Murder on the Orient Express

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Kylo S Mar 24, 2019 The classic "who done it" mystery standardized the genre's basic expectation through a perfect, carefully-constructed structure that still surprises in stylishly expected turns towards a satisfying justification, thanks to the cast ensemble when being investigated by Albert Finney's intellect. (A-) (Full review TBD) See more

Abraham M Mar 19, 2019 This is a great yarn with a great protagonist and great a cast, that I think wouldâ(TM)ve been served even better as a stage production. And making Perkins play a mother-obsessed weirdo is a wonderful bit of type-casting. But, HOT TAKE: Branagh's version is not only inarguably more cinematic, itâ(TM)s also just plain better. Boom goes the dynamite. See more

Ron L Mar 9, 2019 i thought this was ok

Feb 2, 2019 The best mystery movie ever made! With the best movie score ever composed!

Poe S Aug 12, 2018 In December 1935, Hercule Poirot (lbert Finney) is returning to England aboard the Orient Express, encountering his friend Signor Bianchi (Martin Balsam), a director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, which owns the line. Aside from Poirot, the other passengers travelling on the Calais coach are: Mrs. Harriet Hubbard (Lauren Bacall), a fussy, talkative, multiple-widowed American; enigmatic American businessman Samuel Ratchett (Richard Widmark), his secretary and translator Hector McQueen (Anthony Perkins) and English manservant Beddoes (John Gielgud); elderly Russian Princess Natalia Dragomiroff (Wendy Hiller) and her German maid Hildegarde Schmidt (Rachel Roberts); Hungarian diplomat Count Rudolf Andrenyi (Michael York) and his wife Elena (Jacqueline Bisset); British Indian Army officer Col. John Arbuthnot (Sean Connery); Mary Debenham (Vanessa Redgrave), a teacher of English in Baghdad; Greta Ohlsson (Ingrid Bergman), a timid Swedish missionary to Africa on a fund-raising trip; Italian-American car salesman Antonio Foscarelli; and Cyrus B. Hardman, an American theatrical agent. The morning after the train's departure from Istanbul, Ratchett tries to secure Poirot's services for $15,000 since he has received many death threats, but Poirot finds the case of little interest and turns it down. That night the train is caught in heavy snows en route through Yugoslavia. Poirot is disturbed numerous times during the night. The next morning Ratchett is found stabbed to death in his cabin. Poirot and Bianchi work together to solve the case. They enlist the help of Dr. Constantine, a Greek medical doctor who was travelling in another coach with Bianchi as the only other passenger and thus is not a suspect. Pierre Michel, the French conductor of the car, also assists the investigation, as well as being a suspect... The film was commercially and critically well-received, as well as receiving six nominations at the 47th Academy Awards: Best Actor (Finney), Best Supporting Actress (Bergman), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design. Of these nominations, Bergman was the only winner. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, writing that the film "provides a good time, high style, a loving salute to an earlier period of filmmaking". The New York Times' chief critic of the era, Vincent Canby, pointed out that had Dame Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express been made into a movie 40 years ago (when it was published here as "Murder on the Calais Coach"), it would have been photographed in black-and-white on a back lot in Burbank or Culver City, with one or two stars and a dozen character actors and studio contract players. Its running time would have been around 67 minutes and it could have been a very respectable B-picture. Murder on the Orient Express wasn't made into a movie 40 years ago, and after you see the Sidney Lumet production that opened yesterday at the Coronet, you may be both surprised and glad it wasn't. An earlier adaptation could have interfered with plans to produce this terrifically entertaining super-valentine to a kind of whodunit that may well be one of the last fixed points in our inflationary universe." That Sidney Lumet knows how to frame an actor within his or her character is a very well known fact - "The Pawnbroker" "Network" "Dog Day Afternoon" and some other spectacular pieces of acting prove that point unquestionably. Here, there is a sort of "divertissment". Agatha Christie given a first class treatment (not that Margaret Rutherford as Miss Marple wasn't first class, but the production value here is as impressive as the cast) in the hands of Sidney Lumet who knew how to put a bunch of sensational actors in a confined space - "12 Angry Men" for instance and make it riveting. There a 12 Angry people here too and (almost) each part is cast with relish and delight. Albert Finney, marvelous, manages, not only to survive, under the weight of his characterization but to create something bold, exquisitely structured, great fun to watch and to hear. Ingrid Bergman won her third Oscar for her missionary looking after little brown babies - I thought she was a highlight indeed but in my modest opinion, Valentina Cortese for "Day For Night" deserved it that year, Anthony Perkins plays Norman Bates's twin brother, also with a mother fixation and a compelling facial tic. Wendy Hiller was, clearly, having a ball and that, on the screen, is always contagious. Sean Connery and Vanessa Redgrave make a surprisingly hot pair, Lauren Bacall over does it of course but who cares, Jacqueline Bisset is breathtaking, Rachel Roberts a hoot. John Gielgud is John Gielgud and that in itself is a major plus. Colin Blakely does wonders with his moment and Dennis Quilley plays his Italian as if this was a silent movie. Martin Balsam is always fun to watch, no matter the accent. Richard Widmark is splendid in his villainy and Jean Pierre Cassel very moving indeed. The only weak spot in the cast is Michael York. Totally unbelievable. I suspect that "Murder in The Orient Express" 33 years old already, will continue delighting audiences for years to come. "Murder on The Orient Express" is a great adapation of the Agatha Christie whodunit novel with lavish sets that ends up in a beautiful snowy landscape, a magnificent ensemble cast, firm direction from Sidney Lumet and a great story with an excellent conlusion of how the murder was done. The pace is slow, there´s a dry nice english touch of humour and we get a rich character development that adds so much to the film. I love the fact that the production managed to secure so many A-list actors/actresses in the leads and all of them gives us great performances, but of course Albert Finney stands out as the eccentric Detective Hercule Poirot. This is for sure one of the USPs of the film. This is classic 70s filmmaking. Trivia: Virtually all of Ingrid Bergman's Oscar-winning performance is contained in a single scene: her interrogation by Poirot, captured in a single continuous take, nearly five minutes long. After several disappointing film adaptations, Agatha Christie initially refused to sell the film rights to any more of her books, but EMI chairman Nat Coleman enlisted the aid of Lord Louis Mountbatten to persuade Christie to allow the filming of her 1934 novel. It turned out to be her favorite film adaptation of any of her books. Mountbatten was the father-in-law of the film's producer, John Brabourne. See more

Draco S Jun 11, 2018 With a phenomenal cast and intellectual writing that captures the humor and suspense of the story, this 1974 rendition of Murder on the Orient Express remains a strong recommendation for mystery thrillers See more

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Murder on the Orient Express

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