Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film)

1974 film directed by Sidney Lumet

Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 British mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet, produced by John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin, and based on the 1934 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie. 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. The suspects are portrayed by an all star cast, including Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Jean Pierre Cassel, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York, Rachel Roberts, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Richard Widmark and Wendy Hiller. The screenplay is by Paul Dehn. The film was a commercial and critical success. Bergman won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, and the film received five other nominations at the 47th Academy Awards: Best Actor (Finney), Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design.

The film's opening shows news clippings of the 1930 kidnapping and murder of Daisy Armstrong, the toddler daughter of wealthy British Army Colonel Hamish Armstrong and his wife, Sonia. In December 1935, famed detective Hercule Poirot travels from Istanbul to London on the Orient Express. His old friend, Signor Bianchi, a director of the company that owns the rail line, arranged Poirot's accommodations after all first class compartments were uncharacteristically sold out during the off season. Other passengers include American widow Harriet Hubbard; English governess Mary Debenham; Swedish missionary Greta Ohlsson; American businessman Samuel Ratchett, who is accompanied by his secretary/translator Hector McQueen and English valet Edward Beddoes; Italian American car salesman Antonio ("Gino") Foscarelli; elderly Russian Princess Natalia Dragomiroff and her German maid, Hildegarde Schmidt; Hungarian Count Rudolf Andrenyi and his wife Elena; British Indian Army Colonel John Arbuthnott; and American theatrical agent Cyrus Hardman. Ratchett wishes to hire Poirot as a bodyguard after receiving written death threats; Poirot declines, finding Ratchett's case uninteresting. A snowdrift between Vinkovci and Brod in Yugoslavia strands the train until snow is cleared from the tracks. During the night, Poirot is awakened by a loud moan from Ratchett's compartment, which is next to his. The night conductor, Pierre Michel, is told through the door that it was merely a nightmare. However, Ratchett is found dead the next morning. Dr. Constantine ascertains that Ratchett had been stabbed twelve times. Poirot investigates, finding a charred letter fragment that ultimately reveals Ratchett actually had been gangster Lanfranco Cassetti. Five years earlier, Cassetti planned Daisy Armstrong's kidnapping and murder. Cassetti betrayed his accomplice and fled the country with the ransom money. Shortly after, the distraught Mrs. Armstrong died giving premature birth to a stillborn baby. Colonel Armstrong, grief stricken, died of suicide. French maidservant Paulette, wrongly suspected of complicity in the kidnapping, also died of suicide before being found innocent. Poirot finds an overabundance of clues, including a pipe cleaner, an expensive handkerchief with the initial "H", Cassetti's broken watch, and a conductor's uniform button. Poirot determines that Cassetti was murdered at about 1:15 a. m., the time shown on the smashed watch and when the moaning was heard. As the sleeping car was isolated through the night, the murderer must be among the car's passengers, or possibly the train conductor, Pierre Michel. Mrs. Hubbard reports a man had been in her compartment; a bloodied knife is found there. Foscarelli believes Cassetti's murder was due to a Mafia feud. Poirot interviews Pierre and the passengers individually. He learns McQueen is the son of the District Attorney in the Armstrong case and knew Mrs. Armstrong; Beddoes was a British Army batman; Greta Ohlsson, who speaks limited English, has been to America; Countess Andrenyi is of German descent with maiden name Grünwald (German for "Greenwood", Mrs. Armstrong's maiden name); Michel's daughter died five years earlier of scarlet fever; Colonel Arbuthnott is knowledgeable of Armstrong's military decorations and reveals he and Miss Debenham will marry once the divorce from his philandering wife is finalized. Poirot questions Princess Dragomiroff and discovers she was a friend of Linda Arden, Mrs. Armstrong's mother, a retired American actress; the Princess was Sonia's godmother. He also learns that the Armstrong household had a butler, a secretary, a cook, a chauffeur, and a nursemaid. Poirot flatters the Princess' maid, Schmidt, who reveals she had been a cook. Foscarelli denies having been a chauffeur. Hardman reveals he actually is a Pinkerton detective hired as Cassetti's bodyguard. When Poirot shows him Paulette's photo, he is visibly shaken. Poirot gathers the suspects and describes two solutions to the murder. The first suggests Cassetti's murder was a Mafia killing an unknown man disguised as a conductor, stabbed Cassetti, discarded the uniform, then escaped the train through the snow. Bianchi and Dr. Constantine reject this scenario as absurd but Poirot tells them they may later reconsider that opinion. The second solution links together all the suspects. In addition to the self incriminating revelations Poirot extracted from Hardman, McQueen, Schmidt, and the Princess, the detective has deduced that Countess Elena is actually Mrs. Armstrong's younger sister, Helena. Mary Debenham was the Armstrongs' secretary. Beddoes was the Armstrongs' butler; Ohlsson was Daisy's nursemaid; Colonel Arbuthnott was Armstrong's close friend; Foscarelli was the family's chauffeur; Pierre was Paulette's father; Hardman is a former policeman who was in love with Paulette; and Mrs. Hubbard is Linda Arden, Mrs. Armstrong's mother. McQueen drugged Cassetti, rendering him unconscious and allowing the conspirators to jointly execute him, totaling 12 stab wounds to the chest. The suspects killed Cassetti after 2:00 a. m. while Poirot was asleep. The moan and broken watch were provided by McQueen to convince Poirot the murder occurred earlier, when the other suspects would have alibis. Poirot asks Bianchi to choose one solution before the train is freed from the snowdrift, saying the Yugoslavian police likely will prefer the simpler one. Bianchi, in sympathy with the suspects after learning how evil Cassetti was, proposes the first scenario. Dr. Constantine and Poirot concur though Poirot struggles with his conscience. The train is freed and resumes its journey.

