1945 Version - the best?
I think the 1945 version - And Then There Were None - had to be the best? Yes?
shareYes, but there are parts of the others that I prefer. Orson Welles' voiceover as Mr. Owen in the 1970s version, for example, is a lot more chilling than whoever does it in the original.
shareFor a straight-up adaptation of Christie's novel, "Desyat Negrityat" is impossible to beat. It plays it totally straight, while a few members of the cast, at first glance, seem odd (Alexander Kaidanofsky is not a ladykiller, nevertheless, he's an even better Lombard than anyone else who's played the role, and he gets to play him as the @sshole Christie wrote, and Blore is not played by an overweight actor, but the man who plays him, as well as the rest of the cast are fantastic) And it retains the downer ending.
Of the English-language versions, the '45 version is the best, but as Jimmy-128 said, I like all the versions for different reasons (the '74 version's cast, with Attenborough, Reed, Lom, Frobe, and Celi, and the music, Pleasance and Lom in the '89 version, though Lom could have played the Doctor again at least.)
I love to love my Lisa.
The Russian one is a little TOO faithful to be perfect. It seems like the screenwriter simply lifted the book whole and entire and didn't put too much of themselves into it. And when they did change things, it was often for the worse. One example is Marston's confession, which he refers to as "beastly bad luck." When the judge (in the book) replies, "For them, or for you?", Marston is taken aback, and then answers, "Well...I was thinking for me, but you're right, it was jolly bad luck on them."
That last line is omitted in Desyat, and it bothers me; it's the whole point to Marston's character. He isn't like Lombard or Rogers, who knowingly choose to do wrong. He simply *does*, and thinks about it afterwards, if at all. It's the reason Mr. Owen chooses to kill him first.
Also, it's a minor point, but it wasn't until halfway through the movie that I was able to tell the actors playing Lombard and Blore apart. They're very similar-looking men.