What is Murder On The Orient Express (1974 Film)?

Murder on the Orient Express
original movie poster
Directed by	Sidney Lumet
Produced by	John Brabourne
Written by	Novel: Agatha Christie Screenplay: Paul Dehn Uncredited: Anthony Shaffer
Starring	Albert Finney Lauren Bacall Sean Connery Ingrid Bergman Michael York Vanessa Redgrave Jacqueline Bisset Richard Widmark John Gielgud Anthony Perkins Martin Balsam Rachel Roberts Wendy Hiller Denis Quilley Colin Blakely Jean-Pierre Cassel
Music by	Richard Rodney Bennett
Cinematography	Geoffrey Unsworth
Editing by	Anne V. Coates
Distributed by	EMI Films (UK) Paramount Pictures (U.S.)
Release date(s)	November 24, 1974
Running time	128 min.
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 feature film directed by Sidney Lumet and based on the 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. The film (and the book) features the detective Hercule Poirot. Albert Finney starred as Poirot, investigating the murder of Richard Widmark and having an all-star cast of suspects, including Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery, John Gielgud and Anthony Perkins. The screenplay was penned by Paul Dehn and an uncredited Anthony Shaffer.

The film's tagline was: "The greatest cast of suspicious characters ever involved in murder."

The film was the first 'all-star' adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel, and paved the way for similar films (Death on the Nile, The Mirror Crack'd and Evil Under the Sun). However it is the only occasion on which Albert Finney portrayed Poirot, with Peter Ustinov portraying the detective in subsequent films.

Richard Rodney Bennett's memorable Orient Express theme has been reworked into an orchestral suite and performed and recorded several times. It was performed on the original soundtrack album by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Marcus Dods. The piano soloist was the composer himself.

Plot

The murder

Detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) is travelling on the Orient Express. During the journey, Poirot encounters his friend Bianchi (Martin Balsam), a director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, which owns the line. The train is unusually packed for the time of year. On the second night out from Istanbul it is caught in heavy snows in the Balkans and a wealthy passenger, Ratchett (Richard Widmark), is found stabbed to death in his cabin.

Poirot, Bianchi and Dr. Constantine (George Coulouris) work together to solve the case. They are aided by Pierre Michel (Jean-Pierre Cassel), the middle-aged French conductor of the car. They soon discover that Ratchett was not who he claimed to be and that his murder has an element of justice in it.

Clues

• Ratchett was stabbed 12 times; some wounds were slight, but at least three of them could have resulted in death.
• Some wounds were made by a right hand and some by a left hand.
• Since the train has been surrounded by fresh snow since before the apparent time of death, and the doors to the other cars were locked, it seems that the murderer must still be among the passengers in Ratchett's car.

Most important of all, Poirot realises that Ratchett was in fact a gangster called Cassetti. Years ago, Cassetti and a henchman kidnapped and later murdered Daisy Armstrong, the baby daughter of a wealthy British colonel who had settled in America. The body was found after the ransom had been paid. Overcome with grief, Mrs Armstrong died while giving birth to a stillborn baby; a servant suspected of complicity in the kidnapping committed suicide; as did Colonel Armstrong, also consumed by these tragedies. Cassetti's accomplice was arrested and executed but his boss got away.

(The fictitious Armstrong case was inspired by the real-life kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's baby son.)

Suspects

The thirteen suspects are:

• Hector McQueen (Anthony Perkins), a tall, young American man, the victim's secretary and translator
• Edward Beddoes (Sir John Gielgud), the victim's British valet
• Mary Debenham (Vanessa Redgrave), a tall, dark, young British woman, returning home to England after working as a teacher in Baghdad
• Colonel Arbuthnot (Sean Connery), a tall British army officer returning to England on leave from India
• Princess Natalya Dragomiroff (Wendy Hiller), an elderly Russian grande dame
• Hildegarde Schmidt (Rachel Roberts), a middle-aged German woman, the Princess' lady's maid
• Count Rudolf Andrenyi (Michael York), a tall, dark Hungarian diplomat with English manner and clothing, travelling to France
• Countess Elena Andrenyi (Jacqueline Bisset), née Gründwald, his pale young wife
• Greta Ohlsson (Ingrid Bergman), a middle-aged Swedish missionary returning to Europe on a fund-raising trip for her mission in Africa
• Mrs. Harriet Belinda Hubbard (Lauren Bacall), née Arden, an older, very fussy American woman returning to the United States
• Gino Foscarelli (Denis Quilley), an exuberant Italian car salesman from Chicago
• Cyrus "Dick" Hardman (Colin Blakely), a Pinkerton's detective masquerading as a talent agent
• Pierre Michel (Jean-Pierre Cassel), the French conductor of the sleeping car

Motive

Poirot soon comes to realise that one way or another all the suspects were involved in the Armstrong kidnapping. Some openly admit their connection, others turn out to be servants and/or close friends and relatives of the Armstrongs.