Dame Agatha Christie had been quite displeased with some film adaptations of her works made in the 1960s, and accordingly was unwilling to sell any more film rights. When Nat Cohen, chairman of EMI Films, and producer John Brabourne attempted to get her approval for this film, they felt it necessary to have Lord Mountbatten of Burma (of the British royal family and also Brabourne's father in law) help them broach the subject. In the end, according to Christie's husband, Sir Max Mallowan, "Agatha herself has always been allergic to the adaptation of her books by the cinema, but was persuaded to give a rather grudging appreciation to this one." According to one report, Christie gave approval because she liked the previous films of the producers, Romeo and Juliet and Tales of Beatrix Potter.

Christie's biographer Gwen Robyns quoted her as saying, "It was well made except for one mistake. It was Albert Finney, as my detective Hercule Poirot. I wrote that he had the finest mustache in England — but he didn't in the film. I thought that a pity—why shouldn't he?" Cast members eagerly accepted upon first being approached. Lumet went to Sean Connery first, who admitted that he had been "stupidly flattered" by Lumet saying that if you get the biggest star, the rest will come along. Bergman was initially offered the role of Princess Dragomiroff, but instead requested to play Greta Ohlsson. Lumet said:

Bergman won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for the portrayal. The entire budget was provided by EMI. The cost of the cast came to £554,100. There were concerns about a lack of snow in the weeks preceding the scheduled shooting of the snowbound train, and plans were made to truck in large quantities of snow at considerable expense. However, heavy snowfall the night before the shooting made the extra snow unnecessary—just as well, as the snow laden backup trucks had themselves become stuck in the snow.

Richard Rodney Bennett's Orient Express theme has been reworked into an orchestral suite and performed and recorded several times. It was performed on the original soundtrack album by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Marcus Dods. The piano soloist was the composer himself.

Murder on the Orient Express was released theatrically in the UK on 24 November 1974. The film was a success at the box office, given its tight budget of $1.4 million, earning $36 million in North America, making it the 11th highest grossing film of 1974. 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.

On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 42 reviews, with an average rating of 7.8/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Murder, intrigue, and a star studded cast make this stylish production of Murder on the Orient Express one of the best Agatha Christie adaptations to see the silver screen." On Metacritic it has a weighted average score of 63 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four, writing that it "provides a good time, high style, a loving salute to an earlier period of filmmaking". The New York Timess 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. Its running time would have been around 67 minutes and it could have been a very respectable B picture. Murder on the Orient Express wasn't made into a movie 40 years ago, and after you see the Sidney Lumet production that opened yesterday at the Coronet, you may be both surprised and glad it wasn't. An earlier adaptation could have interfered with plans to produce this terrifically entertaining super valentine to a kind of whodunit that may well be one of the last fixed points in our inflationary universe.

Christie, who died fourteen months after the release of the film, stated that Murder on the Orient Express and Witness for the Prosecution were the only movie adaptations of her books that she liked although she expressed disappointment with Poirot (Finney)'s moustache, which was far from the fabulous hirsute creation she had detailed in her mysteries.

Year Award ceremony Category Nominee Result 2005Satellite AwardsBest Classic DVDMurder on the Orient Express 1976Grammy AwardsAlbum of Best Original ScoreWritten for a Motion Picture or a Television SpecialRichard Rodney Bennett1975Academy AwardsBest ActorAlbert FinneyBest Supporting ActressIngrid BergmanBest Adapted ScreenplayPaul DehnBest CinematographyGeoffrey UnsworthBest Costume DesignTony WaltonBest Original ScoreRichard Rodney BennettBAFTA AwardsBest FilmJohn Brabourne, Richard GoodwinBest ActorAlbert FinneyBest DirectionSidney LumetBest Supporting ActorJohn GielgudBest Supporting ActressIngrid BergmanBest CinematographyGeoffrey UnsworthBest EditingAnne V. CoatesAnthony Asquith Award for Film MusicRichard Rodney BennettBest Production DesignTony WaltonBest Costume DesignTony WaltonDirectors Guild of America AwardsOutstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion PicturesSidney LumetEdgar AwardBest Motion Picture ScreenplayPaul DehnEvening Standard British Film AwardsBest FilmSidney LumetBest ActorAlbert FinneyBest ActressWendy HillerWriters' Guild of Great Britain Awards Best British ScreenplayPaul Dehn 1974National Board of Review AwardsTop Ten FilmsMurder on the Orient Express