Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

"Murder on the Orient Express" stands out as an unusual and different mystery. For that reason alone, it is a valuable part of the genre of mystery and crime films and books. Agatha Christie's tale set on the renowned train route from Istanbul to Paris is indeed a fascinating one. It is one of the best mysteries of all time. Those who have not read the book or heard the story will enjoy the movie the most by going into it without any foreknowledge. So, this review won't divulge any of the plot. Rather, it looks at the story in general, the cast and the setting. This film follows Christie's book very closely. Few names have been changed. The cast is superb. It has one of the largest casts of prominent actors - more than a dozen, in any film. And, none of these are cameos. Each person plays his or her character very well and very close to the book. The only character interpretation that I think didn't quite fit is the lead. Albert Finney's Hercule Poirot seems too talkative and doesn't have the thinking pauses that David Suchet's Poirot shows in the great TV series and movies later. Finney adds a touch of joviality to his flamboyance that doesn't seem quite right for the serious, thoughtful yet arrogant Poirot. But, that's not enough to lower this superb film and story. The performances of the rest of the cast are mostly outstanding. Lauren Bacall is wonderful as Mrs. Hubbard. Martin Balsam is lively and boisterous without being aggravating. He plays the Belgian official of the train company, Bianchi, who also is an acquaintance of Poirot's from the past. Jean-Pierre Cassel shines as Pierre, the Calais car attendant. Wendy Hiller is superb as the princess, and Sean Connery is spot on as Col. Arbuthnot. Vanessa Redgrave as Mary Debenham does beautifully with an air of mystery as though she has something to hide. And, for anyone who knows little about Ingrid Bergman, her Greta in this film shows the great talent of this actress. She surely deserves her best supporting actress Oscar for her performance in this film. She is one of the greatest actresses of all time. Only one other effort to film this Christie story is as good or better than this original. The 2010 movie made for the TV series captures the time and setting perfectly. David Suchet stars as Poirot. It gives a deeper look at Poirot and his disgust with murder. The most recent, 2017 film, changes many character names, some of the circumstances and background, and comes across as a movie being made in 2017. Its characters are mostly forgettable. This 1974, and the 2010 TV film, will be the standards for Christie's novel, should any efforts be made to make another movie. And if that happens, it's not likely to match the star-studded cast of this 1974 masterpiece. Altogether, the players in this film won 45 major film and stage awards in their careers. They won 8 Oscars and had 25 more Academy Awards nominations. They won 16 Golden Globes and had 32 more nominations. They won 9 BAFTA awards and had 29 more nominations. They won 6 TV Emmy awards and had 17 more nominations. And five of them won 6 Tony awards on Broadway.

Despite the impressive casting, the interpretations of the stars are trite. Moreover the soundtrack is kind of senseless compared to the plot. However the scenario is fascinating ! As always A.Christie does not decent us. The film is good but not very striking. You can watch it once but not twice

From Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns to the makers of "Taken" there is something about European productions and their set locations in a movie that makes me feel like a stranger in a strange land as an American and Murder On The Orient Express has this in spades. It's engagingly balanced by its character driven story making it more gripping and entertaining though you do have to pay attention due to its use of flashbacks in connecting the dots.I saw this movie in the theaters in '75 when I was a teen and was just taken to another world that felt dangerous with the "you're on your own" aspect of traveling abroad (without the traveler's diarrhea) while running into some of the most quirky, creepy, eccentric and odd behaving characters that one might expect to meet on a train in Europe in the '30's. This seemingly eccentric behavior runs interference in hiding the truth about why and what would bring together on one train 12 oddball characters who seem to have nothing in common. Poirot slowly and diabolically works his way in his questioning of the 12 to make the connections.That ensemble of convincingly cagey acting characters is what the audience and Poirot must break through aided by effectively and obviously placed brief flashbacks to confessions and character back story each character reveals that at first were obscured by first impressions. Of course Poirot humorously dismisses with smart ass and equally quirky European flare and sophistication the suspect's phony behavior as a form of personal interrogation to rattle them in order to draw out more detail that points to the real murderer. Standouts in this form of re-remembering what was said outside the context of first impressions at the start of the movie is performances by oddly pasty pale complected Anthony Perkins and Ingrid Bergman's nervously, devout humanitarian character. The performances are not from your typical B-movie detective who done it.As a teen I was totally confused by these flashbacks and line of questioning even though I had read several Agatha Christie novels including "Murder On The Orient Express". The book had no flashbacks. This movie actually creates a whole other more interesting and character driven way to tell a who done it detective murder mystery in a most elegant and stylish way while remaining brilliantly grounded and believable by the performances of top shelf actors in gorgeous and authentic looking '30's era costumes.Through the years I've had to watch this movie several times in TV re-runs to understand the connections provided by the flashbacks even though I already knew the surprise ending. It's still fun to watch and I can't wait for the US release of the Blu-ray. I wish I could give the same review of the 2017 remake I saw last night.

I picked this one in advance to new adaptation with Pénelope and was happy to find here such a good cast with Connery, Golden age Hollywood actresses and the Cassel father… Lumet was a inspired director (with Al movies), Christie is the queen of thriller novels and this Orient Express was to the train what Titanic was to the boat, exoticism in addition! However, the movie opens with a child abduction tragedy worthy of a mute movie and we start the trip in Istanbul!In a lot of stories, and especially the crime ones, beyond the originality of the facts and locations (that are met there), we need to have also a original detective (remember Dale Cooper, Robocop – Murphy, Martin Riggs, …): however, here, we have a plain, copy of Sherlock Holmes and, in my opinion, terribly embodied by this Finney. I don't say he can't act, I just tell that his Poirot was just painful to watch: between effeminate and a look alike of a certain famous Adolph. It's funny (or not) but french critics had the same feeling at its release. His way of investigation is rather poor (just interviews) and I got quickly bored in addition because the suspects are rather just dull, old, very dusty and honestly, this murder becomes a quick who's who (the driver, the maid, the sister, the aunt, the buddy,…) that's totally a turn-off.Unlike Titanic, this movie doesn't age well and now I really consider to go watch the new adaptation!!