is played that accuses each guest of murder. They then  mysteriously began to die, following the poem "Ten Little Indians". They must find out who the killer is knowing that it must be one of them.

We didn't meet the characters on their way to the boat as you do in the book. 

We first see them heading to the island on the small boat. While they spent quite a lot of time on this scene unnecessarily, it was pretty funny to watch most of them feeling seasick. 

The casting was good, though not perfect. I knew immediately who the judge, General, doctor, Vera, and Philip Lombard were because they looked quite like I pictured them. Emily Brent was cast much younger than I pictured her but she did a good job. There were a few that were better actors than others but for the most part they cast talented people. It was really fun to recognize the butler, Mr. Rogers, as the voice of the caterpillar from Disney's Alice in Wonderland.

They kept pretty close to the book but they did change a few significant things. 

First, the young Tony. His character was changed to someone named Prince Nikita Starloff. That was kind of weird and unnecessary. He still had the same attitude and died the same way. 

The other big changes had to do with three characters. 

Emily Brent and Vera's histories were not the same. The murders they were supposedly responsible for were completely different. Emily's was a nephew that had gone a bad way rather than a young pregnant woman in her care. And Vera was not responsible for a child's death but for her brother in law... and she was innocent. I imagine that at the time they made the film they felt that their story lines were scandalous.

Also, Lombard's story was changed a bit as well. 

The ending was completely different. 

Even with the changes, it was an enjoyable and suspenseful film. 

I imagine that when it came out that it was probably quite scary. 

Here is the trailer for this film: 

The film quality of the movie we watched was much better than this trailer so don't let it put you off of watching it!

After watching the film I kept thinking this is really a story that they could re-make really well today. And then as I was looking it up on IMDB I saw that they are! It is coming out December of this year!

I looked through the cast for it and it looks fantastic.Every one of the cast are great actors and it includes two of my favorites: Sam Neill playing the General and Aidan Turner playing Philip Lombard.

They have a real chance to make this awesome so I hope they do it. 

 Overall, even with the changes made, I highly recommend this movie.