MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS

UK, 2010, 93 minutes, Colour.
David Suchet, Jessica Chastain, David Morrisey, Hugh Bonneville, Barbara Hershey, Eileen Atkins, Samuel West, Sam Crane, Toby Jones, Brian J.Smith, Serge Hazanavicius, Susanne Lothar, Dennis Menochet, Marie- Jose Croze, Joseph Mawle.
Directed by Philip Martin.

There have been several versions for film and television of this celebrated novel by Agatha Christie. This is the contribution to the television series with David Suc as Pohetirot. It was made 21 years after the series began, Poirot now ageing. He is also more indignant in this film, especially about applications of the law and justice. There is also an emphasis on his Catholicism, praying, the rosary, thanking God that he was born a Catholic, his prayers at the end. These themes were recapitulated in the final story, Curtain.

The celebrated version was the 1974 film with Albert Finney as Poirot and a star-studied cast embodying the passengers on the Orient Express. There was a 2017 version, directed by Kenneth Branagh, with Branagh himself as Poirot (and a very long moustache), also with a star studied cast but not having the opportunity to develop their characters as in the previous film. Bloggers at the time of this version were not very happy with the screenwriter’s interpretation and treatment of the plot, writing critical reviews.

As with the 2017 version, there is a prologue with Poirot investigating justice in Palestine. He boards the Orient Express in Istanbul, after observing the stoning of an adulterous woman in the street, difficulties in finding a compartment for him. The train runs through the Asian and Central European countryside, eventually snowed in.

Toby Jones appears as the murder target, obnoxiously American, revealed to be an abductor, murder of a little girl, Mafia connections, Brian J.Smith and Hugh Bonneville as his assistants. (The kidnapping aspects of the plot parallel the Lindbergh Kidnapping case.) Dennis Menochet is the train guard, Eileen Atkins is the Russian Countess with Susan Lothar as her maid, Barbara Hershey is the period imperious American matron, Samuel West is the doctor, a good role for Jessica Chastain as Mary Debenham, partnered with David Morrisey as a former military man.

By 2010, certainly by 2017, most potential audiences of this Agatha Christie story would know the ingenious solution, that they all did it.

1. One of the later films on the television series of Agatha Christie mysteries? With David Suchet as Poirot? Getting older?

2. The classic status of the novel? The intricacies? The plot? The victim and the murderers?

3. The opening, Poirot indignant, in Palestine, the court case, the soldier, the accusations, his killing himself? The soldier trying to justify the mistake? Poirot and his severe attitudes towards the law?

4. In Istanbul, in the streets, watching the woman chased by the crowd, stoned for adultery, John Arbuthnot and Mary Debenham, her protest? Poirot observing? Issues of the law, culture and justice?

5. The hotel, Poirot summoned back to England, the head of the line, arranging his passage, at the station, the train full? The discussions with Michel? Finding a place for Poirot? Sharing with Mac Queen, the inconvenience?

6. The range of passengers, disparate, the number of women, the men? Ratchett, rough and rude, demanding, Mac Queen working for him, Edward Masterman, at his beck and call? Is propositioning? Poirot observing? His approaching Poirot to investigate his case, paying the money, more money? Poirot refusing? The intercutting of Ratchet and his praying for forgiveness? With Poirot, his rosary, glad to be a Catholic?

7. Movement during the night, the progress of the train through the snow, stopping at the station, Poirot getting a new compartment? Observing, the people in the corridor? The cry out in the night?

8. The morning, the intrusion into his compartment, the urgency, Ratchet dead, the blood? Dr Constantine and his attentions? Speculating about the stab wounds, the murderer leaving through the window? (No footprints in the snow). Poirot, examining the body, the different angles of wounds, the different strength, the burnt paper and his experiment to read the words, the handkerchief with the initial? The button from the uniform?

9. The identity of the murdered man, gangster, the abduction of the little girl, his killing her? The judge paid off and his getting free? The family of the girl, her actress mother, her sister, her friends, the nanny, the cook, the chauffeur? The maid accused of the murder, her suicide, her grieving husband?

10. The passengers on the train, their identities? Poirot gradually making the links of all of them with the family? The Countess and the long friendship, her Russian vindictiveness, the irony of the money in her dress? Her maid, German, the cook? The French woman and her piety, finding God? The count and his wife, her signature? Arbuthnot and Masterson in the Army with the husband of the girl? Mary Debenham, her relationship with Arbuthnot, the issue of the divorce proceedings being over? Dr Constantine as the obstetrician? Mac Queen as the son of the judge in the case?

11. The reconstruction of the event? The victim, drug, conscious as he was stabbed, seeing all those killing him, their motivations, angers, strength and force? Snowed in, altering the plan, the murderer to go through the window, through the mother’s compartment, her story, finding the knife?

12. Poirot, standing in judgement? His severity of attitude? The law, justice? The various members pleading with him, explaining their motivation, failed by the law? The decision, legally justified, religiously justified? Mary Debenham and her plea to Poirot? The theory that it was a murderer who disguised himself as a steward on the train? The uniform, the
button?

13. The manager of the line, assisting Poirot in his investigations? The local police arriving? Poirot and his decision, the theory of the killer disguised, handing over the uniform?

14. Poirot at the end, praying his rosary, his conscience and justice?