50 Years Anniversary Review Of Murder On The Orient Express

In the early 90´s i used to spend a lot of time in my hometown library, especially after school since there was a book café next to the library and you could get hot chocolate for a pretty good price. I would borrow different books and get myself a warm chocolate while reading a book at the library café. I remember some of the books i found during this time and especially the 1973 autobiographical German novel Das Boot by author Lothar-Gunther Buchheim. I remember it was quite a heavy book to read at that age ( at least for me ) but i was very interested in the subject of World War II books so i would look for recommended books in this category. Das Boot turned out to be a really interesting book that is based on the true story of Lothar-Gunther Buchheim own experiences as a war correspondent on U-boat submarines. If you are interested in World War II stories this might be a book you want to read, i can at least recommend it. I remember borrowing a book copy of The Amityville Horror by author Jay Anson, simply because i was interested in the story surrouding the Amityville house murders that took place back in 1974. Another book i found during this time was a complete different book called Murder On The Orient Express by legendary author Agatha Christie. As that time i had only seen anything related to Agatha Christie in the TV series version of Agatha Christie´s Poirot with English actor David Suchet as the main character Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective. The book called Murder On The Orient Express turned out to be a great detective book and i remember really enjoyed reading it at the library café and it sparked more interest for me to check out other novels by author Agatha Christie. It has been quite a while ago since i read some of Agatha Christie´s novels but i might pick some up again someday because i feel she was a really good writer. At the time i read the book Murder On The Orient Express in the early 90´s i didn´t know there was a 1974 film adaptation of the book with a very big Hollywood stars cast. I didn´t see the film until early 2000´s on DVD while i was still watching Agatha Christie´s Poirot with David Suchet on TV during weekends. I noticed this year that it is now 50 years ago since the film Murder On The Orient Express came out in cinema and i thought this would be a nice time to revisit the film, especially if there are fans of this film out there who plan to rewatch this film in celebration of it´s 50 years anniversary release. Is this still a solid film after so many years or have Murder On The Orient Express aged a lot more than i expected?

In December 1935, famed Detective Hercule Poirot ( Albert Finney ) travels from Istanbul to London on the Orient Express. He see his old friend, Signor Bianchi ( Martin Balsam ), who is a director of the company that owns the rail line. Bianchi is determined to make sure Poirot´s journey on the Orient Express will be as comfortable as possible. When passenger Ratchett ( Richard Widmark ) is found dead who was stabbed twelve times, Detective Poirot begin to investigate the murder and looks for the suspect on board this train.

Since i have seen both this 1974 version and the 2017 remake it would be easy to discuss which film is the best considering both films have a really powerful cast. I personally prefer the 1974 film for a couple of reasons while i still enjoy the Kenneth Branagh remake. Let´s dive right in and talk about what makes Murder On The Orient Express from 1974 a great mystery film. First of all we can not deny this film have an incredible cast of legendary actors, there are so many legends here the list never seems to end when we see names like Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Michael York, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins and many more. But the best part of this cast is that they actually give us some great character development, maybe not from every single one but most of them do. This helps the film while it is trying to build up the mystery aboard the train as you begin to think about what really happened. For those of us who have read the book may not be very surprised over the ending of this film, but i still feel that the mystery is well crafted in this film version. Since this film is focused on legendary detective Hercule Poirot we should talk about actor Albert Finney in the lead role. I enjoy his performance and i think he managed to balance the style and intelligence of Hercule Poirot in a solid realistic way. I honestly prefer actor David Suchet as Poirot ( at least that is my personal favourite performance of this legendary character ) but i do enjoy the acting effort from Albert Finney. The film looks really good thanks to cinematographer Geoffrey Unsworth ( who also were the cinematographer on Stanley Kubrick´s classic film 2001: A Space Odyssey ). Of course worth mentioning is that this film is directed by legendary director Sidney Lumet ( director of the cult classic Al Pacino film Dog Day Afternoon, a must own in your film collection ) and it is not difficult to see why he is such a powerful director. He can capture emotions and atmosphere even in the most smallest places, he knows how to use camera techniques and make a powerful impact through the solid acting peformances. On a negative note i have to mention not every single passenger get questioned about the murder, you would think that would be something you would do to make sure you find the murderer. This is just a small detail i feel could have been fixed to make the investigation more interesting. If you love mystery films from the past with great majestic costume designs, beautiful locations and solid acting performances combined i have a feeling this 1974 film adaptation of Agatha Christie´s novel will please you. Who doesn´t want a murder mystery while travelling on a train? I know i would happily help out on that mystery.

Rating: DDD