Out of the five theatrical versions of this famous Agatha Christie tale (perhaps her most famous ever, along with "Murder On The Orient Express"), I have only seen two: this 1989 one and the 1974 one. Comparing them, this one lacks the elegance of the other one, suffers from a terribly generic music score, and about half the cast will have you wondering "Who ARE these people?"; if you're used to seeing star-packed Agatha Christie adaptations, be prepared for one where you may never have seen some of the cast members before. But even the most recognizable names are not at their best here. I do want to single out two actors: Paul L. Smith, who will always be the revolting prison torturer of "The Midnight Express" in my mind and only has to show his towering frame to be scary (though his unexpectedly soft voice makes him sound dubbed at times!), and Sarah Maur Thorp, who creates possibly the only likable character in the bunch. The idea of the group voting anonymously on who they think is picking them off is an interesting one, but the film goes nowhere with it. On the positive side, there is some nice (though limited) African scenery, a very effective corpse-discovery scene (I don't want to give it away, but it involves an axe....), and an arguable improvement on how a certain event plays out at the end, though this version, just like the older one, would benefit from following Christie's original book ending instead of her revised play one. ** out of 4.
Review of Ten Little Indians
