Murder On The Orient Express- Soundtrack details - SoundtrackCollector.com Murder On The Orient Express Murder On The Orient Express (1974) Composer(s): Total number of members who have this title in their: Collection: 373 There are 7 compilation albums for this title. Things you can do: Members who have this label in their: Collection: 29 (a) The Body; (b) Remembering Daisy (03:03) 5. Track listing contributed by Robert DiMucci Capitol Records TOCP 6588 Members who have this label in their: Collection: 11 Members who have this label in their: Collection: 60 from "Murder on the Ori�nt Express" by Richard Rodney Bennett 2. from "Murder on the Ori�nt Express" by Richard Rodney Bennett 3. from "Murder on the Ori�nt Express" by Richard Rodney Bennett 4. The Ori�nt Express (11:25) from "Murder on the Ori�nt Express" by Richard Rodney Bennett 5.

The Body & Remembering Daisy (03:11) from "Murder on the Ori�nt Express" by Richard Rodney Bennett 6. from "Murder on the Ori�nt Express" by Richard Rodney Bennett 7. from "Murder on the Ori�nt Express" by Richard Rodney Bennett 8. from "Murder on the Ori�nt Express" by Richard Rodney Bennett 9. from "Murder on the Ori�nt Express" by Richard Rodney Bennett 10. from "Murder on the Ori�nt Express" by Richard Rodney Bennett 11. from "Murder on the Ori�nt Express" by Richard Rodney Bennett 12. from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 13. Arrival At Wode Hall (01:30) from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 14. from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 15. from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 16. Duet And Love Theme (03:07) from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 17.

from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 18. I Love My Baby (02:29) from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 19. The Statues Of Rameses (02:00) from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 20. from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 21. Journey On The Nile (02:53) from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 22. The Temple Of Karnak (02:13) from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 23. from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 24. from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 25. Fox Trot - Don't Say No To... (01:38) from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 26. from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 27. Waltz - The White Nile (01:21) from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 28.

from "Death on the Nile" by Nino Rota 29. Composed by Sir William Walton 5. ODD MAN OUT: Prelude (03:53) Composed by Willian Alwyn LADY CAROLINE LAMB: Elegy for Viola and Orchestra (2nd Movement) (02:58) Composed by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett 7. BRIEF ENCOUNTER: Piano Concerto No.2 (09:16) Composed by Serge Rachmaninoff THE INN OF THE SIXTH HAPPINESS: London Prelude (03:40) Composed by Malcolm Arnold HENRY V: Touch Her Soft Lips and Part (01:28) Composed by Sir William Walton 10. FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL: Love Scene (03:22) Composed by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett 11.

633 SQUADRON: Main Titles (02:44) Composed by Ron Goodwin THE CRUEL SEA: Main Titles and Nocturne (04:43) Composed by Alan Rawsthorne Agatha Christie's Murder On the Orient Express (Original Sound Track) by Richard Rodney Bennett on Apple Music 10 Songs Album Review Richard Rodney Bennett's score for the Sidney Lumet adaptation of Agatha Christie's whodunit Murder on the Orient Express is a complicated, various orchestral work reflecting the shifting tones and large cast of characters in the movie. Things are always changing in the music, just as they do onscreen, as viewers try to make sense out of the unusually broad panorama of suspects investigated by master detective Hercule Poirot on a snowbound train in Yugoslavia in the 1930s.

Bennett uses what he, in his liner notes to the 2003 reissue, calls a "trashy main theme" that sounds like it was borrowed from one of those classically influenced pop songs of the '40s, and he concludes with a sweeping waltz, but in between the music cues respond to the contours of the convoluted plot, which makes this the sort of score that works well while one is watching the movie, but that sounds schizophrenic when listened to simply as an aural work. Nevertheless, it is full of entertaining juxtapositions and traditional elements twisted just enough to give them an unusual feel, a tone that is true to a movie both steeped in its genre and, ultimately, able to move beyond that. Customer Reviews by Hitchcockian Music was greatly executed, and the music itself is beautiful in its own right. Ideal score for the film. Great Music Great music, I really wish iTunes sold the movie also.

