A ‘Murder On The Orient Express’ (1974, 2010, 2017) Again: The Existential Dilemma of Hercules Poirot.

“There is much evil in the world.”
― Agatha Christie, Murder on the Orient Express

It was after having seen the latest adaptation of ‘Murder on the Orient Express’(2017) directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh, who also plays Hercules Poirot in the film and having read a review by Paul Fry in The LA Review of Books:

‘‘Mr. Ratchett Is Dead Again’’ https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/mr-ratchett-is-dead-again/

that I felt compelled to put a few words down in response to his article, when I found myself, whilst reading it, asking ‘Had we been watching the same film?’’

Although Paul Fry does mention a previous film version of this story by Sidney Lumet (1974) it is only to provide subject matter for the more positive comparative comments he continually makes on the Branagh version. And nothing is mentioned about the British adaptation for ITV, starring David Suchet as Hercules Poirot in 2010. David Suchet has played Poirot in every single adaptation for ITV. The absence of any reference to a quite brilliant adaptation which has itself involved some changes to the original story, cannot be allowed to go unanswered.

At first sight the choice of subject matter for Sidney Lumet would seem very unusual given his previous films but of course the simple connecting thread to his choice of material to direct and the common thread in all 3 versions is, of course: justice. As we know there are 12 individuals who board The Orient Express each related in some way to the murderer via an infamous kidnapping and murder of a child. Christie had based her book upon the events surrounding the true-life abduction and murder of Charles Lindbergh III in 1932. In the film the 12 act as jury and executioners. The response by Poirot to the murder of Mr. Ratchett/ Cassetti is where the films main narrative divergence is so obvious and so much a product of director and the time when each was made.

Lumet for a director so concerned with the actual operation of justice within society (12 Angry Men, Serpico) seems oddly unconcerned with the vigilantism taking place aboard the train. The train works as a microcosm of society as we have both the…