And Then There Were None

And Then There Were None (also known as Ten Little Indians, Ten Little Niggers and The Nigger in the Woodpile) is a detective novel by Agatha Christie first published in 1939.

Stage and film versions

Christie had been disappointed in previous adaptations of her novels. As she had written a play before, she decided to adapt her own book herself. She decided that the staging of a play required the survival of two characters in order to carry the plot exposition. Consequently the resolution of the play is very different from that of the book. The stage version dates from 1943. Several films followed the play rather than the book.

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The story was adapted for the cinema as And Then There Were None in 1945 and again in 1974; and also filmed as Ten Little Indians in 1959, 1965, and 1989.

Related Topics:
1945 - 1974 - 1959 - 1965 - 1989

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The 1945 film version was the most successful and took fewer liberties with Christie's plot than some of the other versions. It was directed by Rene Clair from a screenplay by Dudley Nichols.

Related Topics:
Directed - Rene Clair - Screenplay - Dudley Nichols

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The basic concept of the plot has been recycled countless times, often without crediting Christie (who herself recycled concepts). The most recent example is probably the 2004 crime thriller Mindhunters, which includes many elements of Christie's original story, including an island and various plot twists.

Related Topics:
2004 - Crime - Thriller - Mindhunters

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There was also a very faithful-to-the-novel film adaptation made in Russia in 1987, the title of which ("Desyat negrityat") translates pretty much as the novel's original title, believed by many to be Ten Little Niggers (although the true original title was The Nigger in the Woodpile), which could not be used in public for reasons of political correctness. The Russian version is the only adaptation that didn't change any of the characters or the ending of the book.

Related Topics:
Russia - 1987

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List of movie adaptations

• And Then There Were None (1945 film) - directed by René Clair (IMDb listing)
• Ten Little Indians (1959 film) - live television presentation, directed by Paul Bogart, Philip F. Falcone, Leo Farrenkopf and Dan Zampino (IMDb listing)
• Ten Little Indians (1965 film) - directed by George Pollock (IMDb listing)
• And Then There Were None (1974 film) - directed by Peter Collinson (IMDb listing)
• Desyat negrityat (1987) - directed by Stanislav Govorukhin (IMDb listing)
• Ten Little Indians (1989 film) - directed by Alan Birkinshaw (IMDb listing)