Biography Born: March 29, 1936 in Broadstairs, Kent, England Genre: Jazz Years Active: '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s, '00s Bennett showed early promise as an exceptional musical talent and was encouraged by his mother, a student of Holst and a skilled pianist and composer. At the age of 16 he was writing 12-tone compositions, even though this technique was barely recognized in the British musical community. He accepted a scholarship at the RAM, where he studied with Berkeley and Ferguson. During this time several of his works were performed in London, including the cantata A Nocturnal Upon St. Lucy's Day and two string... Top Albums and Songs by Richard Rodney Bennett 1.

Murder On The Orient Express Sheet Music - For Piano and More - OnlineSheetMusic.com Murder On The Orient Express Sheet Music by Richard Rodney Bennett Does NOT support transposition and midi-playback Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film) | Agatha Christie Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film) Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film) 338pages on Share Original theatrical release poster Murder on the Orient Express is a 1974 British mystery film directed by Sidney Lumet , starring Albert Finney as Hercule Poirot , and based on the Edit The film (and book) features the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot . Albert Finney stars as Poirot, who is asked by his friend Bianchi ( Martin Balsam ), a train company director, to investigate the murder of an American business tycoon, Mr. Ratchett ( Richard Widmark ), aboard a train with an all-star cast of suspects, including Lauren Bacall , Ingrid Bergman (delivering an Oscar -winning performance), Sean Connery , John Gielgud , Vanessa Redgrave , Michael York and Anthony Perkins .

The screenplay was penned by Paul Dehn and an uncredited Anthony Shaffer . The film's tagline was: "The greatest cast of suspicious characters ever involved in murder." Richard Rodney Bennett 's memorable Orient Express theme has been reworked into an orchestral suite and performed and recorded several times. It was performed on the original soundtrack album by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden under Marcus Dods . The piano soloist was the composer himself. Plot Edit Having sorted a matter out in the Middle East , detective Hercule Poirot ( Albert Finney ) is returning to England aboard the Orient Express . During the journey, Poirot encounters his friend Bianchi ( Martin Balsam ), a director of the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits , which owns the line. The train is unusually crowded for the time of year: every first-class berth has been booked. Shortly after the train's departure from Constantinople, a wealthy American businessman, Ratchett ( Richard Widmark ), 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 in the Balkans. 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 ( George Coulouris ), 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 ( Jean-Pierre Cassel ), the middle-aged French conductor of the car, also assists the investigation, as well as being a suspect. Poirot soon discovers that Ratchett was not who he claimed to be. The victim's secret past indicates a clear motive for murder, even justification, but who was the killer? Clues Edit Dr. Constantine's examination of the body reveals that 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 that time.

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 passengers in the coach in which Ratchett was killed. Poirot discovers that Ratchett's real name was Lenfranco Cassetti, a gangster who five years before planned and carried out the kidnapping of Daisy Armstrong, the infant daughter of a wealthy British Army Colonel who had settled in America with his American wife. The kidnappers demanded a ransom; but after it was delivered, instead of returning the girl, they murdered the child. Overcome with grief, the then-pregnant Mrs. Armstrong went into labor early and died while giving birth to a stillborn baby. A maidservant named Paulette (Suzanne in the novel), who was wrongly suspected of being involved in the kidnapping, committed suicide, only to be found innocent after she took her life. 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. Having established these facts, Poirot, Dr.

Constantine and Bianchi summon the other passengers one by one and proceed to interrogate them. (The fictitious Armstrong case was inspired by the real-life kidnapping of aviator Charles Lindbergh's child .) Suspects Antonio (Gino) Foscarelli ( Denis Quilley ), an exuberant Italian American car salesman from Chicago ; Cyrus B. "Dick" Hardman ( Colin Blakely ), a Pinkerton's detective masquerading as a talent agent; Motive Edit After concluding his enquiries on the suspects, Poirot gathers all of them in the dining room to present his solution to the crime. He has concluded into two possible scenarios of the murder. The first scenario, which he calls the simple solution, is based on several clues, planted by the suspects to imply that Ratchett's/Cassetti's murder was a result of a mafia feud, intending to throw off-track any investigations.

