Miles of Movies

                                                                                                        Murder on the Orient Express (1974) is about the                                                                                                passengers on a train headed across the Eurasian                                                                                                    country. On board is Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney),                                                                                                  a Belgian detective who is traveling with his friend                                                                                                    who owns the train line. When one of the                                                                                                                  passengers asks for Poirot’s protection, Poirot                                                                                                          declines out of a lack of interest. But the passenger                                                                                                  ends up dead the next morning so Poirot must                                                                                                          deduce who among the crew's many characters was                                                                                                the killer.

                                                                                                      The mystery of this film is very well executed and took some truly genius writing to pull off given all of the characters. Unfortunately, you really have to wait a long time for the film to actually get to the murder. There are so many characters that it’s difficult to really know where the story is going until the murder takes place. Once that is done, this film is captivating all the way to the end. The way the writers control information is fantastic, and the film’s confined location helps keep things tidy and neat. The film feels very theatrical and would make for a good play. It was no surprise for me to then learn that it’s based on a famous novel. Without spoiling anything, the film comes up with a genius way to tie everything together such that all of the information that has been presented is used in the conclusion of the story. I genuinely did not see the ending coming and was very impressed once all had been revealed.

         Part of this film’s claim to fame is its all-star cast. I’ve mentioned Albert Finney, but this film also stars Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, Vanessa Redgrave, and Anthony Perkins, among others. They help keep the film from being confusing by giving each character a unique personality. Even with over a dozen characters, the film is pretty coherent because of how easy it is to tell each character apart. Each give fantastic performances in their small parts and help make the film memorable.

         Overall, I found this film slow at the beginning but captivating once it takes off. The way this film meticulously ties everything together is so brilliant and makes you want to watch the film a second time just to catch all of the clues. As I said, the film does take a little while to get going, but stick with it and you won’t be disappointed.