Murder on the Orient Express: Book vs. Movie

Sidney Lumet's 1974 film Murder on the Orient Express adapts Agatha Christie's book. Albert Finney plays Poirot alongside an ensemble including Lauren Bacall and Ingrid Bergman.

PollBook or movie, which was better?
Do you recommend the book?
Do you recommend the movie?
Your own listsKeep this adaptation on a list you make.
About the book and the movie
Book
Murder on the Orient Express cover
Author
Agatha Christie
Year
1934
Pages
288Buy book
Audiobook length
6 hr 37 minGet audiobook
Narrator
Dan Stevens
Series
Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot boards the Orient Express expecting a journey home, not a case. When an American passenger is stabbed in his compartment and snow leaves the train stranded, Poirot must question the travelers before help arrives. Their accounts offer an abundance of clues, but the evidence points in so many directions that finding a consistent explanation becomes the real puzzle.

Movie
Murder on the Orient Express poster
Director
Sidney Lumet
Writer
Anthony Shaffer, Paul Dehn
Year
1974
Runtime
2 hr 8 minWatch on Amazon
Cast
Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman
Genre
crime, drama, mystery
IMDb
View on IMDb

A threatening encounter with an American businessman gives Hercule Poirot little reason to expect a peaceful train journey. By morning the man is dead, and snow has trapped the Orient Express far from the police. With help from a railway official and a doctor, Poirot reconstructs the night's movements from interviews in which every passenger seems to have something to conceal.

Other adaptations of this book

  1. Murder on the Orient ExpressMovie · 2017
    Details
    Murder on the Orient Express poster
    Director
    Kenneth Branagh
    Writer
    Michael Green
    Year
    2017
    Runtime
    1 hr 54 min
    Cast
    Kenneth Branagh, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench

    Hercule Poirot hopes to rest aboard the Orient Express after completing a case, but a passenger's murder interrupts the journey. With the train derailed by an avalanche, he questions a carriage full of strangers whose stories conceal private wounds and competing loyalties. Finding the killer requires him to confront a crime that challenges his confidence in the line between right and wrong.

Add a comment with your vote, optional
What people said

No comments yet. Vote, then say why.