Murder on the Orient Express (2001)

Hercule Poirot, now in modern times, investigates the famous crime on the famed train with a modern twist.

Director:

Carl Schenkel

Writers:

Agatha Christie (novel), Stephen Harrigan (teleplay)

Stars:

Alfred Molina, Meredith Baxter, Leslie Caron

Cast

Credited cast:
Alfred Molina	...	Hercule Poirot
Meredith Baxter	...	Mrs. Caroline Hubbard
Leslie Caron	...	Sra. Alvarado
Amira Casar	...	Helena von Strauss
Nicolas Chagrin	...	Pierre Michel
Tasha de Vasconcelos	...	Vera Rossakoff
David Hunt	...	Bob Arbuthnot
Adam James	...	William MacQueen
Dylan Smith	...	Tony Foscarelli
Peter Strauss	...	Mr. Samuel Ratchett
Fritz Wepper	...	Wolfgang Bouc
Kai Wiesinger	...	Philip von Strauss
Natasha Wightman	...	Mary Debenham
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Louis Chamoun	...	Turk

Storyline

Agatha Christie's classic whodunit speeds into the twenty-first century. World-famous sleuth Hercule Poirot has just finished a case in Istanbul and is returning home to London onboard the luxurious Orient Express. But, the train comes to a sudden halt when a rock slide blocks the tracks ahead. And all the thrills of riding the famous train come to a halt when a man discovered dead in his compartment, stabbed nine times. The train is stranded. No one has gotten on or gotten off. That can only mean one thing: the killer is onboard, and it is up to Hercule Poirot to find him.

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Plot Keywords:

laser surgery | snake tattoo | reference to ross perot | plastic surgery | web search | 

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Taglines:

Agatha Christie's ultimate whodunit speeds into the twenty-first century.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Mystery

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 April 2001 (USA)

Also Known As:

Asesinato en el Orient Express

Company Credits

Production Co:

Daniel H. Blatt Productions, Agatha Christie, Chorion

Technical Specs

Runtime:

100 min

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Carl Schenkel's last film.

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Goofs

In the next exterior shot after departure from Istanbul, a differently colored diesel locomotive is on the train. During the night scenes before the journey is interrupted, a steam locomotive is shown. Then when the train stops at the rockfall, the same EWS diesel is back on it, but now it's facing the other way (the EWS letters and the locomotive number 47744 have swapped places as seen from the same side of the train). Finally, when the journey resumes the next night, the steam locomotive is back.

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Quotes

Wolfgang Bouc: I thought you despised computers.
Hercule Poirot: I do. They are a very poor substitute for the little gray cells, but sometimes they are surprisingly useful.

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Connections

References Agatha Christie's Poirot: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (2000)

User Reviews

Stick to the original one

Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express contains one of her most ingenious plots. It is also easy to stage, as only one major locale is needed. The original movie played around this monotony and presented excellent characters. For those of us who have read and seen the great writer's books and adaptations, we are all familiar with the timeline of the plots, i.e. 1920's thru 1940's...The recent remake suffers extensively from the modernization of the events and the characters. It is almost disorienting to see Poirot using the internet, other characters talking about and utilising the most modern and recent devices etc. That just does not fit well and seems so illconceived. Fans of this genre to which I believe this movie was most directed at, are familiar with the original characters and timeline, and would surely be turned off by the changes.(To set the record straight, Orient Express stopped operating several decades ago, and people in Turkey do NOT wear arabic outfits.) As far as the narrative goes, the characters were not well developed, and acting was at best passable, except Leslie Caron, who in her brief spot walked away with the movie. My best humble advise would be to go and rent the original one, which served the writer perfectly...