Amazon.com Essentials:
Just the name "Orient Express" conjures
images of a bygone era. Add an all-star cast (including Sean Connery,
Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, and Lauren Bacall, to name a
few) and Agatha Christie's delicious plot and how can you go wrong?
Particularly if you add in Albert Finney as Christie's delightfully
persnickety sleuth, Hercule Poirot. Someone has knocked off nasty
Richard Widmark on this train trip and, to Poirot's puzzlement,
everyone seems to have a motive--just the setup for a terrific
whodunit. Though it seems like an ensemble film, director Sidney Lumet
gives each of his stars their own solo and each makes the most of
it. Bergman went so far as to win an Oscar for her role. But the real
scene-stealer is the ever-reliable Finney as the eccentric detective
who never misses a trick. --Marshall Fine