Then Poirot analyzes his second solution, referring to it as a more complex one than the previous, according to which every passenger of the Calais coach, including the steward, Michel, were linked to the Armstrong case, thus providing them with sufficient motives: McQueen was the son of the District Attorney who prosecuted the case and was very fond of Mrs. Armstrong; Beddoes was Colonel Armstrong's army batman and the family butler; Miss Debenham was Mrs Armstrong's secretary; Col. Arbuthnott was an army friend of Col. Armstrong; Princess Dragomiroff was Sonia Armstrong's godmother; Miss Schmidt was the Armstrongs' cook; Countess Andrenyi was Mrs Armstrong's sister; Count Andrenyi was Mrs Armstrong's brother in law. Miss Ohlsson was Daisy's nursemaid; Mrs Hubbard was Mrs Armstrong's mother; Foscarelli was the Armstrongs' chauffeur; Hardman was, at the time, a policeman who was in love with Paulette; Michel was Paulette's father; Ratchett was sedated by Beddoes and McQueen. Each of the passengers then stabbed him in turn.

As soon as Poirot finishes his explanation, everyone in the car is dumbfounded. Poirot suggests that Bianchi should choose which explanation they should present to the police: the simple or the complex one. Bianchi decides that this "simple" solution will be more than enough for the local police and that Ratchett deserved everything he got. A cover-up is therefore instigated. Poirot agrees with the decision, and he departs to conduct his report to the police, even though he admits he will struggle with his conscience. The train becomes unbound with snow and starts on its way as everyone toasts one another. Details about the kidnapping Greta Ohlssen is bound and gagged , when she discovers and tries to stop Daisy being kidnapped (thus crushing many toys and having the chair in which she is bound to, knocked over). Beddoes tries to attack Cassetti, but his partner knocks him out with a blow to the head. Hildegarde witnesses this act and screams from the upper stairs. The kidnappers escape in a car, out through a back door.

Paulette and someone (believed to be Cyrus Hardman) are in the garden house and see the getaway car; which is why the police suspect her, because she was in the garden house at 3:00 am. Foscarelli had delivered Colonel. and Sonia Armstrong to the airport, meaning Daisy's parents were not in the house , when she was being kidnapped. Foscarelli nearly collided with the getaway car, when he arrived back at the house. Foscarelli is the first to discover the crime, by finding Greta bound and gagged. Cassetti has a partner who knocks out Beddoes, helps them escape, and is the one who actually did murder Daisy, but is captured (betrayed by Cassetti) and sentenced to death by electric chair . Daisy's parents delivered the ransom money to a place in the countryside, near their house, with the police, reporters, and Mary Debenham. Daisy's body is discovered by two teenagers, 15 miles from the Armstrong home. Greta became a Swedish missionary looking after children, because she was unable to save Daisy.

Arrangement of the Calais Coach: Edit Exterior shooting was mostly done in France , with a railroad workshop near Paris standing in for Istanbul station . The scenes of the train proceeding through central Europe were filmed in the Jura mountains on the then recently closed railway line from Pontarlier to Gilley , with the scenes of the train getting stuck being filmed in a cutting near Montbenoît . [1] Coincidentally, this area (part of Yugoslavia in the story) is part of the micronation of Saugeais . There were concerns about a lack of snow in the weeks preceding the scheduled shooting of the snowbound train, and plans were made to truck in large quantities of snow at considerable expense. However, heavy snowfall the night before the shooting made the extra snow unnecessary—just as well, as the snow-laden backup trucks had themselves become stuck in the snow. [2] Every castmember approached eagerly accepted. Lumet went to Sean Connery first, citing that if you get the biggest star, the rest will come along. He was right. Principal photography The film was shot in France in 1973.

Reception The film was extremely successful at the box office, earning an estimated $20 million in the US and $15 million in other territories. [3] On opening weekend, there were crowds around blocks waiting to see the movie. Christie's opinion Edit Agatha Christie had been quite displeased with some film adaptations of her works made in the 1960s, and accordingly was unwilling to sell any more film rights. When Nat Cohen , chairman of EMI Films , and producer John Brabourne attempted to get her approval for this film, they felt it necessary to have Lord Mountbatten of Burma (of the British Royal Family and also Brabourne's father-in-law) help them broach the subject. (Note: John Braebourne was also a peer.

