Desyat Negrityat
Desyat Negrityat is a 1987 Soviet mystery thriller film adaptation of Agatha Christie's 1939 novel of the same name, now known as And Then There Were None. It was directed by Stanislav Govorukhin, who also penned the script.
This version was, upon its release, unique in that virtually no part of the novel is altered. Unlike the previous Hollywood/British adaptations of the story, none of the characters or their respective crimes are altered in any way and the film concludes with the grim finale from Agatha Christie's original novel, rather than the upbeat ending from the 1943 stage version that most other adaptations chose to follow. The Soviet adaptation is a bit more fanciful in that the murderer expounds at some length, in solitude, about their methodology and the critical twist.
Plot
On a hot, early August day sometime in the late 1930s, eight people arrive on a small, isolated island off the Devon coast of England. Each appears to have an invitation tailored to his or her personal circumstances, such as an offer of employment or an unexpected late summer holiday. They are met by Thomas and Ethel Rogers, the butler and cook/housekeeper, who state that their hosts, Mr Ulick Norman Owen and his wife Mrs Una Nancy Owen, whom they have not yet met in person, have not arrived, but left instructions, which strikes all the guests as odd.Cast
- Vladimir Zeldin as Judge Lawrence Wargrave
- Tatyana Drubich as Vera Claythorne
- Alexander Kaidanovsky as Philip Lombard
- Aleksei Zharkov as Detective William Blore
- Anatoli Romashin as Doctor Armstrong
- Lyudmila Maksakova as Emily Brent
- Mikhail Gluzsky as General MacArthur
- Aleksei Zolotnitsky as Mr. Rogers
- Irina Tereshchenko as Mrs. Rogers
- Aleksandr Abdulov as Anthony Marston
- Igor Yasulovich as Accuser's voice on a phonograph record