Murder on the Orient Express Returns To the Big Screen

In anticipation of the new version of Murder on the Orient Express, Entertainment Weekly's Tina Jordan offers this guide to Agatha Christie's novels.

Murder on the Orient Express, which stars Johnny Depp, Judi Dench, Penelope Cruz, Michelle Pfeiffer, and many other stars, is directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also plays Hercule Poirot. A famous earlier version appeared in 1974; it starred Albert Finney as Poirot, with such luminaries as Lauren Bacall, Tony Perkins, Ingrid Bergman, and Jacqueline Bisset, and that oh-so-1930s score by Richard Rodney Bennett. This new film, due in theaters November 10, will have to go a long way to beat that version, which I watched over and over; that score still sings in my head.

There have also been versions for TV in 2001, 2010 (as part of the David Suchet Poirot series), and 2015 (a Japanese version).

His Final Bow

PBS will begin airing the last season's adaptations of Agatha Christie's Poirot novels on July 27. After a quarter of a century, we will say adieu to our old friends Poirot, Hastings, Miss Lemon, and Superintendent Japp. While PBS will not offer the final episode, "Curtain," in which Poirot solves the ultimate case of his career, you can see it as well as all the others at acorn.tv (subscription required). The episodes will be released on DVD later this year.