His title was John Ulick Knatchbull, 7th Baron Brabourne, CBE, though he used simply "John Braebourne" for this film's credits.) In the end, according to Christie's husband Max Mallowan , "Agatha herself has always been allergic to the adaptation of her books by the cinema, but was persuaded to give a rather grudging appreciation to this one." Christie's biographer Gwen Robyns quoted her as saying, "It was well made except for one mistake. It was Albert Finney , as my detective Hercule Poirot . I wrote that he had the finest moustache in England — and he didn't in the film. I thought that a pity — why shouldn't he?" [4] Critical Edit The film has extremely positive reviews. The film has received a 100% Fresh rating on the website Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 7.4/10. [5] Roger Ebert gives the film a great review, calling it "The movie provides a good time, high style, a loving salute to an earlier period of filmmaking," The New York Times gives the film 4 out of 5 stars.

Blogs, Agatha Christie fans, critics and movie goers all praise the film for its style, cast, and score. Academy Awards and nominations 6/2/03: CD Reviews At the Movies Murder on the Orient Express and Studs Lonigan CD Reviews At the Movies, Murder on the Orient Express, Studs Lonigan At the Movies *** RCA/BMG Heritage 07863 65133 2 18 tracks - 53:02 In Spaghetti Westerns, an encyclopedic survey of the cowboy movies produced by Italian filmmakers in the late '60s, Sir Christopher Frayling attributes the genre's unique musical sound to Ennio Morricone, praising him for being the first composer to blend orchestral instruments with electric guitars, winnowing voices, castanets and bullwhips. Professor Frayling, however, dismisses the maestro's subsequent work, concluding that "his non-Western scores are not always so successful -- or interesting." This new anthology album (which collects themes from films as various as the western A Gun for Ringo, the thriller What Have You Done to Solange?

and the love story Per Amore) calls this claim into question. That is, many pieces included here demonstrate that the composer's singular (and emotive) sound -- the result of simple, often kitschy melodies set against baroque harmonies -- has surfaced regularly throughout his long career, regardless of genre. Unfortunately, over half of the tracks on At the Movies have appeared elsewhere with frustrating consistency. A large portion of space, for instance, is given to music pulled from the horse operas Sergio Leone directed (A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and Once Upon a Time in the West). This is a tactic RCA also used in its 1990 collection, Legendary Italian Westerns. Nevertheless, it's arguable that the CD's lesser-known pieces compensate for their scarcity with quality. The Adventurer, a string-driven adagio used in a Terence Young nautical adventure, for example, gently rises and falls like the waves it describes. "The Encounter," from The Master and Margarita, balances a cascading violin arrangement against a twangy banjo, to create a grotesque and somber context for Edda Dell'Orso's soaring voice.

And Secret of the Sahara, from a 1987 film of the same name, blends synths and strings to approximate the quiet, stretching patterns of the African desert. Any one of these compositions should prove that Morricone did not peak creatively more than 30 years ago. This idea (entertained by many, perhaps) is like the Wild West itself: just a dusty old myth. -- Stephen Armstrong Murder on the Orient Express *** 1/2 RICHARD RODNEY BENNETT DRG DRG CD 19039 10 tracks - 39:36 In 1974, two years before Agatha Christie's death, one of her best known novels, Murder on the Orient Express, was adapted by Sydney Lumet for the screen. Featuring an all-star cast with Albert Finney as the great sleuth Hercule Poirot, the film enjoyed good reviews, high ticket sales and several Academy Award nominations, including one in the Best Original Dramatic Score category.

