In December 1935, when his train is stopped by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in his car the night before. Trying to find how a millionaire wound up with a phony diamond brings Hercule Poirot (Sir Peter Ustinov) to an exclusive island resort frequented by the rich and famous. The noises which disturbed Poirot's sleep were contrived to obfuscate the time of death. 45 of 57 people found this review helpful. Foscarelli vehemently denies ever having been in private service as a chauffeur. Albert Finney is the dapper detective Hercule Poirot, for whom murder-solving is a precise, intellectual exercise. Later, an entire conductor's uniform is discovered that does not fit Pierre and misses a button. View production, box office, & company info. Bianchi entreats Poirot to solve the case. Bianchi decides that Cassetti deserved to die and elects the simple solution. Poirot then presents the motives of the other suspects: Pierre was Paulette's father; Beddoes was Colonel Armstrong's army batman and the family butler; Miss Ohlsson was Daisy's nursemaid (having inadvertently shown an understanding of complex English words and that her devout charity works comes from a personal tragedy); Col. Arbuthnot was a close army friend of Armstrong's; Foscarelli was the Armstrongs' private chauffeur; Hardman was a police officer in love with Paulette and Mrs Hubbard is Linda Arden, Mrs Armstrong's mother. The doors to the other cars were locked, so the murderer is likely one of the passengers in Poirot's coach, or its French conductor, Pierre Michel. With Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery. Directed by Sidney Lumet. Nat Cohen claimed it was the first film completely financed by a British company to make the top of the weekly US box office charts in Variety.[12]. Can Poirot identify the killer before the ship reaches the end of its journey? It was performed on the original soundtrack album by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Marcus Dods. Poirot agrees, admitting he will struggle with his conscience when he gives his report to the police. Thus, when Ratchett is himself found murdered, everyone is suspect. It was Albert Finney, as my detective Hercule Poirot. Colonel Armstrong, consumed by these tragedies, committed suicide. Choose an adventure below and discover your next favorite movie or TV show. Murder on the Orient Express was released theatrically in the UK on 24 November 1974. Examining the letter, Poirot discovers that Ratchett was actually Lanfranco Cassetti, a gangster who, five years earlier, planned the kidnapping and murder of Daisy Armstrong, infant daughter of British Army Colonel Hamish Armstrong and his American wife, Sonia. Some of the first class passengers seem concerned about Poirot's presence on the train. The next morning, Ratchett is found stabbed to death in his cabin. She was sweetly stubborn. And Finney is a delight as the eccentric Poirot. The case of the vanishing mystery writer: Christie liked only two of the 19 movies made from her books. In 2001 Albert Molina struggled with a lousy script. Albert Finney is the dapper detective Hercule Poirot, for whom murder-solving is a precise, intellectual exercise. Albert Finney, Actor: Murder on the Orient Express. Some of it provided by Mrs. Hubbard, the caustic American, played by Lauren Bacall. Poirot (Albert Finney), then, is left to do his work, with, strangely, no sense of urgency, no awareness of the possibility that other murders might occur. I wrote that he had the finest moustache in England—and he didn't in the film. As of today, Finney is the only actor to receive an Academy Award nomination for playing Poirot, though he did not win. Kenneth Branagh took a stab at it in 2017. [14] The New York Times's chief critic of the era, Vincent Canby, wrote: [...] 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. Poirot gathers the suspects and describes two possible scenarios. Like many of Agatha Christie's mysteries, Murder on the Orient Express is predicated on an actual event, in this case the Lindbergh kidnapping. Poirot asks Bianchi to choose one of the two solutions to present to the police once the train is freed from the snowdrift. Dr Constantine finds Ratchett was stabbed 12 times. The first, his simple solution, suggests that Cassetti's murder was the result of a Mafia feud. Looking for something to watch? The film features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney), who is asked to investigate the murder of an American business tycoon aboard the Orient Express train. That night, Bianchi lets Poirot use his compartment as he goes to sleep in another coach. Can they convince Adam's now honest dad to join? Greta Jacqueline Bisset. The local authorities plan to refit the train to make it available for tourist use around the Balkans in the near future. Then, a button from a sleeping car conductor's uniform is discovered. Exterior shooting was mostly done in France in 1973, with a railroad workshop near Paris standing in for Istanbul station. When a murder occurs on the train on which he's travelling, celebrated detective Hercule Poirot is recruited to solve the case. Albert Finney was an angry and aggressive Poirot. A San Francisco civilian police detective is forced to work on a series of murders with his former enemy commanding officer while dating his daughter. Its running time would have been around 67 minutes and it could have been a very respectable B-picture. Title: A French maidservant named Paulette, suspected of complicity in the kidnapping, committed suicide, only to be found innocent later. Lumet went to Sean Connery first, saying that if you get the biggest star, the rest will come along. Regardless, famed and fastidious Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, who needs to get back to London immediately, is able to secure last minute passage in the compartment with the assistance of his friend, Signor Bianchi, one of the directors of the train line who is also making the trip. Poirot flatters Hildegarde Schmidt by saying he knows a good cook when he sees one, and she responds to his request for a photo of the maid Paulette, with whom Miss Schmidt was friendly. Several clues are quickly discovered, suggesting that an assassin boarded the train during the night while it was stuck in the snowdrift, murdered Cassetti, and then left the train. Having concluded a case, detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) settles into what he expects will be a relaxing journey home aboard the Orient Express.