Loved this. I thought the actress who played Vera was excellent. My only gripe was that once she had murdered Lombard, she thought hanging herself was a good thing? Thought they could have been done better as it made little sense.

 

I'm curious.. how are the film versions different - and was it not a faithful ending? Wikipedia tells me, that the judge admits his crimes by writing a message in a bottle, which was missed out of the adaptation.

Loved this. I thought the actress who played Vera was excellent. My only gripe was that once she had murdered Lombard, she thought hanging herself was a good thing? Thought they could have been done better as it made little sense.

 

I'm curious.. how are the film versions different - and was it not a faithful ending? Wikipedia tells me, that the judge admits his crimes by writing a message in a bottle, which was missed out of the adaptation.

 

In the film versions (and the 'modified' original play), Lombard isn't really Lombard, he's a friend of the real Lombard who committed suicide. When 'faux' Lombard found the letter from Mr U N Owen - he went along and pretended to be Lombard to see if this Mr Owen had anything to do with his friend's suicide. The crime Vera is accused of is of murdering her sister's fiance (although we discover that she actually took the blame for her sister and was innocent also). When it appears that there are only the two of them alive, on the beach, after the discovery of the Doctor's body - 'faux' Lombard persuades Vera to pretend to shoot him (as he suspects that one of the others is still alive and is watching from the house). Vera then makes her way to the house where she is confronted by the Judge who is sitting in an armchair in the living room - with a noose prepared for Vera to hang herself. She says 'what if I refuse to hang myself' he says she will die by hanging anyway - as the only survivor on an island with nine dead bodies - she will automatically be suspected of the killings and will be sent to the gallows anyway. He confesses that he is going to die and has taken some poison in his whiskey. At that point 'faux' Lombard walks in and the Judge dies - his last words are 'should never trust a woman'. BTW - the 'red herring' that was responsible for the eighth little indian's death (the Doctor) was that after the Judge had gained his confidence - he had been suckered into his plan to 'to root out the real killer' by colluding in the Judge's death (none of the others bothered to check that the Judge was dead - they just took the Doctor's word for it.

 

The TV version we've just seen was largely true to the original novel's ending (although the message in a bottle bit was left out). I believe in the book that the message doesn't turn up until much later so the 10 deaths are a mystery for quite a long time.

 

After watching the TV production (which I enjoyed immensely) I just had to watch the 1945 film again (I've seen it a dozen times - the touches of humour in it are fantastic - mainly provided by the Judge and the Butler. I also went to see an AM-DRAM production just last year which had the film ending (it was a good production too - by the Wigan Little Theatre players).

Edited January 4, 20169 yr by Kath

Loved this. I thought the actress who played Vera was excellent. My only gripe was that once she had murdered Lombard, she thought hanging herself was a good thing? Thought they could have been done better as it made little sense.

 

I'm curious.. how are the film versions different - and was it not a faithful ending? Wikipedia tells me, that the judge admits his crimes by writing a message in a bottle, which was missed out of the adaptation.

In the original, Vera hangs herself and dies without knowing anything. We then go to an epilogue where two detectives try (and ultimately fail) to work out the mystery, before we read Wargrave's confession in the bottle. Also missing is the element of the case being impossible to solve as diaries held by the characters indicate the killing order up to Wargrave, and the four remaining cannot be the murderer for the following reasons:

 

• Armstrong could have killed Blore, Lombard and Claythorne and then thrown himself into the sea, but his corpse is found beyond the highest tides, meaning it was dragged to where it was found.
• Lombard could have killed Armstrong, Blore and Claythorne and then shot himself, but his revolver is found in Wargrave's room, eliminating all possibility of him having shot himself.
• Claythorne could have killed Armstrong, Blore and Lombard and then hung herself, but the chair she knocked over is found against the wall.
• It is inconceivable that Blore could have killed Armstrong, Lombard and Claythorne, then killed himself by knocking down the bear on him, as this isn't how one would kill oneself.

 

In the end, the detectives are stumped as to who could have killed them (knowing that the murderer was one of the ten)

This started off a bit slow for me but the final episode was fantastic and utterly gripping. I'd never knew of/read the story before so this was by first experience and I like how well plotted it is, especially when seeing Taylor's last post.