One of our all time favorite murder mystery authors is of course Agatha Christie. Her most celebrated works include ‘The Murder of Roger Akroyd’ and the classic ‘And then there were none’. If you can, get yourself a copy of those books and see if you can work out, whodunit. Alternatively you could just watch one of the many movie versions of her many works. We found this floating aroung on YouTube.
And then there were none (1945)
The Plot:
Eight people, all total strangers to each other, are invited to a small, isolated island off the coast of Devon, England, by a Mr. and Mrs. Owen. Ferried over by a sailor called Narracott, they settle in at a mansion tended by two newly hired servants, Thomas and Ethel Rogers, but their hosts are absent. When the guests sit down to dinner, they notice the centerpiece, ten figurines of Indians in a circle. Afterward, Thomas Rogers puts on a gramophone record, from which a voice accuses them all of murder:
Interesting facts about this classic mystery movie:
- The failure of the original copyright holder to renew the film’s copyright resulted in it falling into public domain.
- This movie, as all existent versions of “Ten Little Indians,” is based not on the novel by Agatha Christie but on her very similar play. While the identity of the murderer is the same in both versions, the outcome of who survives the murderer’s plot is very different.
- There is no dialogue at all in this film for the first five minutes.
- Released in the UK under the novel’s original title “Ten Little Niggers”. Obviously this title is not used these days.
- This has a notably different ending to the original novel which involves all 10 characters ending up dead. Agatha Christie changed how it finished for the theatrical adaptation as she felt that wartime audiences would find it too depressing.
– IMDB
About the Agatha
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English crime novelist, short story writer and playwright. She is best known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around her fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world’s longest-running play, a murder mystery, The Mousetrap, and six romances under the name Mary Westmacott. In 1971 she was made a Dame for her contribution to literature.
http://www.agathachristie.com/
Interesting facts
- Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling novelist of all time. Her novels have sold roughly 2 billion copies, and her estate claims that her works come third in the rankings of the world’s most-widely published books, behind only Shakespeare’s works and the Bible. According to Index Translationum, she remains the most-translated individual author – having been translated into at least 103 languages. And Then There Were None is Christie’s best-selling novel, with 100 million sales to date, making it the world’s best-selling mystery ever, and one of the best-selling books of all time.
- Christie dissapeared for 10 days in 1926. Her disappearance caused an outcry from the public. The Home Secretary, William Joynson-Hicks, pressured police, and a newspaper offered a £100 reward. Over a thousand police officers, 15,000 volunteers, and several aeroplanes scoured the rural landscape. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle even gave a spirit medium one of Christie’s gloves to find the missing woman.
– Wikepedia
