Classic Review: Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Has anyone mastered the whodunnit better than Agatha Christie? Her masterfully suspenseful books are always a joy to read, avidly engaging the readers that cannot stop reading until the last page. In the 70’s, Christie had a prolific time in Hollywood, with movie adaptations of her novels always featuring superb casts. And never was it more stellar than here. Murder on the Orient Express is the best adaptation of her work.

Let’s face it: this cast is impossible to beat even today: Finney, Bacall, Bergman, Sean Connery, Martin Balsam, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Cassel, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Rachel Roberts, Richard Widmark and Michael York. How great is that? It’s insane to watch this and not wonder how incredible it must have been to be on this set (it might have been a little hard too, with all their egos sharing the spotlight, but that is a conversation for another day). Murder on the Orient Express saw the infamous detective Hercule Poirot (Finney) board the Orient Express where on that night, an unpleasant man named Ratchett (Richard Widmark) is murdered. Of course, everyone on the train is a suspect, and Poirot must use all his skills to find out… whodunnit.

On a technical level, Murder on the Orient Express is fantastic. The cinematography, the art direction and the costumes are all richly detailed, giving the film an air of sophistication that is completely fitting with the old charms the Orient Express usually instill. Lumet is an electric director and a master of mise-en-scène, and he brings his strengths to this constricted environment, making sure the audience never feels too trapped by the limited space.

While Murder on the Orient Express is a joy to watch, for the most part, there are some elements that don’t work. First is a problem that comes from the source material: just like the book, the entire third act of the movie is just Poirot telling everybody how he solved the crime. Lumet makes it work to a point though in the end, we are just seeing a character telling us his discoveries. It’s tense, though it is also very anticlimactic. Meanwhile, Finney is a fine Poirot, but in some moments, he seems a bit too over the top. It’s a curious characterization of the character, and we see he is putting on the work and making a valid effort, and that is the main problem. Seeing an actor putting on a performance, especially in a movie like this is distracting when the real start should be the plot and the ensemble.

The last big problem of Murder on the Orient Express was that although the cast is just a dream come true, they simply don’t have enough to do or have strong moments with each other. Can you imagine what Robert Altman or Paul Thomas Anderson would have done with a cast like this? It would be iconic moment after iconic moment. Knives Out is a great example of those great interactions. Unfortunately, this doesn’t happen here. In fact, we don’t even remember their moments together. While this was the case because of the adaptation of the source material, it was still a bit underwhelming. The entire cast does their best, but the real standout had to be Bacall as Mrs. Hubbard. Bergman won an Oscar for her only scene as Greta and is a bit whatever. Bacall would have made a way more fitting winner.

At the end of the day, despite its problems, Murder on the Orient Express is still an impressive and entertaining watch.

still courtesy of Paramount Pictures

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