Murder on the Orient Express ~ Lost in Adaptation

An investigation into what Kenneth Brannah did to Agatha Cristie's most famous novel.

More Dom:

[thomaspalazzolo]

Quick note: SAG is fine with indie studios who HAVE agreed to their terms, such as A24, and actively encourages people to work with them to show you CAN make successful films AND pay your crew. So any adaptations done by approved indie studios would be in the clear!

[ankoku]

I always felt bad for Poirot. Sure most of the murders are him being called in to solve them after the fact, but quite a lot of them are Poirot is just trying to take a nice vacation and have some time to himself and then someone has to go and get murdered and ruin the whole thing.

[belaorhideja]

fun fact: the train in the movie stops in Slavonia, which is portrayed as a place with huge mountains - in real life it is literally one of the BIGGEST PLAINs in this part of Europe.

[jesserusmiselle]

Fun fact about the David Suchet Poirot series: One of the main reasons the show ended was because they RAN OUT OF MATERIAL TO ADAPT

[Nerobyrne]

I think my favourite fact about Christie is that she wrote Miss Marple's character as an older woman because she found that there weren't enough retired lady detectives ^^

[robertgronewold]

A little fun fact about the final Poirot novel, where the character died. Though it was published in the 70's, Agatha Christie actually wrote the original version of the book during WW2, as sort of a safety measure for the character. Should she have died as a result of the war, the book would have been published posthumously, taking her character with her. Over the years, she basically tweaked it off and on to keep it as a backup.

[Longingtobesomeone]

Yes, if you read a lot of Poirot stories, you realize some are consecutive. Poirot goes on holiday to Egypt and on the journey is The Mystery of the Blue Train (maybe), Murder in Mesopotamia, Death on the Nile, Appointment With Death, Problem at Sea (ss) and then Murder on the Orient Express when Poirot goes back to England. There might be more, I didn't read the books in any order and only realised this later.

Also, fun fact: Poirot's eyes are green, but it's only mentioned in two books, briefly.

[r.h.]

My mom, a massive Agatha Christie fan who frequently cites her as the reason she loves mysteries so much, said the mustache alone was enough to make her not watch this movie because 'it looks like a hairy worm or ferret'. She loves the TV show, and says that is the definitive adaptation of Poirot.

[raymondkim]

Fun fact: Agatha Christie also has a self-insert character in the Poirot series!
Her name is Ariadne Oliver, played by Zoe Wanamaker in the popular TV run of Poirot from the 2000's, and she's a mystery authoress who's main character is a Finnish detective named Sven Hjerson.
In stories that Ariadne appears, she can often be found complaining about the life of authors and her growing irritation with her foreign character.
The best example is probably in Mrs. McGinty's Dead where she continuously argues with a playwright about Sven. They argue about his age (the playwright wants to make him young while Ariadne points out that he has gotten older as the stories progressed and that the fans would notice the age change), his diet (Ariadne made him a vegetarian for some reason and the playwright wants to change that), and other stuff I cannot recall off the top of my head.
She complains about fans and interviewers asking her about her writing process, as she just sits down and writes whatever is in her head. She's also shown dislike over having to go to conventions and other social gatherings to promote herself and her work and otherwise socialize with complete strangers who act like they know her through her work.
And there are a bunch of other scenes where it's pretty clear that Agatha Christie is just venting through this character. It's amazing.


Ariadne Oliver is by far one of my favorite characters Agatha Christie has ever written. She's so funny and plays off Poirot really well. She is a chaotic gift and I love her.

[oeurydice]

So about the ballet ninja count - the actor playing him was the prodigy of the Royal Ballet for some years before he quit over “not being allowed enough creative freedom”. He appeared in The Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary gala where his role was significantly expanded on - you definitely get the impression from the dvd extras that the creative team are trying to politely talk around the fact he is difficult to work with. He’s got a pretty bad reputation at this point. He’s made a lot of sexist and homophobic comments - his most recent controversy being his support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

So it seems almost like they made the Count a ballet dancer with aggression issues… because the actor is a ballet dancer with aggression issues???

[FTZPLTC]

I think my favourite thing about Agatha Christie is that she created Ariande Oliver, who comes off as a parody of herself, and who writes about a Finnish detective called Sven... and gets annoyed with him being so unlikable. That's pretty meta stuff for back then.

Also, IIRC, Christie frequently wrote Poirot out of stage adaptations of his stories completely, so... arguably the least faithful adaptations of her work are her own.

