Movie Review - Murder On The Orient Express

Murder On The Orient Express

1974

The Cast

  

This is an apotheosis of a star-studded movie - but where most films of similar ilk fall flat this reigns supreme...  The Story is so good and the director does a brilliant job of bringing this to the large screen and the actors add to the strength of their skills.

There are a couple of drawbacks, for me...  Firstly, I'm not a fan of Hercule Poirot (I much prefer Miss Marple) and Finney's portrayal of the detective left me cold and irritated.  Though he and the director did get his pompous peacock preening down pat, it was more Finney's vocals and no-neck stance that got under my skin.  Secondly, there were a few scene's where the director used Perkins "Norman Bates" to cast suspicion on his character, as Norman does make an appearance a couple of times.

Though, all this said, the rest of the film is delicious and splendidly filmed.  There are some really nice panning sequences; I especially liked the sequence where the train guard walks down the platform as the train pulls out - this is expertly done and sets a great atmosphere, though the music is a little too saccharine for me.

This is a great whodunnit, which I did solve before Hercule, but not too quickly so as to spoil the film, so this is a bonus as it draws the audience in and makes them part of the story and movie.  If you like murder mysteries then this is the one to watch, you should even enjoy it if you've read the novel and know the outcome, as the acting and direction is that good.

I would recommend this to mystery and thriller lovers as well as movie aficionados.  This is now on my favourites list and I will watch it again - even though I'll have to put up with Finney's Poirot.

I give this a mysterious and suspicious 8.75 our of 10.

The Trailer