I didn’t like it much, no, although it had many good actors in it and the fact that I love the book and the story. It wasn’t badly made, no no, but most of all I didn’t like Poirot, a mere caricature, so exaggerated, so mean, so rude, and the real Poirot was never rude! He looked like a crazy man when he laughed, and moved like a stiff body.
It starts introducing the Daisy Armstrong case, so it’s no surprise when it’ll be the key to solve the murder. Little Daisy was kidnapped and killed; Mrs Armstrong gave birth to a stillborn child and then she herself died; her husband shot himself, and poor maid Paulette who was strongly (and wrongly) suspected in the case couldn’t take it and killed herself.
We move to the Orient Express. Poirot (Albert Finney) wants get home with it after he solved some kind of case for some important people. He meets his friend Bianchi (Martin Balsam) and they are both very surprised to learn that the train is full, there is no place for Poirot. They marvel at it being full in December, while in my ignorance I marvel at the fact that a train is full with only twelve guests…
Bianchi orders Pierre (Jean Pierre Cassel) to find Poirot a place to stay, and they depart. A very unpleasant man, Ratchett (Richard Widmark) wants to hire Poirot because someone’s been sending him threatening letters, but he refuses out of despise. When Ratchett is killed, Bianchi begs Poirot to solve the case so they’ll be able to present it to the local police when the train will be freed from the snow.
He finds out immediately from a piece of paper that Ratchett was actually Cassetti, the man responsible in the Daisy Armstrong case, responsible not just for her death, but for five deaths.
He questions them all one by one, and finds out that Mrs Hubbard (Lauren Bacall) is Mrs Armstrong’s mother; Greta (Ingrid Bergman) who sounded rather Scottish to me, was little Daisy’s nanny; Countess Andrenyi (Jacqueline Bisset) is Mrs Armstrong younger sister; Pierre is Paulette’s father; colonel Arbuthnot (Sean Connery) was a good friend of colonel Armstrong; Beddoes (John Gielgud) was the butler in the Armstrong household; Princess Dragomiroff (Wendy Hiller) was Mrs Armstrong’s godmother; McQueen (Anthony Perkins) was devoted to Mrs Armstrong; Mary Debenham (Vanessa Redgrave) was Mrs Armstrong devoted secretary; Hildegarde Schmidt (Rachel Roberts) was their cook; Hardman (Colin Blakely) was in love with Paulette; Foscarelli (Denis Quilley) was the chauffeur.
A uniform is found in Hildegarde’s case and a kimono in Poirot’s room; Foscarelli’s theory is that it was a mafia vendetta against Ratchett.
At the end, like in the book, Poirot presents them with two possible solution: the first is a mafia vendetta, the second is (the truth):
the twelve people involved, who had close connections to the Armstrong family, judged and executed the man responsible for such a crime; Mrs Hubbard had the cabin next to Ratchett, Pierre unlocked it and McQueen put drug in his glass so he’d be unable to offer resistance and smashed the clock to falsify the hour of his death. Then, they all entered through Hubbard’s door and went on to stab him: Hubbard, Arbuthnot, Debenham, Greta, the countess and her husband (Michael York) together, Foscarelli, Hildegarde, Dragomiroff, McQueen, Beddoes, Hardman and Pierre. Then Poirot suggests they choose the first solution.
I didn’t like the portrayal of the Poirot character, and also the makeup of Dragomiroff and Hildegarde, who looked incredibly white and old.
Also, princess Dragomiroff character would have been better played by a Marlene Dietrich kind of actress.
Both Bianchi and Foscarelli share a few words in Italian, and very well spoken! Bianchi sounded rather Italian, and Foscarelli was good too.
ITA assassinio sull’Orient Express
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