[Craxin]

Wonder what you would think of David Suchet's rendition of this story. I, for one, consider Suchet to be THE quintessential Poirot. The TV series is endlessly watchable. He brings enough bombast and self-satisfaction to be the character from the book, but enough charm so that you're never really angry about it. If you haven't seen the series, seek it out, WELL worth watching.

[JimmyC]

We don't mind if you don't talk about adaptations for a while. We all love it when you recommend books and talk about things your passionate about

[nemowindsor]

The egg thing actually appears in a couple different Poirot stories. It’s also in the Suchet adaptations of them. But the excrement is definitely taking things too far!

I think the OCD thing is a fair reading. Poirot is constantly fixing askew pictures, extolling the virtues of symmetry, insists on matching things like his breakfast eggs being the same size, colour and shape, adjusting items on shelves, and fixing other people’s clothes. He mentions how it causes him distress and how he can’t concentrate or continue speaking until he fixes something, Without going into spoilers, Curtain, his final case, has an important detail that hinges on these compunctions. It actually almost jeopardizes his entire scheme because he couldn’t help but make something symmetrical.

This is also often played for laughs on the books and the Suchet adaptations, and is an endearing part of the character people love. It’s also mentioned as a tragedy in books, Suchet, and Branagh versions, because it prevents him from, ending a normal life.

So because the compunction is debilitating, OCD is a fair reading. It’s not at Adrian Monk levels, but Monk is almost certainly inspired by Poirot.

[engineer-of-souls]

My personal grievance with the movie is that it's not a murder mystery the audience can follow along and solve. For example when Poirot reveals that a hankerchief with the initial H belongs to Natalia (Наталья in cyrillic) we have never heard that character's first name before, she has always been Princess Dragorimoff. Also the passenger interviews feel like they were cut for time and not for clarity as multiple times the conversations start with “And after that?” or “No I didn’t say I was a chauffeur” without any indication what prompted the responses. I've read the original script and these were not problems in that so I feel like someone, were it Branagh or some higher ups, really didn't like the slower pace of the story and forced it to be shorter.

[laurenk]

I've always been quite confused by Branagh's decisions to adapt Murder on the Orient Express and Death on the Nile. Christie was such a prolific writer, and there are plenty of her stories that either haven't been adapted, or not been adapted particularly well. Both of those books have fantastic adaptations from the 70s. I highly recommend watching them if you haven't already.

[OffKiraDeux]

The irory of the casting is that Poirot is an absolute peacock (and proud of it), but physically, he's ridiculous almost on purpose to make himself appear like an adorable, harmless old man who's surely past his prime, and characters often dismiss him and end up falling for his persona and they all become chatty Cathys to him, thus always revealing more than they may have wanted to because he's just that good at making suspects and criminals alike feel at ease.

Branagh looks so outrageous it's impossible to take him seriously. He can't help being younger and handsome, but that darn mustache was well within his purview, much like the bizarre decision to add action (or runtime?) to the plot. Poirot only walks around in the books to chat, like he's an Aaron Sorkin character, but truly, he prefers to lay about and just hang.

My opinion on the book though - it's pretty short to adapt into a full length story, actually, and the characters really are their stereotype rather than a real character. Also, and maybe this will sound weird, but this book really lacks in romance (which is a big deal in a lot of her Poirot books), and I like the way Christie wrote romance and just character relationships. On the topic of her being a badass woman herself, many of her books have a female protagonists that, in her own way, doesn't conform to the norms of society, and becomes Poirot's little investigation buddy (with varied involvement).

Can't wait for your video on Death on the Nile though, oh boy.

[AMERICANNERD]

Fun fact Dom: The kidnapping of Armstrong's daughter in the book was inspired by the real-life kidnapping and death of Charles Lindbergh Jr. in 1932. In fact, the filmmakers made that inspiration more noticeable by changing the location of the kidnapping from Long Island, NY to New Jersey, where the Lindbergh kidnapping took place.

[Barnowl]

As a female author and feminist, Agatha Christie and Jane Austen are my heroes. Glad they still get so much recognition.
Also, THANK YOU FOR POINTING OUT THE MUSTACHE! GOD, THAT BUGS ME EVERY TIME I SEE IT! What were they THINKING with that?!

[Tamlinearthly]

Hi, not a SAG guy here, but I am a WGA member; what we're hearing is that it actually helps the strikes to go to the movies and to promote films, since it illustrates the value of the labor that we do. If nobody's watching movies, it makes it easier for studios to lowball the unions by claiming demand isn't strong enough.