Murder on the Orient Express | Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall

Murder on the Orient Express | Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall | Best Murder Mystery with an all Star Cast

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Murder on the Orie...

	Murder on the Orient Express Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall Paramount, 1998 average customer review:based on 108 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A PERFECT MOVIE--Good, clean fun!

I saw this movie for the first time a couple months ago. I was worried that it wouldn't be suitable for a family, but it's a wonderful mystery that won't dissappoint anyone!

This is such an awesome film! The all-star cast brings Christie's plot to life. The cinematography of the train moving through Europe is breathtaking! The musical score is top-notch, and the ending is surprising!

Murder on the Orient Express comes off as somewhat of a stage production, but it also feels completely real! It's the type of movie that makes you feel like a part of the story--you actually WANT to be on that train! I know this seems weird for a mystery movie, but Murder on the Orient Express is almost a "cozy" film. Though it has its scary moments, you always feel safe. It is also very clever and funny.

Murder on the Orient Express is one of my favorite films! Watch it, you'll love it!

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Best Murder Mystery with an all Star Cast

Murder on the Orient Express is the best murder mystery ever! You have all the clues but most people will not put them together!

The film starts with newspaper articles about a kidnapping. The film advances five years later to the Asian side of Istanbul. One by one all the characters are introduced. On the ferry we meet Poirot (Albert Finney), a British secretary Miss Mary Debenham (Vanessa Redgrave), her boyfriend Colonel Arbuthnot (Sean Connery). That night at the hotel we meet an old friend of Poirot's Bianchi (Martin Balsam), a director of the train line. The remaining cast we meet boarding the train. First is the Princess Dragomiroff (Wendy Hiller) and her lady's maid Hildegarde Schmidt (Rachael Roberts). Next on board are Count and Contess Andrenyi (Michael York and Jacqueline Bisset), followed by the famous American stage actress Mrs. Harriet Hubbard (Lauren Bacall), Swedish missionary Greta Swenson (Ingrid Bergman), Ratchett (Richard Widmark), his private secretary Hector McQueen (Anthony Perkins) and butler Beddoes (John Gielguld). Each is greeted by the conductor Pierre Paul Michel (Jean Pierre Casal). On board we meet the last two travelers a Pinkerton agent Cyrus Hardman (Colin Blakely) and a car salesman Gino Foscarelli (Dennis Quilley).

Ratchett tries to hire Poirot because he feels his life is in danger. He has gotten two threatening notes "I Kill Killers" and "Prepare to Die". The next morning he is found dead with twelve stab wounds. There is a third note with the name Daisy Armstrong on it. Daisy was the name of the child kidnapped and killed at the beginning.

Bianchi asks Poirot to solve the murder. And reluctantly, he agrees. He one by one interviews all the passengers. At the end he gathers the passengers and reenacts his murder scenario and then presents a simpler solution and leaves the choice to Bianchi.

I won't detail the movie as the twist and turns are better if you don't know them. All I tell you is listen carefully. Now some of the conclusions are faulty by today's standards but the overall conclusion is brilliant. Raves to Dame Christie.

This is a brilliant adaptation by Paul Dehn (he should have won the Oscar) and a great change of pace for Sidney Lumet. The cast is uniformly superb starting with Albert Finney. While I think David Suchet is the best Poirot - as he has done most of the books and stories, Finney was perfection in the role and I'm really sorry he did not want to reprise the role. As for the suspects, Bergman deserved her Oscar and Lauren Bacall was great in her first great role in a very long time.

As for technically, this film deserved more accolades. Tony Walton's production design and set design were spot on. No detail was lacking.

This is a near perfect murder mystery film.

DVD EXTRAS:
Agatha Christie: A Portrait by her Grandson, Matthew Pritchard - This is a 9 minute featurette about Christie and her writings including the origin of Poirot and the book.

Making Murder on the Orient Express - A 49 minute making of featurette with interviews with director Sidney Lumet, producer Richard Goodwin, producer John Brabourne, actors Sean Connery, Jacqueline Bisset and Michael York, author Nicholas Meyer, set and costume designer Tony Walton, composer Richard Rodney Bennett and Matthew Pritchard.

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Great acting, fun mystery, an all around pleasure

I saw this movie when it first came out in 1974. I was at the height of my Agatha Christie fanaticism, having discovered her in seventh grade (1972). By 1978, I'd read all of her books. My aunts took me to see "Orient Express" at the theater for my 14th birthday and gave me an Orient Express key ring (which I still use to this day, 32 years later!)

This year a friend, who knew nothing about my secret Agatha Christie past, gave me a copy of the DVD for my 46th birthday. I hadn't seen it at all in the intervening years. And, lo, it held up to my memory of it. The cast is superb, the cinematography beautiful, the story-telling excellent. Of course, it seemed to me like the movie practically screamed "whodunit" from almost the first moments on the train, but then again, I already knew. Still that didn't detract from the fun, in fact, it added to it.

Rent this film for a fun evening. It's really the best of the Christie films I've ever seen. Wish someone would do justice to "And Then There Were None" some day...film the ending of the book rather than the less satisfactory one all the movies (and the play) used.

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WONDERFUL MOVIE...great BONUS FEATURES....lousy transfer

Lets get things straight..
this is a wonderful film...skillfully made, direction, score, sets , and the actors...wow!
re: the DVD...the bonus features are terrific...
why the lower than great rating?
It seems Paramount has chosen to master from a laserdisc...one with the early stages of laser rot....that is why there are spreckles through out the film....and why I'm deducting stars....but for the price...its a steal! you will not be dissapointed in the movie or extras!

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, page 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19

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