Murder on the Orient Express

Played for style, Sidney Lumet's 1974 adaptation of Agatha Christie's classic whodunit is an entirely delightful experience that opens with a fictionalized montage about the kidnapping and murder of a famed aviator's daughter (inspired by the Lindbergh case) before flash-forwarding years ahead to a star-studded train ride aboard the exotic Orient Express, where a loathed financier (Richard Widmark)--widely believed to be the baby killer--is murdered. When the train is cut off by a snowslide, famed inspector Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) assumes the mantle of mystery-solver, investigating a cast that includes Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman (who won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress), John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Sean Connery, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins, Michael York, and Vanessa Redgrave, who all move through interior sets designed by Jack Stephens that brilliantly capture the feel of a bygone era of train travel. Debuting on DVD in an occasionally dark and soft (thanks to the filters used during filming) but otherwise solid widescreen transfer with a new Dolby Digital 5.1 mix and restored mono sound, Murder on the Orient Express also features a four-part 49-minute "making-of" documentary, featuring interviews with Lumet, Bisset, Connery, and York, among others, and a nine-minute featurette on Christie with her grandson Mathew Prichard. Highly recommended. (R. Pitman)