(That year's award, by the way, went to Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola for The Godfather Part II, which wouldn't have been nominated by today's Academy.) Despite this honor, however, British composer Richard Rodney Bennett's score was never released in the U.S. until this year, and now, fortunately, listeners can enjoy this music without having to watch and listen to the affected mannerisms of the film's cast at the same time. Moreover, DRG presents this remastered score with liner notes, written by Bennett, that explain the history of its composition as well as the composer's aesthetic intentions. The album opens with "Overture and Kidnapping," a two-part piece that begins as a bouncy waltz and halfway through turns into a funereal, classical arrangement. Regularly throughout the score, in fact, Bennett shifts gears abruptly like this, as he directs his emphasis from the lighter aspects of Christie's mystery to the darker ones. Occasionally, as well, he blends these contrasting styles together to produce a sound that is simultaneously sweet and sinister, as he does in one of the score's longer pieces, "The Orient Express." And though the waltz motif tends to dominate this collection, other melodies surface.

On tracks like "Entr'acte" and "Finale," for instance, the main title theme -- a simple series of ascending notes -- materializes, coupled with a somber string-and-winds backdrop. And in "Princess Dragomiroff," one of the few cues collected here, Bennett strikes the title theme's brittle notes for a moment and then introduces a rising and falling pattern of lush strings that evoke Ravel with their emotive simplicity. Having arranged the album's selections in a manner that breaks from the order in which they appear in the film, DRG imbues this score with a new momentum, making it resemble an uninterrupted, although disappointingly short, symphony. Superior to both the movie and the novel, this re-released opus reminds us that British composers (an often overlooked group) write fine film music, too. -- Stephen Armstrong Varèse Sarabande VCL 1102 1016 14 tracks - 34:40 Studs Lonigan, while a fine score in its own right, will be of interest to most soundtrack enthusiasts as an early collaboration between Goldsmith and John Williams. Johnny is the piano soloist, and he's fantastic on several terrific solos.

But now on to the merits of the CD as a whole... This newest Goldsmith CD in the Varèse Sarabande Soundtrack club series opens with a "Main Title" similar to Chinatown, with an old Hollywood-style string arrangement accompanying a mournful and bluesy trumpet solo. Overall, however, the score is primarily in the same Americana category as The Flim-Flam Man and The Traveling Executioner. At the least, it represents the same time period in American history, with generally an exciting and upbeat feel. It's also similar to Williams' The Reivers, with a fair amount of honky-tonk and ragtime piano, blues harmonica and other distinctly American styles. Still, Studs is not as reflective and nostalgic in tone as The Reivers; it's a lot grittier. The standout track is the six-minute "A Game of Pool." Though I haven't seen the film, I can easily imagine a smoke-filled billiard room and the creatures that inhabit it, not to mention the back and forth quick rhythm of the game. "No Hate" is also a fine cue, featuring a romantic treatment of the main theme.

Not a throwaway score at all, this is a fine effort from early in Goldsmith's career, though at $20 a pop, one would hope for a longer disc with perhaps an additional short score complimenting this one. -- Darren MacDonald Murder on the Orient Express (1974) with Albert Finney Murder on the Orient Express (1974) with Albert Finney Greg Orypeck Bacall, Lauren , Bergman, Ingrid , Connery, Sean , Perkins, Anthony , Thriller Share This! “If all these people are not implicated in the crime, then why have they all told me, under interrogation, stupid and often unnecessary lies? Why? Why? Why? Why?”——Hercule Poirot It’s a long journey by rail from Istanbul to Calais. Even on so luxurious a train as the Orient Express in its glory days of the 1930s. In one such film odyssey, all the passengers make it, not all the way to Calais, “with connections to London,” as announced in the station at the start of the journey, but only to Yugoslavia. All passengers make it through the movie, that is, except one. One is murdered.

In a way, murdered twelve times. Twelve stab wounds. The 1974 Murder on the Orient Express inspired a series of star-studded Agatha Christie films and TV movies. Death on the Nile was the first to follow, in 1978, then came, almost in descending order of quality and production value, at least five more mysteries, including Evil Under the Sun starring Peter Ustinov and A Caribbean Mystery with Helen Hayes. The most recent remakes of Orient Express have been two TV movies. The one in 2001 starring Alfred Molina as detective Hercule Poirot is a pale shadow of the ’74 original—almost as expected, the usual “unnecessary” rule regarding remakes in effect here. Considering the usual quality of that BBC/PBS Masterpiece Mystery TV series with David Suchet as the Belgium sleuth, in 2010 came a surprisingly weak version, replete with plot-confusing omissions and shoddy sets, with Suchet merely going through the motions, as if rushed by some budget constraint. Not that the’74 version of Murder on the Orient Express is without its flaws.

