DIRECTOR SIDNEY LUMET'S 'MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS'

Title: Murder on the Orient Express Year: 1974 Rating: *1/2

Finishing up reviews of the EMI-backed British productions of Agatha Christie adaptations is the first, and somehow most popular, in Sidney Lumet's MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS starring the otherwise splendid actor Albert Finney... 

Who, as quirky/offbeat Belgian sleuth Hercule Poirot, looks as if Charlie Chaplin gained weight after eating pies thrown on a stiff face caked with so much distracting makeup he's hardly able to speak... and with a horribly fake-sounding accent...

Meanwhile the 1970's all-star-cast.. ranging from murdered enigmatic "businessman" Richard Widmark with humble aid Anthony Perkins, two veteran actresses Lauren Bacall and Ingrid Bergman, token muscular-handsome fella Sean Connery paired with beautiful young Jacqueline Bissett and Poirot's right-hand-man Martin Balsam... merely fill space within an otherwise stylishly antique setting but the plot, like the titular train, is all dressed up with nowhere to go, slowly.

Martin Balsam and Tony Perkins in Murder on the Orient Express

Albert Finney in Murder on the Orient Express