I prefer this title-card to the 2017 film's. It's much more fitting for a period drama.
This is the first film version of Agatha Christie's novel. Incidentally, there were only two adaptations of her works that she liked, and this was one of them.
Like the 2017 film, this one has an all-star cast. Like many films from years before I was born, I recognise many of the names but haven't seen any of their other films. There were only two who I had seen before:
Ingrid Bergman (Alicia in Notorious 1946) as Greta Ohlsson
Sean Connery (Henry Jones Sr. in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade) as Colonel Arbuthnot
The film starts with the kidnapping that sets the entire plot in motion. Unfortunately, the way it's filmed makes the characters' movements bizarrely puppet-like. People don't walk normally; they jump around. Most distracting.
Thank goodness the next scene is filmed more normally. There's no sign of Poirot solving a crime in Israel. (Was that an invention of the 2017 film?) We go straight to Poirot waiting for a ferry.
LOL at that poor man who tried to pronounce Arbuthnot's name 😄 The relationship between Arbuthnot and Miss Debenham is much more overt in this version. I wasn't expecting them to practically run at each other and start kissing.
The train station and the Orient Express itself are much less elaborate than in the 2017 film. Goats right next to the train? That's an accident waiting to happen!
Where are Health and Safety when you need them?
Mrs. Hubbard's complaints made me giggle 😄 Who wants ice in drinking water anyway?
For some reason Bouc is renamed Bianchi. I can't see why they made such an unnecessary change. And Poirot has another helper, Dr. Constantine. Apparently he was in the novel but removed from the 2017 film.
Like many films from the 70s (and 80s) the colour is somehow... "faded" isn't quite the right word. It's as if there simply are no bright colours in the film. And the picture is not quite grainy, but also not as clear as in more recent films. (Or older films, for that matter; I've never seen this in films from the 40s and 50s.) It must be a problem with the cameras used at the time; it also pops up in Sense and Sensibility (1971) and Pride and Prejudice (1980). Quite a disappointment when compared to the 2017 film's beautiful visuals.
LOL at Ratchett running off under cover of darkness 😆 Poirot's confusion makes it even funnier! There's as much comedy in this as in the 2017 version. I laughed even harder at Poirot's alarm when he learns Mrs. Hubbard is too near him.
I think I prefer this version of how they discover the murder. The 2017 film only showed the tops of everyone's heads. Here we get to see their reactions.
Wait, Cassetti himself didn't kill Daisy? His underling did? I don't remember that in the other film. Unfortunately I've no idea which is closer to the book.
This version emphasises the urgency of solving the crime before the rescuers dig the train out. That's conspicuously lacking from the 2017 film. Actually I was surprised to realise there was any urgency.
My German is even worse than I thought 😓 I barely understood anything Hildegarde read to the Princess.
I didn't expect Poirot to give his speech solving the crime while still on the train. It seems incredibly cramped and crowded when compared with how the 2017 film portrayed that scene. And it's a much longer speech, too. There were times when I wondered if Poirot would ever get around to revealing who the murderers were. Incidentally, the Princess's outfit in this scene is the strangest thing I've seen this year.
I didn't expect Poirot to give his speech solving the crime while still on the train. It seems incredibly cramped and crowded when compared with how the 2017 film portrayed that scene. And it's a much longer speech, too. There were times when I wondered if Poirot would ever get around to revealing who the murderers were. Incidentally, the Princess's outfit in this scene is the strangest thing I've seen this year.
Are those feathers part of her hat, part of her dress, or just a very odd scarf? (Whatever they are, they made me giggle during the least humourous scene in the film.)
The flashback goes into much more detail about how the passengers carried out the murder. I'm not sure what I think about them saying who they're avenging when they stab Ratchett/Cassetti. I can see why they do that, but it strikes me as just repeating what the viewer already knows.
The end is the part I like the least. The passengers don't seem at all upset by what they did, while in the 2017 film they're all clearly shaken and unsure they did the right thing. Poirot, after a brief line about wrestling with his conscience, disappears and we don't see his guilt over letting them go.
Overall I like both adaptations. I prefer the 2017 version's visuals and final scene, but I enjoyed this version too.
Is it available online?: Not as far as I know.
Rating: 7/10.
No comments:
Post a Comment