Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film)
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Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 feature film directed by Sidney Lumet and based on the 1934 novel by Agatha Christie.

The film (and book) features the great Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. Albert Finney starred as Poirot, investigating the murder of Richard Widmark aboard a train with an all-star cast of suspects, including Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, John Gielgud and Anthony Perkins. The screenplay was penned by Paul Dehn and an uncredited Anthony Shaffer.

The film's tagline was: "The greatest cast of suspicious characters ever involved in murder."

As the first "all-star" adaptation of an Agatha Christie novel, it paved the way for similar films including (Death on the Nile, The Mirror Crack'd and Evil Under the Sun). It is the only occasion that Finney portrayed Poirot, with Peter Ustinov portraying the detective in subsequent films.

Richard Rodney Bennett's memorable Orient Express theme has been reworked into an orchestral suite and performed and recorded several times. It was performed on the original soundtrack album by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Marcus Dods. The piano soloist was the composer himself.

Plot

The murder

Detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) is travelling on the Orient Express. During the journey, Poirot encounters his friend Bianchi (Martin Balsam), a director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, which owns the line. The train is unusually crowded for the time of year, every first class berth has been booked. On the second night out from Istanbul the train is caught in heavy snows in the Balkans. The next morning a wealthy American passenger, Ratchett (Richard Widmark), is found stabbed to death in his cabin.

Poirot and Bianchi work together to solve the case. They enlist the help of Dr. Constantine (George Coulouris), a Greek medical doctor who was traveling in second class and thus not a suspect. Pierre Michel (Jean-Pierre Cassel), the middle-aged French conductor of the car, also assists the investigation. Poirot soon discovers that Ratchett was not who he claimed to be. The victim's secret past indicates a clear motive for murder, even justification, but who was the killer?

Clues

Dr. Constantine's examination of the body reveals that Ratchett was stabbed 12 times. Some wounds were slight, but at least three of them could have resulted in death.

The stopped watch in the victim's pocket, as well as Poirot's reconstructed timeline of passenger activities the night before, indicate that Ratchett was murdered at about 1:30 a.m. The train had stopped, surrounded by fresh snow, before that time. There were no tracks in the snow and the doors to the other cars were locked, so the murderer is almost certainly still among the passengers in first class.

Most importantly, Poirot realizes that Ratchett was in fact a gangster called Cassetti. Years ago, Cassetti and a henchman kidnapped and murdered Daisy Armstrong, the baby daughter of a wealthy British colonel who had settled in America. The body was found after the ransom had been paid. Overcome with grief, the pregnant Mrs. Armstrong went into labor early and died while giving birth to a stillborn baby. A maidservant named Paulette who was wrongly suspected of complicity in the kidnapping committed suicide. Colonel Armstrong, consumed by these tragedies, later killed himself as well. Cassetti's accomplice was arrested and executed, but Cassetti himself fled the country.

(The fictitious Armstrong case was inspired by the real-life kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh's child.)

Suspects
 
The thirteen suspects are:

Hector McQueen (Anthony Perkins), a tall, young American man, the victim's secretary and translator.
Edward Beddoes (Sir John Gielgud), the victim's British valet.
Mary Debenham (Vanessa Redgrave), a young British woman, returning home to England after working as a teacher in Baghdad.
Colonel Arbuthnott (Sean Connery), a British army officer returning to England on leave from India.
Princess Natalia Dragomiroff (Wendy Hiller), an elderly Russian grande dame.
Hildegarde Schmidt (Rachel Roberts), a middle-aged German woman, the Princess' personal maid.
Count Rudolf Andrenyi (Michael York), a Hungarian diplomat with English manner and clothing, on his way to France.
Countess Elena Andrenyi (Jacqueline Bisset), née Grünwald, his beautiful young wife.
Greta Ohlsson (Ingrid Bergman), a middle-aged Swedish missionary returning to Europe on a fund-raising trip for her mission in Africa.
Mrs. Harriet Belinda Hubbard (Lauren Bacall), an older, fussy, very talkative American woman returning to the United States.
Gino Foscarelli (Denis Quilley), an exuberant Italian car salesman from Chicago.
Cyrus "Dick" Hardman (Colin Blakely), a Pinkerton's detective masquerading as a talent agent.
Pierre Michel (Jean-Pierre Cassel), the French conductor of the sleeping car.

Motive

Poirot soon comes to realise that all the suspects were connected to the Armstrong family and had reason to seek revenge for the tragedies that followed the kidnapping. Some openly admit their connections to the Armstrongs, while other ties must be uncovered by Poirot.

McQueen was the son of the District Attorney who prosecuted the case. He was very fond of Mrs Armstrong.
Miss Debenham was Mrs Armstrong's secretary.
Beddoes was Colonel Armstrong's army batman.
Col. Arbuthnott was an army friend of Col. Armstrong.
Princess Dragomiroff was Mrs Armstrong's godmother.
Miss Schmidt was the Armstrong's cook and a close friend of the maid Paulette.
Miss Ohlsson was Daisy's nursemaid.
Foscarelli was the Armstrong's chauffeur.
Hardman was, at the time, a policeman who was in love with Paulette.
Michel was Paulette's father.
Countess Andrenyi was Mrs Armstrong's sister.
Mrs Hubbard was Mrs Armstrong's mother.
Ratchett was sedated by Beddoes and McQueen. Each of the passengers then stabbed him in turn.

Poirot presents this explanation for the murder to the assembled passengers, describing it as the "complex" solution to the crime. Yet he first offers another explanation, a "simple" one. In the course of the inquiry evidence has been found of an intruder on the train, who may have murdered Ratchett and then escaped. Poirot suggests that Ratchett/Cassetti may have been involved with the Mafia and murdered as the result of a feud. He leaves it to Bianchi, director of the line, to decide which explanation to present to the local police.

Bianchi decides that this "simple" solution will be enough for the local police and that Ratchett deserved everything he got. A cover-up is therefore instigated. Poirot is satisfied that justice has been done, though he does admit to a "struggle with my conscience."

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