Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

World Famous Detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) takes The Orient Express back to London when a man is murdered in the night. He is urged to solve the mystery while the train is stuck in snow so that the Czech authorities don’t become involved. Hercule soon learns that many of the passengers in the train car had a connection to the deceased and maybe reason to do him harm.

Murder on the Orient Express has an amazing ensemble cast. Sean Connery was the biggest name at the time so they signed him up first. Everyone else followed along. Ingrid Bergman is almost unrecognizable as a nutty nanny. Anthony Perkins and Martin Balsam are together again for the third time, having done Psycho and Catch-22 together. No toilets were involved with this pairing. The older, unsexy Lauren Bacall makes her first appearance here. First appearance of Michael Redgrave’s daughter. Oddly, I am more familiar with her sister. Apparently I used to watch House Calls. One of these days I'll watch Blow Up.

I saw Murder on the Orient Express as a kid and remembered key elements. Like who done it. Still, this is a very well made, very entertaining film that was faithful enough to the source material to get the approval of Agatha’s herself. And it holds up to a second viewing, at least when thirty years separates the two. AMRU 4.

"Bianchi, Doctor, has it occurred to you that there are too many clues in this room?"