An adaptation of a classic Agatha Christie mystery has found a new streaming home on Paramount+, Collider reports.
Released in 1974 and directed by Sidney Lumet, Murder on the Orient Express takes place in the 1930s on a trip from Istanbul to Paris that goes horribly wrong when the titular luxury train becomes stuck in a snow drift, and one of the passengers, lecherous businessman Samuel Ratchett, is found murdered in his coach. Luckily for the others, however, Belgian Detective Hercule Poirot happens to be on board to solve the case.
The whodunit has an all-star cast that includes Albert Finney as the famously mustachioed Poirot, Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Martin Balsam, Michael York, Jacqueline Bisset, John Gielgud, and Ingrid Bergman, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her performance.
A critical and box office success, the film grossed over $352 million worldwide and currently holds an 89% Certified Fresh Score. Christie would get to see Lumet’s take on her work upon its release and praised it as one of the two adaptations, along with 1957’s Witness for the Prosecution, directed by Billy Wilder and starring Charles Laughton, that she actually liked.
The success of Murder on the Orient Express would inspire several more Poirot films, with Peter Ustinov taking over the role from Finney, a TV series starring David Suchet, and, most recently, a remake and subsequent trilogy starring and directed by Kenneth Branagh.
The 1974 adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express will be available for streaming on Paramount+ starting September 1st.
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