True, it has much going for it: resplendent ’30s atmosphere and décor, elaborate period attire, that stellar cast already mentioned, fine ensemble acting by all involved and an elaborate, Oscar-nominated score by Richard Rodney Bennett. Especially according to audience’s need today for glitzy action, superficial character development and little exposition, the film’s major flaw is that it is terribly “British” in its slow, methodical pace, criticized even when the movie first appeared forty years ago. The Christie plot is simplicity itself. Like most of her mysteries, there is a murder (sometimes a second or third) and a room full of at least ten suspects—or ship full, or archaeological camp full, or, yes, train full of suspects. Poirot (Albert Finney), then, is left to do his work, with, strangely, no sense of urgency, no awareness of the possibility that other murders might occur. Following the exuberant, 1930-ish period main title comes a kaleidoscopic montage of distorted scenes, blurred images and newspaper headlines from 1930, recounting the kidnapping and murder of little Daisy Armstrong.

The apparent participants include a governess, a military colonel, a maid, a chauffeur, a policeman on his beat, a number of others. (Not coincidentally, Christie’s novel appeared two years after the famous kidnapping and murder, in 1932, of Charles Lindbergh’s twenty-month-old son.) The film now segues to 1935. The Orient Express has left Istanbul, headed on its northwesterly journey. The first night, en route to Paris, one passenger in the Calais coach, “businessman” Monsieur Ratchett ( Richard Widmark ), is found murdered in his compartment bed—stabbed twelve times. Some of the wounds are deep, some rather shallow, others “hardly more than scratches.” Shortly before, Ratchett had asked Poirot to take his case, that he had been receiving threatening letters and sleeping with a gun under his pillow. Interestingly, in the only scene between the two men, viewers learn the proper pronunciation of the detective’s name, not Per-row as Ratchett persists in addressing him, even after corrected, but Pauw-row.

As eccentric as another Christie sleuth, Miss Jane Marple, is down-to-earth, Poirot has an abundance of clues. He even remarks over Ratchett’s glassy-eyed body in a sing-song voice, “There are too many clu-u-u-ues in this ro-o-o-om.” Inside and outside the room, the clues include two different pipe cleaners in the ashtray, which also contains a half-smoked cigar; a handkerchief with the letter “H”; a burnt piece of paper; a smashed watch; the drugging of Ratchett’s nightly sleeping potion; the sight of a person in a white kimono disappearing down a passageway; a lost button from a train conductor’s uniform; and a cry, as during a nightmare, from the victim during the night. From interviews with the twelve occupants of the Calais coach, the detective must gather the last bits of information and glean further clues. The suspects vary in nationality, social class and disposition. First, Ratchett’s nervous secretary Hector McQueen (Anthony Perkins) and the dead man’s valet Beddoes (John Gielgud); the only suspect name changed from the novel. The American loudmouth Mrs.

Hubbard (Lauren Bacall) from whom all others flee: “Mrs. Hubbard is upon us,” cries one of the passengers. The contrite Swedish custodian of “little brown babies” Greta Ohlsson ( Ingrid Bergman ). The Count and Countess Andrenyi (Michael York and Jacqueline Bisset), whose passport has a strange, seemingly convenient stain masking a crucial letter. The Scot, Colonel Arbuthnot ( Sean Connery ), who believes that a “trial by twelve good men and true is a sound system,” and the lover Mary Debenham (Vanessa Redgrave) he intends to marry when his divorce is final. “Miss Debenham,” he says, “is not a woman. She is a lady.” Also interviewed, the Russian princess Dragomiroff (Wendy Hiller) and her German maid (Rachel Roberts), who reads Goethe to her frail, always black-attired mistress. The train conductor Pierre Michel (Jean-Pierre Cassel), who inexplicably knows the names of many of the passengers before he receives their tickets.

