Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
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A renowned detective must solve a mysterious murder occurring on a snowbound train.
The story
In 1935, the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot travels on the Orient Express from Istanbul to London. While the train is stalled in a snowdrift in Yugoslavia, a passenger—an American businessman who is secretly a notorious criminal—is found murdered in his compartment. Poirot is tasked with investigating the crime amidst a group of diverse passengers. As the train remains trapped by the elements, Poirot must navigate a web of secrets and conflicting testimonies to identify the killer before the train can move again.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1935, Hercule Poirot travels on the Orient Express. A passenger, Ratchett, is found murdered and stabbed twelve times after being drugged. Poirot discovers Ratchett was actually a criminal named Lanfranco Cassetti, involved in the 1930 kidnapping and murder of a child. Poirot finds a charred letter and a broken watch, leading him to investigate the other passengers. He discovers that many passengers are linked to the Armstrong case: some are relatives of the victims, others are former employees or associates. Poirot presents two solutions: one where a lone intruder committed the crime, and another where all the passengers conspired together to exact revenge for the Armstrong girl. The second solution reveals that the passengers acted as a collective to kill Cassetti at 2:00 am. Poirot eventually presents the first, simpler solution to the railway director, who chooses it to avoid legal complications, while the truth of the collective revenge remains hidden.
- First release year
- 1974
- Runtime (minutes)
- 128
- Production countries
- United Kingdom
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Sidney Lumet
- Writers
- Paul Dehn · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Albert Finney · Hercule Poirot; Lauren Bacall · Mrs. Harriet Belinda Hubbard/Linda Arden; Martin Balsam · Bianchi; Ingrid Bergman · Greta Ohlsson; Jacqueline Bisset · Countess Helena Andrenyi; Jean-Pierre Cassel · Pierre Paul Michel; Sean Connery · Lt. Colonel John Arbuthnott, British Indian Army; John Gielgud · Edward Beddoes; Wendy Hiller · Princess Natalia Dragomiroff; Anthony Perkins · Hector McQueen; Vanessa Redgrave · Mary Debenham; Rachel Roberts · Hildegarde Schmidt
- Genres
- mystery; crime drama
- Themes
- justice; revenge
- Tone and mood
- mysterious; stylish
- Premise and plot tags
- whodunit; mystery; crime
- Source material / true-story basis
- 1934 novel of the same name by Agatha Christie
- Reception
- The film was a commercial and critical success, noted for its stylish production and star-studded cast.
- Reported review scores
- Rotten Tomatoes · score: 89% · scale: percentage · review count: 46; Metacritic · score: 63 · scale: 100 · review count: 8
- Awards and nominations
- Academy Award · Best Supporting Actress · win
- Production trivia
- The film was a success at the box office, earning $36 million in North America.; The film was the first film completely financed by a British company to make the top of the weekly US box office charts in Variety.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
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