Murder on the Orient Express is a 2001 made-for-television mystery film directed by Carl Schenkel based on the 1934 novel Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie, featuring Hercule Poirot. This version is set in the present day and has a smaller cast than the novel. The screenplay was written by Stephen Harrigan and the original music score was composed by Christopher Franke.[1]
Murder on the Orient Express | |
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Based on | Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie |
Screenplay by | Stephen Harrigan |
Directed by | Carl Schenkel |
Starring | Alfred Molina Meredith Baxter Leslie Caron Peter Strauss |
Composer | Christopher Franke |
Country of origin | United States United Kingdom Germany[1] |
Original language | English |
Production | |
Producer | Marion Rosenberg |
Cinematography | Rex Maidment |
Running time | 100 minutes |
Production companies | Agatha Christie Ltd. CBS |
Distributor | Ardustry Home Entertainment LLC |
Release | |
Original network | CBS Sky Movies ITV[1] |
Original release |
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Hercule Poirot is travelling on the Orient Express. While on the journey, Poirot meets a very close friend Bouc, who works for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits. The train is stopped when a landslide blocks the line on the second night out from Istanbul, and American millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett is found stabbed to death the next morning.
Since no footprints are visible around the train 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 and Bouc 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 the United States several years earlier, in which a baby was kidnapped and then murdered. (The fictitious Armstrong case, inspired by the real-life kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's baby boy.)
Burt Reynolds, Judi Dench, Lauren Bacall, Claire Bloom, Charlotte Rampling, and Sophia Loren were all originally believed to have been cast in the film.[2][3] Former Stage 84 pupil, actress and later assistant director Lynsey Trousdale from Burley in Wharfedale stood in for the cast members including Alfred Molina during rehearsals[4][5] At least a dozen members of Keighley Playhouse in Keighley were extras on the film, and provided their own costumes.[6]
Filming started on the 6th of February 2001 in Leeds.[2][3] A replica of an Orient Express buffet car was built at Horsforth's newly opened Transformer Studios, where the majority of the filming took place.[2] Filming also took place in Kingston upon Hull, Bury, and Istanbul.[3][5]
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Films directed by Carl Schenkel | |
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