The Italian auto salesman Antonio Foscarelli (Denis Quilley): “American cars to Italians.” And, interviewed last, almost as a script afterthought, the Pinkerton detective Hardman (Colin Blakely, who played Dr. Watson to Robert Stephens’ Sherlock Holmes in The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes). Also starring, although never suspects, are Martin Balsam as director of the rail line, George Coulouris as the doctor onboad and Vernon Dobtcheff, briefly seen as the concierge before the train’s departure. Followers of the the Poirot Masterpiece Mystery installments might recall Dobtcheff as the evil Simeon Lee in Hercule Poirot’s Christmas, sometimes known under the alternative title Murder for Christmas, one of the best installments of that TV series of one of Christie’s more obscure mysteries, from 1938. The Orient Express is blocked by a snowdrift, and a disproportionate amount of screen time is given to the status of the anticipated work crew or snowplow, almost to the point of viewer fatigue.

Perhaps the frequent emphasis is to heighten excitement, as Poirot must decide on a solution before help arrives, along with the Yugoslavian police. There is, of course, the simple explanation for the murder, the one the real murders—yes, there are more than one!—have clumsily improvised, since they didn’t anticipate Poirot being on the train. The ploy of the planted lost trainman’s button ties to the assumption that the lone murderer escaped while the train was stalled in the snowdrift. Contrary to the detective’s edict that he always brings the guilty to justice, this is the version of the murder he will tell the police, not the real one which Poirot explains in the long, long dénouement, accompanied by linking references to the opening montage, a dénouement that occupies more than half the film. The motive for the murder, of course, is revenge for Ratchett’s involvement with the Daisy affair, and that all twelve passengers in the Calais coach are in some way connected with the Armstrong family.

Orient Express is a one-murder mystery in Christie’s best, succinct manner, though, as usual with the attention-loving Hercule Poirot, climaxed by an analysis of the case and the identity of the murderer or, in this case, murderers. For the detective, it is the science of it all, or, as he delights in saying, the results of using his “little gray cells.” In Orient Express, as in most of Christie’s stories, the interest lies not so much in the method of the victim’s dispatch as in the personalities of the many suspects and the study of their characters and motivations. Not to be disparaged, the author is, however, most inspired in her choice of murder weapons, whether knives, guns, any variety of blunt instruments, hypodermic injections, nylon stockings, falls from cliffs, even an electrocution in The Big Four. But Christie’s favorite killing method is probably poison, in all its numerous concoctions. She dispensed hospital drugs during both world wars. And so it is poison that dispatches Ratchett.

Orient Express, a detective story subsisting on only one murder, is quite contrary to the current trends, particularly on TV, where supposed police “experts” stumble through three or four murders, sometimes more, before the killer is apprehended, an ineptitude that would earn a firing in most real police departments. This bumbling appears in both the big city of Law and Order and in the tranquil British village of Midsomer Murders. On occasions Christie was known to succumb to excess, or “over-kill,” if a good plot ploy presented itself. In Ten Little Indians, a.k.a. And Then There Were None, ten people die according to the scheme of a nursery rhyme. And the murderer of nine commits suicide, making the total ten, so there’s no need for a Christie detective—either Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple or Ariadne Oliver. Or anybody! Hinted at earlier in reference to the bright main title, Orient Express is greatly assisted by one of Richard Rodney Bennett’s finest scores. It earned him his third Oscar nomination, though he lost to the team who scored The Godfather, Part II, Nino Rota and Carmine Coppola, director Francis Ford Coppola’s father.

Bennett had been nominated in 1967 for Far from the Madding Crowd and in 1971 for Nicholas and Alexandra. A one-time student of French composer-conductor Pierre Boulez, he also scored the Cary Grant-Ingrid Bergman Indiscreet, Lady Caroline Lamb and, toward the end of his career, though with much classical source music, Three Weddings and a Funeral. The main title of Orient Express opens with a brilliant flourish, the orchestra and a piano in an impressive introduction, rich with expectation and excitement. The musical color and flavor suggest the 1930s, aided by the art deco lettering and border and a pink satin background. The piano, solo now, then improvises, followed by scales that lead into what must be a love theme—though for whom?! The orchestra, predominately the strings, now joins the piano in an elaboration on the theme. The piano is there, perhaps, because someone along the way—director Sidney Lumet, perhaps?—wanted something like the Warsaw Concerto (from Richard Addinsell’s 1941 score for Dangerous Moonlight). Who was it said directors know nothing about music? (David Raksin?

