From Sergio Leone's spaghetti Westerns to the makers of "Taken" there is something about European productions and their set locations in a movie that makes me feel like a stranger in a strange land as an American and Murder On The Orient Express has this in spades. It's engagingly balanced by its character driven story making it more gripping and entertaining though you do have to pay attention due to its use of flashbacks in connecting the dots.
I saw this movie in the theaters in '75 when I was a teen and was just taken to another world that felt dangerous with the "you're on your own" aspect of traveling abroad (without the traveler's diarrhea) while running into some of the most quirky, creepy, eccentric and odd behaving characters that one might expect to meet on a train in Europe in the '30's. This seemingly eccentric behavior runs interference in hiding the truth about why and what would bring together on one train 12 oddball characters who seem to have nothing in common. Poirot slowly and diabolically works his way in his questioning of the 12 to make the connections.
That ensemble of convincingly cagey acting characters is what the audience and Poirot must break through aided by effectively and obviously placed brief flashbacks to confessions and character back story each character reveals that at first were obscured by first impressions. Of course Poirot humorously dismisses with smart ass and equally quirky European flare and sophistication the suspect's phony behavior as a form of personal interrogation to rattle them in order to draw out more detail that points to the real murderer. Standouts in this form of re-remembering what was said outside the context of first impressions at the start of the movie is performances by oddly pasty pale complected Anthony Perkins and Ingrid Bergman's nervously, devout humanitarian character. The performances are not from your typical B-movie detective who done it.
As a teen I was totally confused by these flashbacks and line of questioning even though I had read several Agatha Christie novels including "Murder On The Orient Express". The book had no flashbacks. This movie actually creates a whole other more interesting and character driven way to tell a who done it detective murder mystery in a most elegant and stylish way while remaining brilliantly grounded and believable by the performances of top shelf actors in gorgeous and authentic looking '30's era costumes.
Through the years I've had to watch this movie several times in TV re-runs to understand the connections provided by the flashbacks even though I already knew the surprise ending. It's still fun to watch and I can't wait for the US release of the Blu-ray. I wish I could give the same review of the 2017 remake I saw last night.
12 out of 16 found this helpful