Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

5/10

Starring

Albert Finney

Lauren Bacall

Martin Balsam

Ingrid Bergman

Directed by Sidney Lumet

Based on an Agatha Christie book of the same name, Murder on the Orient Express is supposed to be a classic, one of those movies which Agatha Christie herself loves. For me the movie did not age well and the whole feel of the 1930s, which the movie tried hard to pass across, kind of envelopes the whole movie itself. With conversations that were way too long to matter, and investigations that seem too over stretched this is a movie made for those who have insomnia. Even the star studded cast could not save this movie from casting the cloud of boredom on a plot that lacked the needed excitement to capture my interest. It reached a point that I did not care anymore and just wanted the movie to be over. That said, the movie then has a nice thirty minutes ending, which did not save the movie, but was interesting to see Poirot unravel the whole convoluted plot.

The plot has Poirot onboard the Orient Express by a certain chance. As his friend insisted for Poirot to join him on the train.

While there on the train a murder was committed. A man who had before approached Poirot before for protection was murdered, stabbed twelve times after being drugged.

The popular detective Hercule Poirot was tasked with solving the case. The challenge he faced was that everyone on the train seems to have been either sleeping or have a strange story as to why the person who committed this act was a stranger beyond everyone else on the carriage at that time. Poirot continues to dig further which made him to connect an act that happened five years ago to the murder that just happened.

Poirot here was played by Albert Finney, and he got an academy award for Best Actor for his acting.

In the end, the movie played to the regular stuff, of where Poirot was there seems to be a case near by. The movie’s cinematography is to be applauded. How they production managed to make this movie in such confinement and not bring about some sort of claustrophobia is worth noting.

The film was a commercial and critical success. It got six Academy Awards nominations. Of the six nominations Ingrid Bergman was the only winner of Best Supporting Actress. Her performance in this movie was worth it to be honest. I feel this movie would have been fantastic in the 1970s, but watching it now it is more of a bore and until the last thirty minutes did not matter much for the eyes.