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And Then There Were None
1945 · Film · 98 min
Directed by René Clair
Ten strangers are summoned to a remote island and while they are waiting for the mysterious host to appear, a recording levels serious accusations at each of the guests. Soon they start being murdered, one by one. As the survivors try to keep their wits, they reach a disturbing conclusion: one of them must be the killer.
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4 comments on Hacker News
Then you need to stop reading Dahl, because he rewrote his own books as part of the culture war.
In his original Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, the Oompa-Loompas were African Pygmies. The NAACP complained, and Dahl rewrote them in 1973 to be white-skinned. In the 1971 movie they were portrayed as orange-skinned, and in the 2005 movie as brown.
Each of those falsifies the original literature.
And you're right - these changes affect the interpretation of the original story!
As "Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator" more clearly shows, the books are also commentary about then-current society. Post-war England opened the labor market and granted British citizenship to the New Commonwealth. Black-skinned Anglo-Caribbean and brown-skinned people from the Indian subcontinent moved to England, causing English people to protest how "white" English jobs were being stolen. It's not hard to draw a parallel between that and how the workers in Wonka's chocolate factory were kicked out, replaced by Oompa-Loompas who were illegally smuggled in to the country.
Rewriting the books and movies to avoid possible associations with African slavery obscures this interpretation.
Also, don't read Agatha Christie's "And Then There Were None". Even though it's the world's best-selling mystery, it's also been rewritten, including even the title.
Both of the books you mentioned have good film adaptations as well! The 1945 film version of “And Then There Were None”, and especially the Sidney Lumet version of “Murder on the Orient Express”. The scene of Poirot laying out his theory for the assembled passengers is amazing.
Honestly, aside from some of the classics (And then there were none, murder on the links, orient express) the Poirot series is my absolute favorite of any mystery novel ever.
Never seen the TV show, but if you can get past the language of the books you can’t beat them.
Actually, original title by Agatha Christie was "Ten Little Niggers" [1]. I didn't read the book, but I really liked the movie [2] (there is eng subs). People in reviews say it's closest and probably best adaptation. IMO, it's excellent.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_Then_There_Were_None
[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoTDsuSgPBw