Actors - Murder on the Orient Express

Home > Listing Index > Actors > Murder on the Orient Express

	Actors - Murder on the Orient Express

Murder on the Orient Express (Collins, London, 1934) also called Murder on the Calais Coach (Dodd Mead, New York, 1934) is a 1934 novel by Agatha Christie, made into a 1974 movie entitled Murder on the Orient Express.

The book was first published in Saturday Evening Post, from July 1 to September 30, 1933.

Plot

Detective Hercule Poirot is travelling on the Orient Express. On the journey, Poirot meets a very close friend Bouc (renamed Bianchi in the film version), who works for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons Lits. The train is caught in heavy snows in the Balkans on the second night out from Istanbul, and American millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett is found stabbed to death the next morning.He was stabbed 12 times, some lightly but at least 3 that could have accomplished death. Some marks were made by right hands and some by left hands. Since the train has been surrounded by fresh snow since before the apparent time of death, and the doors to the other cars were locked, it seems that the murderer must still be among the passengers in Ratchett's car. Poirot, Bouc, and Dr. Constantine, (a passenger on another car), work together to solve the case. They are aided by Pierre Michel, the middle-aged French conductor of the car. A key to the solution is Ratchett's revealed involvement in the Armstrong tragedy in America several years earlier, in which a baby was kidnapped and then murdered. (The fictitious Armstrong case was apparently inspired by the real-life kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's baby son.)

The twelve suspects are:

Hector McQueen, a tall, young American man, the victim's secretary and translator.
Edward Henry Masterman, the victim's British valet. (Renamed Mr. Beddoes in the 1974 film version)
Mary Debenham, a tall, dark, young British woman, working as a governess in Baghdad.
Colonel Arbuthnot, a tall British army officer returning from India
Princess Natalia Dragomiroff, an elderly and very ugly Russian grande dame
Hildegarde Schmidt, a middle-aged German woman, the Princess's lady's maid
Count Andrenyi, a tall, dark Hungarian diplomat with English manner and clothing, travelling to France.
Countess Elena Andrenyi, his pale young wife.
Greta Ohlsson, a middle-aged blonde Swedish missionary returning home for a vacation.
Mrs. Harriet Belinda Hubbard, a plump, elderly, very excitable American woman returning from a visit to her daughter, a teacher in Baghdad.
Gino Foscarelli, a portly and exuberant Italian businessman
Cyrus "Dick" Hardman, a large and gregarious Texan typewriter ribbon salesman.

This book is noted for its surprise ending.

Film versions

The book was made into a 1974 movie entitled Murder on the Orient Express starring Albert Finney as Poirot, Lauren Bacall as Mrs Hubbard, Ingrid Bergman as Greta, Jacqueline Bisset as Countess Andrenyi, Jean-Pierre Cassel as Pierre-Paul Michel, Sean Connery as Colonel Arbuthnot, John Gielgud as Beddoes, Wendy Hiller as Princess Dragomiroff, Rachel Roberts as Hildegarde Schmidt, Anthony Perkins as MacQueen, Richard Widmark as Ratchett, and Vanessa Redgrave as Mary Debenham.The movie was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, with Ingrid Bergman winning for "Best Supporting Actress". A made-for-television movie was also made in 2001 (not with David Suchet - rights issues still remain unsolved before an adaptation can be filmed). Many viewers, unfamiliar with the plot, thought that the murder mystery would take place against a dramatic backdrop of a world-famous train speeding through exotic landscapes and were disappointed to find that the train is stalled in snow for most of the movie.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Murder on the Orient Express ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Murder on the Orient Express; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Actors - Murder on the Orient Express

Plot

Film versions

Searches on eBay

Related searches on eBay