Poirot investigates the murder of a shady American businessman stabbed in his compartment on the Orient Express when it is blocked by a blizzard in Croatia.Poirot investigates the murder of a shady American businessman stabbed in his compartment on the Orient Express when it is blocked by a blizzard in Croatia.Poirot investigates the murder of a shady American businessman stabbed in his compartment on the Orient Express when it is blocked by a blizzard in Croatia.
- Lieutenant Morris
- (as Tristan Shepherd)
- Hector MacQueen
- (as Brian J Smith)
- Pierre Michel
- (as Denis Menochet)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe majority of the episode was filmed at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire, where the design team built a believable replica of an Orient Express carriage.
- GoofsMr. Bouc compares one of the characters to the "Bismark" battleship. The Bismark was laid down in 1936 only, launched in 1939 and commissioned in 1940.
- Quotes
Hercule Poirot: [furious] You people! With your kangaroo jury, your kangaroo justice! You had no right to take the law into your own hands!
Hildegarde Schmidt: M-m-monsieur Poirot, she was *five years old*!
Caroline Hubbard: We were good civilized people, and then evil got over the wall, and we looked to the law for justice, and the law let us down.
Hercule Poirot: No! No, you behave like this and we become just... savages in the street! The juries and executioners, they elect themselves! No, it is medieval! The rule of law, it must be held high and if it falls you pick it up and hold it even higher! For all of society, all civilized people will have nothing to shelter them if it is destroyed!
- ConnectionsFeatured in David Suchet on the Orient Express (2010)
This 2010 version of Murder on the Orient Express chooses to focus on the character of Poirot, his belief in justice, and his inner turmoil on how to reconcile the solution to the mystery with his own values. This is done rather than focus on the glamorous suspects on the train, which has been done in other versions. As the reality of who the murderer or murderers becomes clear, Poirot becomes visibly weary at the path that lay before him. Will he make an exception and let the murderer or murderers go?
Mr. Suchet knows the inner workings of Poirot's mind so intimately from having played the character more times than any other actor in history that he is explosive on the screen as he portrays Poirot's soul in turmoil. Mr. Suchet's performance is the reason to watch this version.
My one criticism that prevents me from giving the film a 10th star, is the use of religion as something that would enter Poirot's consideration. The film conveniently omits reference to Poirot's reference to his "little gray cells" because the logical mind of Hercule Poirot is not affected by religious considerations. I believe that Suchet could have portrayed Poirot's inner conflict with a secular opposition to murder as the break down of society. In this 2010 film, Poirot says as much when he savagely defends the rule of law to prevent man from descent into anarchy on the train. The introduction that Poirot was a Catholic was a cheap shortcut to clarify Poirot's decision as to what to do with the murderer or murderers at the end. Instead of using Catholicism, Poirot's open and often spoken belief in the value of life could have been used to justify Poirot's final decision.
Regardless of the screenwriter's choice to make Poirot unnecessarily ultra religious (even going so far as to have Poirot clutching rosary beads in the last shot of the film), I strongly recommend this 2010 version of Murder on the Orient Express to your kind attention.
- dennis_chiu1
- Jul 12, 2010