Desyat Negrityat

Desyat Negrityat
Film poster for Desyat Negrityat
Directed by	Stanislav Govorukhin
Written by	Novel: Agatha Christie Screenplay: Stanislav Govorukhin
Starring	Vladimir Zeldin Tatyana Drubich
Music by	Nikolai Korndorf
Cinematography	Gennadi Engstrem
Editing by	Valentina Olejnik
Release date(s)	1987
Running time	137 min
Country	Soviet Union
Language	Russian

Desyat Negrityat (Russian: Десять негритят) is a 1987 Soviet film adaptation of Agatha Christie's novel And Then There Were None (the title of this version translates as Ten Little Niggers, Christie's original title for the book). It was directed by Stanislav Govorukhin, who also penned the script. This film is 137 minutes in length.

This version is unique in that virtually none 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 stage version that other adaptations chose to follow.

Cast

• Vladimir Zeldin...Judge Lawrence Wargrave
• Tatyana Drubich...Vera Claythorne
• Alexander Kaidanovsky...Philip Lombard
• Aleksei Zharkov...Detective William Blore
• Anatoli Romashin...Doctor Armstrong
• Lyudmila Maksakova...Emily Brent
• Mikhail Gluzsky...General Macarthur
• Aleksei Zolotnitsky...Mr. Rogers
• Irina Tereshchenko...Mrs. Rogers
• Aleksandr Abdulov...Anthony Marston
• Igor Yasulovich...Accuser's voice on a phonograph record

Plot

Ten complete strangers are invited to spend the weekend in a lonely mansion on an island off the English coast. Once there, they realize that none of them know their unseen host, who has identified himself only as "Mr. Owen." Using a prerecorded gramophone, Mr. Owen accuses them each of past murders that the law was unable to punish, and promises swift retribution. Soon thereafter the first guest dies, the victim of poisoning. The remaining guests come to realize that the killer is murdering them according to the old Ten Little Niggers nursery rhyme. When their attempt to locate Mr. Owen by searching the island proves fruitless, they realize that the unknown assailant is in fact one of them.

External links

• Desyat Negrityat at the Internet Movie Database