• McQueen was the son of the District Attorney who prosecuted the case. He was very fond of Mrs. Armstrong.
• Miss Debenham was Mrs. Armstrong's secretary.
• Beddoes was Colonel Armstrong's army batman.
• Col. Arbuthnot was an army friend of Col. Armstrong.
• Princess Dragominoff was Mrs Armstrong's godmother.
• Miss Schmidt was the Armstrong's cook and close to the maid Paulette who committed suicide when she was suspected of having been involved in the kidnapping.
• Miss Ohlsson was Daisy's nursemaid.
• Foscarelli was the Armstrong's chauffeur.
• Hardman was, at the time, a policeman who was in love with Paulette.
• Michel was Paulette's father.
• Countess Andrenyi was Mrs Armstrong's sister.
• Mrs. Hubbard was Mrs Armstrong's mother.

Ratchett was drugged and then they all proceeded to kill him.

In the course of the inquiry evidence has been found of a supposed intruder on the train, who may have murdered Ratchett and then escaped. This evidence was planted by the suspects in an effort to suggest that Ratchett/Cassetti may have been involved with the Mafia and murdered as the result of some obscure feud.

Bianchi, a director of the line, decides that this solution will be enough for the local police and that Ratchett deserved everything he got. A cover-up is therefore instigated. Poirot is satisfied that justice has been done, even if it weights somewhat on his conscience.

Differences between Novel and Film

• The novel introduces Poirot to two of the suspects on a train bound for Istanbul. The ferry crossing from one side of the city to the other is barely mentioned. On film, Poirot becomes aware of Debenham and Arbuthnot on the ferry across the Bosporus, and the ferry crossing is the real start of the narrative.
• There are many changes connected to Ratchett's valet. He is a small, slight man called Masterman in the novel and is identified as an English man of 39 years of age who had never been to America. In the film the character's name is Beddoes (likely changed to avoid confusion with the similarly named Hardman), who, although English, was hired through an agency in New York City. At the time he played the part, John Gielgud was 70 years old. Gielgud is also notably taller than average.
• The character of the railroad official in the book is a Belgian named Bouc. He and Poirot converse in Belgian French and share an affinity due to the shared nationality; on film he is an Italian named Bianchi.
• Ingrid Bergman was also older than the character's stated age in the novel.
• Several characters look more like the actors who play them rather than their descriptions in the novel. Princess Dragomiroff is described as fat, Miss Debenham is supposed to have dark hair, and Greta Ohlsson is called sheep faced and her hair is worn in a bun. Wendy Hiller, who played the Princess was decidedly slight in build, Vanessa Redgrave displays her naturally red hair in the part of Mary Debenham and Ingrid Bergman is far from plain and sheep faced.
• The development of the plot and gradual solution to the case is streamlined. The novel introduces the revenge motive for the killing of Ratchett in dialog during the course of the investigation. The film lays some of this ground work with a short, atmospheric and effective prologue. The book sees Poirot gradually working out each suspect's connection to the Armstrong family step-by-step and revealing his knowledge to them one on one. In the film, the ultimate solution happens in a dramatic group setting.
• In the book, the Countess does not partake in the murder, but her husband does. In the movie, they grasp the dagger together to make one stab.
• The novel had the Orient Express run right into a snowdrift, so the murderer wouldn't have gotten off the train without getting buried in snow, and it would take a few days for men to dig out the train. The movie had the Orient Express stop before hitting the snowdrift, and while Poirot is stating the passengers' involvement in the murder, we see a steam engine with a snowplough breaking through the pile of snow. The movie ends with the Orient Express following the rescue engine to the next station while the credits are rolling.
• In the novel at the end Poirot shows Rachett's pistol to the suspects and proclaims that it is not only fully loaded but that Rachett was prepared to use it to protect himself; in the movie Poirot has the pistol on a sidetable with the other evidence but does not pick it up or explain its significance.
• In the novel the first theory as to Rachett's death is that he was killed by a stranger for unknown reasons; in the movie the first theory is that he was killed by a disguised stranger of the "mafia" (organized crime) as a result of a vendetta (implying that Rachett's past as "Cassetti" will be eventually exposed as the result of investigations of three police forces (American for his nationalty; French as to his residence; and Yugoslav as to where the murder occurred).

Notes

Lumet had previously directed Connery and Balsam in The Anderson Tapes.

Academy Awards and nominations

• Academy Award: Best Supporting Actress, Ingrid Bergman
• Academy Award Nomination: Best Actor in a Leading Role, Albert Finney
• Academy Award Nomination: Best Cinematography, Geoffrey Unsworth
• Academy Award Nomination: Best Costume Design, Tony Walton
• Academy Award Nomination: Best Music, Original Dramatic Score, Richard Rodney Bennett
• Academy Award Nomination: Best Writing, Screenplay Adapted from Other Material, Paul Dehn

Other versions

A made-for-television movie was made in 2001.

See also

• Death, Deceit and Destiny Aboard the Orient Express

External links

• Murder on the Orient Express at All Movie Guide
• Murder on the Orient Express at the TCM Movie Database
• Murder on the Orient Express at Rotten Tomatoes

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