He was outspoken enough!) In another secondhand idea, someone else suggested that Bennett make his score a pastiche of Gershwin tunes. He was rumored to have said that that sort of thing has been done, too much of a cliché. There is, of course, the effective and eerie music from the montage, but the most memorable music in the score, by far, is the waltz, the traveling tune that accompanies the Orient Express on its journey. The waltz is held back until the right moment, and when it is introduced, it is done most dramatically, enough to make it, in conjunction with the screen image, one of the great moments of the movies. Geoffrey Unsworth’s camera—he was also Oscar-nominated for his cinematography—moves down the platform alongside the standing train to the front of the engine while Bennett’s score begins in a rustle of timpani rolls, quirky woodwinds and hints of the theme to come. Artful anticipation at its best! The engine, by the way, is 230-G-353. Simultaneous with a giant forte chord from the orchestra, the headlight comes on (one writer mistook the sudden glare for a spotlight).

Doors are closed on the carriages and the train slowly begins pulling out of the station. The waltz starts slowly, then faster and faster as the train increases speed, and a solo French horn floats a counter melody above it all. The camera swings to focus on the passing cars, the table lamps clearly visible through the windows of the dining car, then fixes on the golden, embossed Orient Express emblem on the second-to-last car, as the train passes down the track and out of the station. From the moment the train begins to move, it’s done in one unbroken shot; it is said that Unsworth had only one chance to get it right. The waltz and the theme from the main title are combined in the film’s conclusion when the passengers of the Calais coach toast Hercule Poirot for his brilliant deduction—obviously the one they wanted! Beginning when Mary Debenham kisses Mrs. Hubbard, the organizer of the murder, a solo oboe, for seemingly the longest time, gives out a slow version of the waltz, a high moment in the score.

After the last clink of wine glasses, the waltz, back in its familiar tempo, supports the rolling end credits, joined by the French horn with the love theme. The train, having been freed from the snowdrift and billowing black smoke, once more gains speed and continues on its journey. Many years ago, in High Fidelity magazine, Royal S. Brown reviewed the soundtrack album, then a Capitol LP of course: “I have heard few musical scores that sustain the mood and ambiance of their pictures as well as Bennett’s does here. . . . [E]very note on this disc reveals the exceptional skill of one of the most talented composers writing for film today.” Sadly, Bennett died in 2012. Further nostalgia of the period is added in some source music at the beginning of the film. A little restaurant orchestra is playing “Red Sails in the Sunset,” and since this was the time of the rage for Shirley Temple movies, the added “On the Good Ship Lollipop” seems close to a period overdose.

Albert Finney, despite the heavy body makeup, an unrecognizable face and a thick French accent (sometimes hard to understand), saw his Oscar nomination for Best Actor go to Art Carney for Harry and Tonto, sans makeup or disguised voice. Ingrid Bergman was the film’s only winner, for Supporting Actress, trumping her two strongest competitors—Diane Ladd in Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore and Talia Shire in The Godfather, Part II. For Ingrid, an accent and dowdy appearance paid off! The film’s other nominations, for Costume Design, went to The Great Gatsby, and for Adapted Screenplay to The Godfather, Part II. Speaking of the script, besides Poirot’s keen observations, there is much humor from the detective himself—and there is this somewhat famous exchange between two men sharing the same train compartment, Foscarelli on the top bunk and Beddoes on the bottom: Foscarelli leans over and asks, “Hey, what are you reading Mister Beddoes?” “I am reading Love’s Captive by Mrs. Arabella Richardson.” “Is it about sex?”

Question: Which British composer wrote the theme music for the film Murder on the Orient Express?
Answer: Richard Rodney Bennett