Praise4Media #62 - Murder on the Orient Express (Kenneth Branagh - Marathon 3/3)

We’re approaching the end of the line with the Murder on the Orient Express Marathon. It may be a week for you but it’s been much longer for me, tech issues, don’t ask.

Kenneth Branagh has made a successful career as both an actor and a director, often having a role in the films he directs. He’s been involved in a number of adaptation works, most notably that of several Shakespeare plays like Henry V, Much Ado about Nothing and Love Labours Lost. He’s also worked with superheroes, being the director of the first Thor movie. This made him a good choice to Direct an adaption of Murder on the Orient Express for the big screen.

Now, directors that put themselves in a starring role also whilst not uncommon, are generally reserved for lower budget flicks. I’m not sure why the decision was made for Branagh to play the detective, maybe him being a good choice was why he was brought on to direct, maybe he was already a director and was the ideal choice also, or maybe it was a cost-cutting measure to offset the significant amount of (probably expensive) talent in this. Either way, how does Branagh stack up as the famed sleuth? Let’s take a look.

RageLite review - Murder on the Orient Express (David Suchet - Marathon 2/3)

We return to the Murder on the Orient Express Marathon with Agatha Christie’s Poirot.

Agatha Christie’s Poirot was a long-running series for ITV that covered almost all the Agatha Christie stories, although many of the shorter ones were loose adaptations. They allowed us time to develop a small supporting cast, including Poirot’s compatriot Captain Hastings, the Scotland Yard Chief Inspector Japp and ever-loyal secretary Miss Lemon. The show had the opportunity to flesh out Poirot’s distinct mannerisms for both comedic and humanising effect. 70 episodes were produced over 24 years, adapting pretty much every Poirot story there was, but we come close to the end with the 2010 adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express.

Since this isn’t a film, no Rotten Tomatoes rating worth anything, but it has 7.9/10 on IMDb right now, so make of that what you will, let’s get to the point

RageLite review - Murder on the Orient Express (Albert Finney - Marathon 1/3)

OK, it’s time we set off on the Murder on the Orient Express Marathon

Over the next 3 weeks we’ll be covering 3 adaptations of Dame Agatha Christie’s famous Poirot Novel: Murder on the Orient Express.

The first major adaptation was the 1974 version with Albert Finney starring in the title role. There had been other adaptation of Agatha Christie’s work but Agatha herself had been largely displeased with them. It was apparently difficult to get her to sell the film rights to this novel but thanks to the pleasant record of the producers, she eventually accepted.

Made with a decent $1.4m budget, the movie did really well, making $35.7m back. And the reception to it has been largely positive, with it receiving several Oscar nominations at the time, and has fared well since the dawn of the internet, with a 3/4 from Roger Ebert and a 91% Rotten Tomatoes Rating, but how does it fair as an adaptation, here are my thoughts.