Trivia / Murder on the Orient Express

• All-Star Cast: Both film adaptations:
  • The 1974 film stars Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Anthony Perkins, Richard Widmark, and Michael York. Director Sidney Lumet made a conscious choice to have an All-Star Cast, setting a precedent that would be followed by Christie adaptations throughout the 1970s and '80s.
  • The 2017 film, directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh, features Olivia Colman, Penélope Cruz, Willem Dafoe, Judi Dench, Johnny Depp, Josh Gad, Derek Jacobi, Leslie Odom Jr., Michelle Pfeiffer, and Daisy Ridley.
• California Doubling: In all adaptations:
  • In the 1974 adaptation, the train scenes are filmed in France instead of Turkey and Yugoslavia and the interiors are filmed at Pinewood Studios, though some location shooting does take place in Istanbul.
  • In the 2001 adaptation, everything is filmed in the UK.
  • In the 2017 adaptation, Malta stands in for Istanbul and all exterior train scenes are filmed in Italy. The locomotive and carriages are also props built for the movie.
• Fake Nationality:
  • In the 2017 version, the English Olivia Colman as the German Hildegarde Schmidt, the Ukrainian Sergei Polunin as the Hungarian Count Andrenyi, and Kenneth Branagh as the Belgian Hercule Poirot - among others.
  • Also seen in the 1974 adaptation, with Hidegarde Schmidt, Count Andreyni, Foscarelli, Princess Dragomiroff, and Poirot played by British and American actors. Interestingly, the American Hardman also qualifies: his actor was born in Northern Ireland.
• Fake Russian: The very British Judi Dench as Princess Dragomiroff in the 2017 remake. Similarly, Wendy Hiller in the 1974 adaptation.
• Follow the Leader: The book was very influential, inspiring many "trapped on a transportation device with a murderer" stories.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: Inspired by two real-life events:
  • The 1932 kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh's son Charles Jr.
  • The 1929 incident of the Orient Express being snowed in for several days in Turkey.
  • A bonus: according to a letter reproduced in a biography, in December 1931 Dame Agatha herself was delayed on the Orient Express owing to a washout of the line ahead. She spent the journey in the company of a boisterous American woman who talked of her daughter, two Danish missionaries, a Hungarian diplomat and his wife, a "large, jocose Italian", and a director of the Wagon-Lits Company.
• Referenced by...:
  • The Junior Officers chapter "Kitsune Fox in Hat Trouble" mentions a book titled "Murmurs on the Pacific Express", a bowdlerised, more ocean-themed^note This is an Octonauts fanfiction version of this book's title.
  • The episode "Daylight Robbery on the Orient Express" has members of the Detectives Club being murdered while on a Fauxtastic Train Voyage hosted by The Goodies. There's a Take That! when the 1974 film is recreated by evil mimes for the French "Le Boring" competition because it's the most boring movie ever made.
  • In The Baker Street Irregulars series by Terrance Dicks, the Kid Detective (who's a fan of detective stories) has a "Eureka!" Moment that Everybody Did It in the Mystery of the Week after a friend gives him Murder on the Orient Express to read while he's laid up in hospital.