Movie Review - Murder on the Orient Express
Produced by:
EMI Films Ltd.
John Brabourne
Richard N. Goodwin
Directed by
Sidney Lumet
Cast
Albert Finney Hercule Poirot
Lauren Bacall Mrs. Hubbard
Martin Balsam Bianchi
Ingrid Bergman Greta
Jacqueline Bisset Countess Andrenyi
Jean-Pierre Cassel Pierre Paul Michelle
Sean Connery Colonel Arbuthnot
John Gielgud Beddoes
Wendy Hiller Princess Dragomiroff
Anthony Perkins Hector MacQueen
Vanessa Redgrave Mary Debenham
Rachel Roberts Hildegarde Schmidt
Richard Widmark Ratchett
Michael York Count Andrenyi
Colin Blakely Dick Hardman
George Coulouris Dr. Constantine
Dennis Quilley Foscarelli
Vernon Dobtcheff Concierge
Jeremy Lloyd A.D.C.
John Moffatt Chief Attendant
Written by
Agatha Christie (novel)
Paul Dehn
Awards -
Won:
Best Supporting Actress - Ingrid Bergman
Nominated:
Best Actor - Albert Finney
Best Cinematography - Geoffrey Unsworth
Best Costume Design - Tony Walton
Best Music,
Original Dramatic Score - Richard Rodney Bennett
Best Writing, Screenplay
Adapted From Other Material - Paul Dehn
Murder on the Orient Express is a murder mystery written by Agatha
Christie. This adaption of the book tells the story of detective Poirot,
who happens to be on the Orient Express during a murder. The train is
snowbound, giving Poirot time to find that the murdered person is the
kidnapper and killer of Daisy Armstrong. The case of Daisy Armstrong is an
echo of Lindenberg child. Poirot than begins to interrogate the
passengers, and comes up with the surprising solution to the murder. Murder
on the Orient Express is one of Christie's more famous novels, and the
adaption follows the book closely.
Murder on the Orient Express is not a movie for people who want explosions
and non-stop heart-pounding action. Nor is it a movie for romantic
diehards. It is a movie that intrigues, and makes you wonder what is
really going on. The all-star cast performs the very well, and you'll
never guess the ending.
Murder on the Orient Express does not however take your interest right at
the beginning. It's take a while for anything to really happen. A good
ten to fifteen minutes of the movie is telling us why Poirot is on the
Orient Express, which isn't really vital to the plot. Even once on the
Express, it takes a while for the murder to occur. At that point, the plot
gets much more interesting, but still doesn't move as one would expect from
an action or drama flick.
Instead it moves into the systematic interrogation of the passengers, who
all tell their stories. Deciding which to believe, and which to ignore is
what makes the movie interesting. Through each person's dialogue, you get
glimpses of clues and motives, but nothing definite. You try to formulate
your own hypothesis. Still you can't deduce what Poirot deduces, nor make
sense of the other things that don't fit your thoughts. At end of the
movie, you may think you've figured it all out, and you know who did it.
But you find yourself wrong, as Poirot shows you all the points you have
missed. Then he throws it all together, and makes sense of it all.
Of course there are things obvious to the viewer and not to Poirot. It's
almost immediately known who will be killed and who he really is. This is
due to the way the introductory material to the Daisy Armstrong case is
presented. The audience knows it important because other is wouldn't be
presented, and therefore connections are readily apparent to the audience
and not the characters. Then film techniques such as panning and zooming
give away some of the characters' personalities. This can give away things
that shouldn't be easily seen, making Poirot's deductive abilities seem
diminished.
However, in the end, Poirot's shows himself to be a brilliant detective.
If you don't mind waiting for the movie to start up, and enjoying thinking
for yourself every once in a while, you willenjoy Murder on the Orient
Express. If not, there are a million action flicks you could watch.
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