Murder on the Orient Express (film, 1974)

The famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, located in Istanbul, urgently needs to leave for the UK . But all the places in the famous " Orient Express " are unexpectedly occupied. However, the director of the company that owns Express, Senor Bianchi, an old friend of Poirot, travels on the same train himself and finds Poirot a place. The next morning, at breakfast, Poirot notes that in the carriage people of various nationalities seemed to have accidentally converged on this journey. One of the passengers, an unpleasant, suspicious American by the name of Ratchett, offers Poirot to become his bodyguard for a substantial sum, since Ratchett is threatened with reprisal, but Poirot refuses. The next night, Poirot is constantly awakened by some screams and knocks, but then there is dead silence. In the morning, it turns out that because of the drifts, the train got into a tight fit somewhere in the territory of Yugoslavia , and Mr. Ratchett is dead in his compartment, with the door locked inside and the window open.

The role of Poirot was first proposed to Paul Scofield and Alec Guinness , but they were engaged in other projects. In the end, she went to 38-year-old Albert Finney. Since he had a make-up for a long time, and the actor himself played in the theater in the evenings, he categorically did not have enough time to sleep. One day, make-up artists arrived at his home, and although Finney was sleeping, they began to make up for him. Then they loaded him into an ambulance, delivered to the studio, where they finished making up the actor who did not wake up.

By the time the movie was shot, the Orient Express train had already ceased to exist, as was the company that operated it. However, his genuine steam locomotive was used for filming, even though he could not travel too far. The interior of the train for filming was restored by the wagons of the real "Orient Express" preserved in museums (mostly in Belgium, as well as from some wealthy passengers who bought the cladding of the compartment for memory of unforgettable journeys). It is noteworthy that the “film career” of the reconstructed wagons did not end there. A year later, they were used on the set of Claude Zidi 's comedy " Do not lose sight ." After which they were transferred to the railway museum, and in 1982 they were launched in the first composition on the restored Simplon-Venice route.

Initially, 59-year-old Ingrid Bergman was planned for the role of Princess Dragomirova. However, for reasons of poor health, she refused her, preferring the small role of the Swedish-nanny Greta Olson, distraught from grief. For her, she received an Academy Award. It is also interesting that initially her entire role consisted of a single interrogation scene by Hercule Poirot, shot in one continuous double lasting almost five minutes. The scene of pathetic lamentations when Monsieur Bianchi announces the blockage and timid remarks in Mrs. Hubbard’s dining monologue was a pure improvisation on her part.

The main events of the film take place on the railway between Belgrade and Slavonski Brod , where the train is supposedly covered in sparsely populated mountains. In fact, all 200 km between the two cities, the railway passes through very populated agricultural areas and never rises above 100 meters.

The film starred immediately 7 actors who became winners of the Oscar - Martin Bolsam (1966), Ingrid Bergman (1945, 1957 and 1975), Sean Connery (1988), John Gilgud (1982), Wendy Hiller (1959), Vanessa Redgrave (1978) and Lauren Bacall (2009, Honorary).

Oscar Award for Best Actress in a Supporting Role - Ingrid Bergman (third and last Oscar of an outstanding Swedish actress).

• Murder on the Orient Express on the Internet Movie Database  
• Murder on the Orient Express on allmovie