Murder on the Orient Express [1974]:The Best Christie's Classics on Screen

When I was in the 5th grade almost all of my classmates loved detective stories. It was their favorite book genre. I felt kind of odd enjoying foreign classics and one day I decided to give Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot a chance to impress me. Poirot was chosen the first simply due to my whole family addiction with the TV series based on Agatha Christie's short stories. Eventually one day I came across Murder in the Orient Express. I loved the book, it just carried me away and I was just dying to see the movie.

Looking back, the first time I've seen it I had no idea about all the brilliant actors playing there. I was just enjoying it as it was. But one person rocked my world that night. At the age of 12 I discovered the magic of Vanessa Redgrave's acting talent. Man! There was this red head, Miss Debenham and me just shocked by her charm, moves, looks. Just brilliant...

Other names just speak for themselves: Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman [Best Supporting Actress], Albert Finney [Best Actor nomination], Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Michael York. It actually surprised me, what this kind of actors/actresses do in the movie like that, but it's done great and was nominated for 6 Academy Awards. However this Poirot doesn't impress me much, but probably because I like David Suchet way better. Seems like Finney is really disappointed with something and feel like yelling at everyone around, I believe Agatha Christie would've not approved that; but that is just me: I believe Poirot is an adorable wise man and Finney did not show the right attitude convincing everyone to use "little grey cells".

The Plot

Poirot is going back from Syria to England and in Istanbul [that is Turkey, right, but he still goes from Syria] has to take the famous Orient Express that crosses Europe and goes to England. The season is winter and not many passengers travel that time of the year, but when he and his friend [in the mean time Director of the Railroad] Bianchi get on the train incredible things start happening. First off, not only all the seats are taken, but there is no free one for Poirot, in winter! Murder... hmm, I don't want to tell you all the details, but it will be just a masterpiece. Planned, performed, but solved. The word "Revenge" is the key word here. And let that be all that you know about it.

The whole thing not only acted fabulously, but also set in 1930s. Plus all of the characters in this multicultural company are drawn well. Here we have loud Mrs. Hubbard, an old [but not really old] American, one of the central people in this tragedy; Ms. Greta Olsen from Sweden [by Ingrid Bergman] in my opinion was just one in the crowd but performance of the great actress made her unforgettable; Mary Debenham really surprised me in a very good way, I'm glad she was played by Vanessa Redgrave because her character contributed a lot of actress' charm; Col. Arbuthnot [by Sean Connery] fits perfectly in but was overshadowed by Ms. Debenham due to the screenplay and Ms. Redgrave's performance.

The movie carries the atmosphere of the time period, the Orient Express style and Agatha Christie's novels spirit, along with smart screenplay, original score, directing, costumes and cinematography it makes one of the best Christie's adaptations.