Murder On the Orient Express

Directed by Sidney Lumet
Produced by John Brabourne
Written by Novel: Agatha Christie
Screenplay: Paul Dehn
Uncredited: Anthony Shaffer
Starring Albert Finney
Lauren Bacall
Sean Connery
Ingrid Bergman
Michael York
Vanessa Redgrave
Jacqueline Bisset
Richard Widmark
John Gielgud
Anthony Perkins
Martin Balsam
Rachel Roberts
Wendy Hiller
Denis Quilley
Colin Blakely
Jean-Pierre Cassel
George Coulouris
Music by Richard Rodney Bennett
Cinematography Geoffrey Unsworth
Editing by Anne V. Coates
Studio EMI Films
Distributed by Paramount Pictures
Release date November 24, 1974
Running time 128 min.
Country United Kingdom
Language English

This film is OK, but I don’t think it is as great as it could have been. It has one of the most star-studded casts in Hollywood history yet they ham it up and act way over the top for the film to be taken too seriously. I really cannot stand Albert Finney in his role as Hercule Poirot. I feel that Peter Ustinov was much better in the later Death On The Nile. I also like the TV version of Poirot, David Suchet, but Finney just doesn’t nail the part at all. I find him to be quite bland and he really doesn’t nail Poirot’s Belgian accent at all.

The other actors all have what really amounts to cameos. Lauren Bacall hams her part up a lot and is quite annoying, as is Anthony Perkins, while Ingrid Bergman’s performance is really rather strange. Sean Connery, Michael York, John Gielgud and Vanessa Redgrave don’t really get enough screen time to do anything too impressive.

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