Murder on the Orient Express

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Murder on the Orient Express (Collins, London, 1934) also called Murder on the Calais Coach (Dodd Mead, New York, 1934) is a 1934 novel by Agatha Christie, made into a 1974 movie entitled Murder on the Orient Express.

The book was first published in Saturday Evening Post, from July 1 to September 30, 1933.

1 Plot
2 Film versions
3 See also
4 External links

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Detective Hercule Poirot is travelling on the Orient Express. On the journey, Poirot meets a very close friend Bouc (renamed Bianchi in the film version), who works for the Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits . The train is caught in heavy snows in the Balkans on the second night out from Istanbul, and American millionaire Samuel Edward Ratchett is found stabbed to death the next morning.He was stabbed 12 times, some lightly but at least 3 that could have accomplished death. Some marks were made by right hands and some by left hands. Since the train has been surrounded by fresh snow since before the apparent time of death, and the doors to the other cars were locked, it seems that the murderer must still be among the passengers in Ratchett's car. Poirot, Bouc, and Dr. Constantine, (a passenger on another car), work together to solve the case. They are aided by Pierre Michel, the middle-aged French conductor of the car. A key to the solution is Ratchett's revealed involvement in the Armstrong tragedy in America several years earlier, in which a baby was kidnapped and then murdered. (The fictitious Armstrong case was apparently inspired by the real-life kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh's baby son.)

The twelve suspects are:

Hector McQueen, a tall, young American man, the victim's secretary and translator.
Edward Henry Masterman, the victim's British valet. (Renamed Mr. Beddoes in the 1974 film version)
Mary Debenham, a tall, dark, young British woman, working as a governess in Baghdad.
Colonel Arbuthnott, a tall British army officer returning from India
Princess Natalia Dragomiroff, an elderly and very ugly Russian grande dame
Hildegarde Schmidt, a middle-aged German woman, the Princess's lady's maid
Count Rudolf Andrenyi, a tall, dark Hungarian diplomat with English manner and clothing, travelling to France.
Countess Elena Andrenyi,neé Gründwall, his pale young wife.
Greta Ohlsson, a middle-aged blonde Swedish missionary returning home for a vacation.
Mrs. Harriet Belinda Hubbard,former Gründwall, neé Arden a plump, elderly, very excitable American woman returning from a visit to her daughter, a teacher in Baghdad.
Gino Foscarelli, a portly and exuberant Italian businessman
Cyrus "Dick" Hardman, a large and gregarious Texan typewriter ribbon salesman.

This book was also noted for its surprise ending, where it is revealed that all of them did it - the twelve suspects are the twelve executioners, taking justice into their own hands for a crime that the law did not punish.

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Film versions

The book was made into a 1974 movie entitled Murder on the Orient Express starring Albert Finney as Poirot, Lauren Bacall as Mrs Hubbard, Ingrid Bergman as Greta, Jacqueline Bisset as Countess Andrenyi, Jean-Pierre Cassel as Pierre-Paul Michel, Sean Connery as Colonel Arbuthnot, John Gielgud as Beddoes, Wendy Hiller as Princess Dragomiroff, Rachel Roberts as Hildegarde Schmidt, Anthony Perkins as MacQueen, Richard Widmark as Ratchett, and Vanessa Redgrave as Mary Debenham.The movie was nominated for 5 Academy Awards, with Ingrid Bergman winning for "Best Supporting Actress". A made-for-television movie was also made in 2001 (not with David Suchet - rights issues still remain unsolved before an adaptation can be filmed). Many viewers, unfamiliar with the plot, thought that the murder mystery would take place against a dramatic backdrop of a world-famous train speeding through exotic landscapes and were disappointed to find that the train is stalled in snow for most of the movie.