Murder on the Orient Express (1974 film)

In December 1935, Hercule Poirot, having solved a case for a British Army garrison in Jordan, is due to travel to London on the Orient Express from Istanbul and encounters his old friend Signor Bianchi, a director of the company which owns the line. Other passengers travelling in the coach are American widow Harriet Hubbard; American businessman Samuel Ratchett, with his English butler Edward Beddoes and secretary/translator Hector McQueen; elderly Russian Princess Natalia Dragomiroff and her German maid Hildegarde Schmidt; Hungarian diplomat Count Rudolf Andrenyi and his wife Elena; British Indian Army officer Colonel John Arbuthnot; Mary Debenham, an English teacher; Greta Ohlsson, a Swedish missionary; Italian-American car salesman Antonio Foscarelli; and Cyrus Hardman, an American theatrical agent.

The morning after the train departs, Ratchett tries to secure Poirot's services as a bodyguard for $15,000 (equivalent to $286,679 in 2019), as he has received death threats. Poirot declines his offer but curiously questions the motives of Ratchett's enemies, angering Ratchett. That night, Bianchi gives Poirot his compartment as he transfers to another coach. The train is stopped by a snowdrift between Vincovci and Brod in Yugoslavia, and Poirot is awoken from sleep several times, once by a scream from Ratchett's cabin. The next morning, Ratchett is found stabbed to death, and Bianchi enlists Poirot to solve the case and Stavros Constantine, a Greek medical doctor who slept in the same coach as Bianchi and not a suspect. The doctor ascertains that Ratchett was stabbed 12 times in a distorted pattern and with seemingly varying accuracy and lethality.

Found at the crime scene is a fragment of a letter, revealing Ratchett was Lanfranco Cassetti, a gangster, who five years earlier, planned the kidnapping and murder of Daisy Armstrong, infant daughter of wealthy British Army Colonel Hamish Armstrong and his American wife, Sonia. Overcome with grief, the pregnant Mrs. Armstrong had given premature birth to a stillborn baby and died in the process. Colonel Armstrong, consumed by grief from the loss of his family, committed suicide. A French maidservant named Paulette, wrongly suspected of complicity in the kidnapping, had also committed suicide to avoid being arrested, only to be found innocent afterwards. Cassetti betrayed the man he hired to kidnap and kill Daisy and fled the country with the ransom money and was only revealed on the eve of his subordinate's execution. Further clues are discovered, including a pipe cleaner, a napkin, a broken watch, and a conductor's costume not in Michel's size. Poirot's timeline of passenger activities the night before indicates that Ratchett was murdered at about 1:15 a.m., the time of the smashed watch and the scream. As the coach was isolated through the night, the murderer must be one of the passengers or its French conductor, Pierre Michel. Mrs. Hubbard reports that she detected a man in her room, later finding the bloodied knife discarded in her compartment. Foscarelli dramatically hints the murder was most likely part of a Mafia feud.

Poirot interviews the passengers. He learns McQueen was the son of the Armstrong case's District Attorney and very fond of Mrs. Armstrong; Beddoes had been a British Army batman; Countess Andrenyi is of German descent, and her maiden name is Grünwald (German for "Greenwood", Mrs. Armstrong's maiden name); Greta Ohlsson has limited knowledge of English and has been to America; Pierre Michel's daughter died five years earlier of scarlet fever; Colonel Arbuthnot, who displays knowledge of Armstrong's military decorations, reveals his plans to marry Ms. Debenham (which Poirot, suspicious, overheard) once his divorce is finalised. When Poirot questions Princess Dragomiroff, he discovers she was a friend of Linda Arden, retired actress and Mrs. Armstrong's mother; the Princess was Sonia's godmother. He learns that the Armstrongs had a butler, a secretary, a cook, a chauffeur, and a nursemaid. Poirot flatters Hildegarde Schmidt by saying he knows a good cook. Foscarelli denies having been a chauffeur. Hardman reveals he is, in fact, a Pinkerton detective hired as a bodygaurd by Cassetti. When Poirot shows him the photo of Paulette, he is visibly moved.

Poirot gathers the suspects and describes two solutions to the murder. The first suggests Cassetti's murder was simply the result of a Mafia feud, with an undetected assailant escaping from the train through the snow. The second, more complex solution links all the suspects on the coach to the Armstrong case. In addition to self-incriminating revelations by Hardman, McQueen, Miss Schmidt, and the Princess, Poirot has deduced Countess Elena is actually Mrs Armstrong's sister. The Princess claimed the Armstrong's secretary's name as "Miss Freebody"; this is in fact Mary Debenham (freely associated from the well-known British department store (at that time known as 'Debenhams and Freebody'). Beddoes was the family butler; Miss Ohlsson was Daisy's nursemaid; Colonel Arbuthnot was a close army friend of Armstrong's; Foscarelli was the family's chauffeur; Pierre was Paulette's father; Hardman was a policeman in love with Paulette and Mrs. Hubbard is in fact Linda Arden, Mrs. Greenwood/Armstrong's mother. McQueen had drugged Cassetti, rendering him unconscious and allowing the conspirators to murder him jointly, the Andrenyis stabbing together, totaling 12 wounds - the typical number of an Anglo-Saxon jury - of differing damage. The scream and broken watch were provided by McQueen to persuade Poirot the murder had occurred earlier, when the other suspects were in the clear. In fact, the coach joined together to commit the murder once Poirot had returned to sleep, after two o'clock.

Poirot asks Bianchi to choose one solution before the train is freed from the snowdrift, but admits the Yugoslavian police will much prefer the simple one. Bianchi proposes the simple solution, and Poirot admits he will struggle with his conscience. The relieved passengers toast each other as the train is freed from the snowdrift and resumes its journey.

• "Murder on the Orient Express" (2010) episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot
• Murder on the Orient Express (2017 film), directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh

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