MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (TV)
Summary
This made-for-television dramatic suspense film is an adaptation of Agatha Christie's famous 1934 novel. The story begins in Istanbul as famed Belgian detective Hercule Poirot assists his friend and erstwhile lover Vera Rossakoff to solve a murder in her nightclub, though he quickly rejects her suggestion that they marry, pointing out that their lives are far too different. As he prepares to head back to London, Poirot encounters his friend Wolfgang Bouc, who happens to be the director of the elite Orient Express, and Poirot opts to take the train to England. He observes a brash American antiquities dealer, Samuel Ratchett, receiving what appears to be a threatening phone call, and after settling into his compartment, recently made available by another guest's cancellation, he shrewdly observes the other guests in the dining car and spots Ratchett angrily destroying a videotape. Ratchett soon approaches Poirot and, having recognized him from television, requests his help in tracking down the unknown persons who have been threatening his life, but Poirot bluntly states that he finds him "intolerable" and will not take the case.
Shortly after midnight that night, Poirot hears a voice from Ratchett's adjoining compartment addressing the porter in French. The train stops at 1:20 AM thanks to a rock slide on the tracks, and an American passenger, Caroline Hubbard, declares that she spotted a mysterious man hiding in her compartment. Unfazed by the delay, Poirot briefly chats with a Mary Debenham before overhearing a commotion and following Bouc to Ratchett's compartment, where the man has been found stabbed to death. Poirot decides that the killer is still aboard the stalled train and agrees to work the case, noticing that Ratchett's watch was smashed at 1:15 AM, presumably during the struggle. Ratchett's consultant and interpreter, William MacQueen, tells Poirot that Ratchett "went ballistic" over the videotape and was in fact "a total bastard" who angered many with his habit of looting archaeological sites. Pierre Michel, the porter, reports speaking to Ratchett through the door after midnight, adding that another passenger, Foscarelli, had "kind of a party" with several guests in his room at the time. Poirot partially repairs the damaged videotape and finds that it contains a news report about the death of a seven-year-old girl, Daisy Armstrong. Caroline, a minor celebrity in her own right, tells Poirot about her intruder and produces a button from a conductor's uniform found in her next-door compartment, though denies owning a handkerchief embroidered with an "H" also found there.
Poirot next questions Bob Arbuthnot, CEO of a tech company, whose stylus was also found in the murdered man's room. Arbuthnot angrily defends both himself and Debenham from Poirot's musings, but he allows the detective to borrow his laptop, and Poirot confirms that Arbuthnot's former business partner was in fact the father of Daisy, who was kidnapped and murdered by a certain Lafranco Cassetti, who got off on a technicality. Armstrong committed suicide after his distraught wife Sonia died in childbirth, and Poirot reveals that despite his attempts to change his appearance, Ratchett is none other than Cassetti himself, "the very face of evil." MacQueen denies knowing his employer's true identity but admits to knowing Sonia, and he states that he saw an unknown conductor in the corridor around the time of the murder. Foscarelli also denies any close association with the Armstrong's or knowledge of Cassetti's presence, and when a horrified Hubbard finds the murder weapon stashed amongst her belongings, Poirot requests to search all of the guests' luggage. He talks to Señora Alvarado, widow of a "patriotic" politician, who also mentions seeing a mysterious porter in the hallway around 1:20. Poirot determines that Alvarado was in fact Sonia's godmother, and Alvarado notes that Sonia had a sister, Helena, but denies knowing of Cassetti's double life.
Next, Poirot questions Philip von Strauss, who was seen escorting his "frail" wife Elena out of the dining car early in the evening, and the mystery deepens when the porter's uniform with the missing button is found in Poirot's own chambers. Debenham, who seems strangely unmoved by the shocking events, denies seeing any mysterious conductor, though Poirot maintains that she is somehow connected to Cassetti. As the train resumes movement, he reviews the tape of Daisy's past again and spots a familiar face in the background. Elena – really Helena, the dead girl's aunt – admits the connection, but denies owning the handkerchief or participating in the killing. Poirot gathers the suspects and suggests that the unknown porter disguised himself, killed Cassetti in his room, briefly hid in Hubbard's adjoining room and lost a button in the process, and then escaped. Everyone seems content with the conclusion – but Poirot then announces that the conductor does not exist and that all of the "conspirators" were personally connected to the Armstrong family and had reason to want the villainous Cassetti dead. The handkerchief, representing Alvarado's name in the Cyrillic alphabet, and the stylus were both planted as fake clues pointing to unlikely culprits, though while the threatening call was "a ruse," the video was sent in "deadly earnest," with the killers wanting Cassetti to understand the meaning behind his death.
Poirot further adds that MacQueen tried to establish that Ratchett/Cassetti was still alive just after midnight by speaking to Pierre through the door, forgetting that he spoke no French, after which all of the conspirators stabbed him once as revenge for his destruction of the Armstrong family. They then faked the time of death by smashing the watch and arranged for his body to be found in Belgrade once they had disembarked, though the sudden rock slide altered the plan, leading to the planting of the fake evidence. Poirot muses about what to tell the police, but then concludes that justice has indeed been served and resolves to commit to the story about the fictional murderous porter. He is stunned when Vera meets him in Belgrade and joins him for the rest of the journey, and he informs her that the berth beside his has just been vacated. Poirot concludes by commenting on the successful lives of all of the conspirators after their adventure aboard the train, though he chooses to remain mum on his own romantic life. Commercials deleted.
Details
- NETWORK: CBS
- DATE: April 22, 2001 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 1:29:26
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:87061
- GENRE: Drama, mystery/suspense
- SUBJECT HEADING: Drama, mystery/suspense; Drama, police/private detective; Murder
- SERIES RUN: CBS - TV, 2001
- COMMERCIALS: N/A
CREDITS
- Daniel H. Blatt … Executive Producer
- Phil Clymer … Executive Producer
- Jeffrey S. Grant … Executive Producer
- Marion Rosenberg … Producer
- Liam Foster … Associate Producer
- Carol Rodger … Associate Producer
- Carl Schenkel … Director
- Stephen Harrigan … Writer
- Agatha Christie … Based on the novel by
- Christopher Franke … Music by
- Alfred Molina … Cast, Hercule Poirot
- Meredith Baxter (see also: Meredith Baxter-Birney) … Cast, Mrs. Caroline Hubbard
- Leslie Caron … Cast, Señora Alvarado
- Amira Casar … Cast, Helena von Strauss
- Nicolas Chagrin … Cast, Pierre Michel
- Tasha de Vasconcelos … Cast, Vera Rossakoff
- David Hunt … Cast, Bob Arbuthnot
- Adam James … Cast, William MacQueen
- Dylan Smith … Cast, Tony Foscarelli
- Peter Strauss … Cast, Mr. Samuel Ratchett / Lanfranco Cassetti
- Fritz Wepper … Cast, Wolfgang Bouc
- Kai Wiesinger … Cast, Philip von Strauss
- Natasha Wightman … Cast, Mary Debenham