A cry of alarm rings out, muffled French can be heard in the corridor and then footsteps. Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney, Skyfall) pauses for a moment in his compartment, lifts an eyebrow, looks out into the hallway but, finding nothing, returns to his rest.
The next morning, it’s revealed that Ratchett (Richard Widmark, Judgment at Nuremberg), the hateful American billionaire, has been stabbed to death. It’s clearly a case for the world’s most famous detective, Hercule Poirot, and over breakfast he agrees to take it. His list of suspects: everyone on board the Orient Express, currently at a standstill due to heavy snow.
So begins Sidney Lumet’s splendidly entertaining adaptation of Agatha Christie’s renowned novel Murder on the Orient Express, the classic whodunit with an exceptional cast keeping the elaborate conspiracy obscured. One of the best screen adaptations of an Agatha Christie mystery and, if you’re unfamiliar with the solution, it’ll take your breath away.
