I like this movie. Agatha Christie's plot is what makes it very
entertaining, for the performances are just a touch wooden and the
directing plodding.

There's a 1945 adaptation and a half dozen later adaptations for both
movies and television. I am unaware of a radio adaptation but I think it
would work quite well. It's Christie's most-adapted novel.

The 1939 novel was published under various names, all based on a
children's song "Ten Little Indians". Well, there were two versions
adapted for minstrel shows. The 1868 version added all the deaths
to what had been an innocuous counting-out song, and the 1869
version for Christy's Minstrels was for blackface and changed the title
to a specific racist word. This version was best known in Europe and the
title her novel was published under. It was published in America And
Then There Were None, the song's last line. Decades later, it was
published as Ten Little Indians.

Now, I knew the ending was changed for I've read the novel but I didn't
realize that Christie herself changed the ending as she'd written her
own adaptation for theater; the movie adaptations use the play's
changes.

In the novel, everybody is a killer that escaped justice and all die
as staged or manipulated by the serial killer in ways suggested by the
song. There's also a coda explaining what the police think and a revelation
of another murder, but not of a murderer, in the backstory to maintain
the anonymity of the serial killer. For stage, Christie dropped the coda
and made two of the characters innocent and escape so there's someone
to tell the story and give the audience a less bleak ending.

The movie features two of the 1960s most gorgeous actresses, 23 year old
Daliah Lavi (two years before Casino Royale where she's even more breathtakingly beautiful and erotic) and 28 year old Shirley Eaton.

Lavi's character is decades younger than her counterpart in the novel.
She gets enough dialogue to confess her crime but too little screen
time. She does dress in an elaborate gown for dinner that could be worn
by an older woman.

They make Eaton quite sexy, with two scenes in her bedroom stripped down
to underwear and a third in which she's wearing nothing but a towel
which stays wrapped around her full figure as Hugh O'Brian flings her
down onto her bed to have his way with her. She showed a lot of skin and
the audience looked carefully to see if any gold paint remained.

Of all the cast, Eaton shows the most spark. She carries the ending,
murdering Lombard (it's a trick) and carrying herself toward the
inevitable confrontation with the serial killer. She provides enough of
a stone cold performance that she very well could have played the killer
the way it was written in the novel.

Fabian is there for stunt casting and is so obnoxious that the audience
roots for his death. Hugh O'Brian's character's first name is changed to
Hugh as if the actor couldn't recall and the crime is very different.

With Wilfred Hyde-White and Stanley Holloway and an uncredired
Christopher Lee as the sinister voice on the recording.

Setting was changed from a tiny, privately-owned island off the Devon
coast to the Alps, in which we must suspend disbelief that someone built
and maintained an aerial tramway to serve a single house.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

I like this movie. Agatha Christie's plot is what makes it very
entertaining, for the performances are just a touch wooden and the
directing plodding.

There's a 1945 adaptation and a half dozen later adaptations for both
movies and television. I am unaware of a radio adaptation but I think it would work quite well. It's Christie's most-adapted novel.

Ian writes about the radio in his Wikipedia article

Radio
The BBC broadcast Ten Little Niggers (1947), adapted by Ayton Whitaker,
first aired as a Monday Matinee on the BBC Home Service on 27 December 1947
and as Saturday Night Theatre on the BBC Light Programme on 29
December.[48]
On 13 November 2010, as part of its Saturday Play series, BBC
Radio 4 broadcast a 90-minute adaptation written by Joy Wilkinson. The production was directed by Mary Peate and featured Geoffrey Whitehead as Mr Justice Wargrave, Lyndsey Marshal as Vera Claythorne, Alex Wyndham as
Philip Lombard, John Rowe as Dr Armstrong, and Joanna Monro as Emily Brent.

However, he skipped the most recent film adaptation

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6415838/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk

And his IMDb article on that doesn?t list the title I saw it under even
though it lists another alternate title. It?s the one where they lost track
and only killed nine people.

The 1939 novel was published under various names, all based on a
children's song "Ten Little Indians". Well, there were two versions
adapted for minstrel shows. The 1868 version added all the deaths
to what had been an innocuous counting-out song, and the 1869
version for Christy's Minstrels was for blackface and changed the title
to a specific racist word. This version was best known in Europe and the title her novel was published under. It was published in America And
Then There Were None, the song's last line. Decades later, it was
published as Ten Little Indians.

Now, I knew the ending was changed for I've read the novel but I didn't realize that Christie herself changed the ending as she'd written her
own adaptation for theater; the movie adaptations use the play's
changes.

In the novel, everybody is a killer that escaped justice and all die
as staged or manipulated by the serial killer in ways suggested by the
song. There's also a coda explaining what the police think and a revelation of another murder, but not of a murderer, in the backstory to maintain
the anonymity of the serial killer. For stage, Christie dropped the coda
and made two of the characters innocent and escape so there's someone
to tell the story and give the audience a less bleak ending.

The movie features two of the 1960s most gorgeous actresses, 23 year old Daliah Lavi (two years before Casino Royale where she's even more breathtakingly beautiful and erotic) and 28 year old Shirley Eaton.

Lavi's character is decades younger than her counterpart in the novel.
She gets enough dialogue to confess her crime but too little screen
time. She does dress in an elaborate gown for dinner that could be worn
by an older woman.

They make Eaton quite sexy, with two scenes in her bedroom stripped down
to underwear and a third in which she's wearing nothing but a towel
which stays wrapped around her full figure as Hugh O'Brian flings her
down onto her bed to have his way with her. She showed a lot of skin and
the audience looked carefully to see if any gold paint remained.

Of all the cast, Eaton shows the most spark. She carries the ending, murdering Lombard (it's a trick) and carrying herself toward the
inevitable confrontation with the serial killer. She provides enough of
a stone cold performance that she very well could have played the killer
the way it was written in the novel.

Fabian is there for stunt casting and is so obnoxious that the audience
roots for his death. Hugh O'Brian's character's first name is changed to
Hugh as if the actor couldn't recall and the crime is very different.

With Wilfred Hyde-White and Stanley Holloway and an uncredired
Christopher Lee as the sinister voice on the recording.

Setting was changed from a tiny, privately-owned island off the Devon
coast to the Alps, in which we must suspend disbelief that someone built
and maintained an aerial tramway to serve a single house.

--
The last thing I want to do is hurt you, but it is still on my list.

--- PyGate Linux v1.5.1
* Origin: Dragon's Lair, PyGate NNTP<>Fido Gate (3:633/10)