Murder On The Orient Express (1974)

In 1935, the renowned Belgian detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) is traveling on the Orient Express when a traveling businessman (Richard Widmark) is murdered in the early hours of the morning when the train is stalled in a heavy snowstorm. The director (Martin Balsam) of the railroad company specifically asks Poirot to help solve the case. There are an abundance of suspects traveling in the coach: a gabby widow (Lauren Bacall), a male secretary (Anthony Perkins), a diplomat (Michael York) and his wife (Jacqueline Bisset), an Army officer (Sean Connery), a manservant (John Gielgud), a missionary (Ingrid Bergman), an English teacher (Vanessa Redgrave), a Russian Princess (Wendy Hiller) and her maid (Rachel Roberts), a car salesman (Denis Quilley), a theatrical agent (Colin Blakely) and the train's conductor (Jean Pierre Cassel). Based on the novel by Agatha Christie and directed by Sidney Lumet. Has there ever been a more elegant and glamorous murder mystery? One can almost swoon over the impeccable production design and costumes which faithfully recreated the 1930s period and the pure pleasure of watching genuine Stars flesh out underwritten characters (they all have that one big scene) is pure joy. Anchoring the film is a superb performance by Albert Finney who catches the essence of the Poirot of the Christie novels better than anyone who's walked in Poirot's shoes. One of the great entertainments of the 1970s. With George Coulouris and Vernon Dobtcheff.