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Diffrent Names

debking 15 May 09 at 3:11 p.m. GMT

I find it confusing as to why the titles of some of the books are different in America than in Great Britian I find this puzzling. And also some endings are different.

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S_Sigerson 18 May 09 at 9:20 p.m. GMT

Makes perfect sense why Agatha Christie and her American publishers made the change to Murder in Three Acts. Of course I think the British edition is stronger and a more clever plot. However, once again I totally understand why they did what they did. 

GKCfan 18 May 09 at 7:58 p.m. GMT

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In the American version on "Murder in Three Acts," the killer commits the murders because he is insane, although he covers it up well, so he kills so he won't be institutionalized.  In the British version (which I haven't read, but other people have told me about it), he is MARRIED to an insane woman, and under the English laws at the time he can't divorce her.  He wants to marry a young woman, so he commits the murders to hide the fact that he already has a wife hidden in an asylum somewhere.  

na_well 16 May 09 at 10:25 p.m. GMT

Well I don't mind if they change a book ending for the film adaptation but I can't believe it that they can change the ending of a book for a release in other country it amazes me a lot, really.

RobinHerne 16 May 09 at 7:02 p.m. GMT

What is the motive in the American version?

Robin

Tommy_A_Jones 16 May 09 at 2:10 p.m. GMT

Perehaps in the future Crime Writers should write many different endings to each book they write then the Television Companies can show which ever ending thjey please.

na_well 15 May 09 at 8:23 p.m. GMT

Well I knew that they changed some of the titles for the US market but I've never thought they could change the ending or the motive of a killer. That seems pretty weird and unfair. What were they thinking? I am not as concerned about getting a book with a different tittle as I am about getting a different ending or motive. It surprises me a lot GKCfan.

GKCfan 15 May 09 at 7:22 p.m. GMT

Around the world, publishers, in their finite wisdom, think that some of Christie's original titles are "too British," or contain references too obscure for the average reader, so they change them.  

As for changed endings, I don't know of any changes in the books (the movies are another matter), save for "Murder in Three Acts," where the killer's motive is changed in America, and the U.S. version of "The Moving Finger" is supposedly abridged from the British version.