murder on the orient express

Director: sidney lumet

Actor: albert finney,lauren bacall,ingrid bergman,sean connery

Data Published: Fri Nov 22 1974

Genres: Crime,Drama,Mystery

Key Words: train journey,whodunit,train,detective,orient express

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071877/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_on_the_Orient_Express_(1974_film)

Description: Murder on the Orient Express is a movie starring Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, and Ingrid Bergman. In December 1935, when his train is stopped by deep snow, detective Hercule Poirot is called on to solve a murder that occurred in...

Plot: In December 1935, Hercule Poirot is returning to England aboard the Orient Express, encountering his friend Signor Bianchi, a director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits, which owns the line. Aside from Poirot, the other passengers travelling on the Calais coach are: Mrs. Harriet Hubbard, a fussy, talkative, multiple-widowed American; enigmatic American businessman Samuel Ratchett, his secretary and translator Hector McQueen and English manservant Beddoes; elderly Russian Princess Natalia Dragomiroff and her German maid Hildegarde Schmidt; Hungarian diplomat Count Rudolf Andrenyi and his wife Elena; British Indian Army officer Col. John Arbuthnot; Mary Debenham, a teacher of English in Baghdad; Greta Ohlsson, a timid Swedish missionary to Africa on a fund-raising trip; Italian-American car salesman Antonio Foscarelli; and Cyrus B. Hardman, an American theatrical agent. The morning after the train's departure from Istanbul, Ratchett tries to secure Poirot's services for $15,000 since he has received many death threats, but Poirot finds the case of little interest and turns it down. That night the train is caught in heavy snows en route through Yugoslavia. Poirot is disturbed numerous times during the night. The next morning Ratchett is found stabbed to death in his cabin. Poirot and Bianchi work together to solve the case. They enlist the help of Dr. Constantine, a Greek medical doctor who was travelling in another coach with Bianchi as the only other passenger and thus is not a suspect. Pierre Michel, the French conductor of the car, also assists the investigation, as well as being a suspect. Dr. Constantine's examination reveals 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 1:15 a.m. The train had stopped, surrounded by fresh snow, before then. There are no tracks in the snow and the doors to the other cars were locked, so the murderer is almost certainly still among the Calais passengers. Also discovered at the scene of the crime are a pipe-cleaner, a woman's handkerchief with the initial "H" and a fragment of a burned letter. Upon examining the letter, Poirot discovers that Ratchett's real name was Lenfranco Cassetti, a Mafia gangster who five years before carried out the kidnapping and killing of Daisy Armstrong, the infant daughter of wealthy British Army Colonel Hamish Armstrong who had settled in Long Island, New York with his American wife Sonia. Overcome with grief, the pregnant Mrs. Armstrong went into labour early and died while giving birth to a stillborn baby. A French maidservant named Paulette, wrongly suspected of complicity in the kidnapping, committed suicide, only to be found innocent later. Colonel Armstrong, consumed by these tragedies, later killed himself as well. Cassetti betrayed his partner, leaving him to be executed while he fled the country with the ransom, as he was only revealed to be the leader of the kidnapping plot on the eve of the execution. Poirot, Constantine and Bianchi begin their interrogation of the passengers. They learn that: McQueen was the son of the District Attorney who prosecuted the case and was very fond of Mrs. Armstrong; Beddoes was, before going into service, a British Army batman; Countess Andrenyi is of German descent and her maiden name is Grunwald; Greta Ohlsson has a limited knowledge of the English language but has spent some time in America fund-raising; Pierre Michel's daughter died five years earlier of scarlet fever; Col. Arbuthnot is going through a divorce and intends to marry Mary Debenham as soon as proceedings are over. Arbuthnot also displays an extensive knowledge of Armstrong's military decorations. When Poirot interviews Princess Dragomiroff he discovers she is a great friend of the now-bedridden actress Linda Arden, Mrs Armstrong's mother; the Princess was Sonia's godmother. He learns that also in the household were a butler, a secretary, a cook, a chauffeur and a nursemaid to Daisy. Poirot then flatters Hildegarde Schmidt by saying he knows a good cook when he sees one, and asks for a photo of the maid Paulette, with whom Miss Schmidt was friendly. Foscarelli, when asked, vehemently denies ever having been in private service as a chauffeur. Hardman reveals he is, in fact, a Pinkerton detective hired to guard Cassetti. When shown the photo of Paulette, he breaks down and reveals he was the policeman in love with Paulette, and feels responsible for her suicide. After concluding his investigation, Poirot gathers the suspects in the dining car to present his solution. He has formulated two possible scenarios to explain the murder. The first, which he calls the simple solution, is based on several clues suggesting that Cassetti's murder was the result of a mafia feud. Poirot analyses his second solution — referring to it as the more complex of the two — according to which every suspect has a link to the Armstrong case, thus having sufficient motive for the murder. The Princess had dodged the answers to Poirot's questions either by saying she did not remember or by word association: for example when asked Mrs Armstrong's maiden name, she replied "Greenwood", the English for "Grunwald", allowing Poirot to deduce that Countess Elena Andrenyi was, in fact, Helena, Mrs Armstrong's sister, and Count Andrenyi her brother-in-law. The Princess also claimed the secretary's name was "Miss Freebody", so Poirot deduces the secretary was in fact Mary Debenham (as in the London department store Debenham and Freebody). By flattering Miss Schmidt, he confirmed that she had been cook for the Armstrongs. Aside from the obvious motives of the Princess, Miss Schmidt, Mary, McQueen, the Count and Countess and Hardman, Poirot presents the motives of the other suspects: Pierre was Paulette's father; Beddoes was Colonel Armstrong's army batman and the family butler; Miss Ohlsson was Daisy's nursemaid (and inadvertently revealed her actual knowledge of English by showing that she understood difficult words); Col. Arbuthnot was a close army friend of Armstrong's; Foscarelli was the Armstrongs' private chauffeur; Mrs Hubbard is, in reality, Linda Arden, Mrs Armstrong's mother. Cassetti was sedated by Beddoes and McQueen. Arbuthnot planted the pipe-cleaner, while the Princess accidentally dropped the handkerchief (a Cyrillic "N" - for "Natalia" - resembles a Roman "H"). All of the incidents which disturbed Poirot's sleep were contrived for the sole purpose of confusing him about the time of death. Each of the passengers then stabbed Cassetti in turn. When Poirot finishes his explanation, everyone is silent. Poirot suggests Bianchi should choose which explanation they present to the police: the simple or the complex one. To avoid any scandal, Bianchi decides that the simple solution will be more than enough to satisfy the police and that Cassetti deserved everything he got. Poirot agrees with the decision, and he departs to prepare his report to the Yugoslavian police, even though he admits he will struggle with his conscience. The train becomes free of the snow and leaves as the passengers celebrate at the outcome of the investigation.