Murder on the Orient Express – 1974 | 128 mins | Thriller, Mystery | Colour

Plot Synopsis

First and best of several EMI lavish all-star adaptations of Agatha Christie novels; this 1974 version of the 1934 classic is an astute mixture of murder and mystery set onboard the Orient Express. The films sets and locations are exquisite but the pace of the plot is at times too sluggish. The cast includes Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery, Ingrid Bergman, Wendy Hiller, Jacqueline Bisset, Sir John Geilgud and Anthony Perkins.

Mysterious American financier Ratchett (Richard Widmark) is travelling from Istanbul to Paris on the luxurious Orient Express train, he is found dead in his cabin, stabbed twelve times. Railway detective Bianchi (Martin Balsam) appeals to celebrated Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) to solve the crime while the train is trapped in a snowdrift, and before it reaches its destination. He painstakingly interviews those in the same railway car and through an elaborate re-creation aims to establish just who the killer is.