Oh and what happened to the woman in the scarlet kimono? She's in the trailer...maybe she was one of PBS' cuts...

PBS did, indeed, edit out the clue of the scarlet kimono from its broadcast.

Well, i have to disagree, I really enjoyed it, and thought Suchet was excellent.  Beautifully filmed too.

I really enjoyed seeing it on Sunday at PBS. I have always enjoyed David Suchet's portrayal of Poirot and in this one his character seems more dark and deep especially towards the end when he confronts the passengers about the rule of law. After Poirot tells the police the first solution and walks away I could not believe he was actually crying. I thought at first because he betrays his devotion to his Catholic faith by not turning in the killers. But also I think because he seems sympathic towards them because of what they have been through due to Casetti. Can't wait to get the DVD when it is out. It was excellently filmed. I like a lot of the actors especially Brian J. Smith, Eileen Atkins, Barbara Hershey. I like the 1974 version too but I do not like Albert Finney. In this one they have added alot of mood, atmosphere, and emotion. I was sorry that they did not have Hardman in it but I understand they can't always have every single character like in the book. Great version to watch and probably Suchet's best. I was not disappointed. 

I was listening to my audiobook version up until seeing Sunday night. I was highly disappointed. After hearing Suchet in both versions it's as though there are 2 different "versions". Poirot in the audiobook is so...I don't want to say upbeat... but definitely not dark. Poirot in the new TV version is so dark. The whole episode was dark. And what was with the stoning at the beginning? Or the trial? Where they necessary? Those two incidents put a heavy burden on Poirot that's not there in the book. There are even parts in the audiobook that make me chuckle (esp. Suchet's rendition of Mrs Hubbard)... far from the doom and gloom in the TV version.

I really did not like this film version. There were so many things that I found to be completely wrong which prevented me from enjoying the movie. Seven things I did not like were:

1. David Suchet is usually wonderful as Poirot, but in this movie he seemed to be constantly in a bad mood
2. Greta & Antonio's personalities were completely different
3. Too many clues/false leads were cut
4. Replacing Hardman with Dr. Constantine as a murderer was unnecessary and not a good change
5. The middle part of the story (the investigation) was way too short, leaving a viewer no chance to get to know the characters; by the end of the movie, I still could not place names with faces
6. Too much time was spent belaboring the beginning & the conclusion with new, unnecessary, and gruesome material
7. Mary's personality was all wrong and she comes off, perhaps intentionally, as a hypocrite

My entire list of complaints is much longer.

I refuse to watch the PBS version that aired. As I've mentioned in my recent reviews, PBS does a simply wonderful job of editing the episodes to make them feel rushed, muddled, and fragmented, not to mention butchering the sound. This is one of Agatha's greatest works (which I somehow solved halfway into the book) and I don't want to watch a poor version of the adaptation, skewing my opinion about the it until a complete version appears.

I'd say I enjoyed it, especially since I think most of people's complaints stem from what appears to be a bad editing job on PBS's part. If you didn't enjoy it, I'd give it a second chance when the DVD comes out.

This has to be one of the darkest Poirot-episodes so far, perhaps it will be overrun by Curtain sometime in the future, but so far... Murder on the Orient express is dark, dark, dark. Don´t misunderstand me – I for one love the darkness. The beginning of the episode, with the suicide (that is mentioned briefly in the beginning of the book) sets the tone and the stoning of the woman in the street deepens it. That part, in my opinion, is a very good way of describing when man takes justice into ones own hands in a very ugly way. It is a darker mirror to the ending. It makes the ending, the major thing with this story, somewhat harder to embrace without hesitation. After all, Poirot is right when he says that if we put ourselves above the law it will turn us into savages.

About some of the changes: the fact that dr Constantine is one of the twelve is a bit of a chock but it works well with how his part is being shown in the movie. The scene where he and mrs Hubbard back up each other when dr Constantine "discovers" the button in front of a skeptical Poirot is very good because it seems a bit obvious. That rather clumsy way of pointing out the false clues reappears for example when Hildegarde Smith tells to Poirot that she has seen the murderer. I think that adds a genuine sense to this adaptation.

The characters are wonderfully portrayed. Marie-Josée Croze gives so much dignity to Greta Ohlsson (although her swedish when she sings a lullaby in the end is a bit so so) and though Wendy Hiller (in the 1974-movie gave THE performance of princess Dragomiroff) Dame Eileen Atkins makes the character much more of a human being, cold yet very emotional. (CONTINUE NEXT)

I love the fact that her line from the book about how men like Ratchett where treated in her childhood is in the movie. It´s hard not to mention all the actors because I do think they all did a wonderful but I would like to comment on Toby Jones, Barbara Hershey and Susanne Lothar. Toby Jones made mr Ratchett a very unpleasant man in anxiety, not as much for what he have done as for what he fears will be done to him. Barbara Hershey was excellent but not "too much", wich I feared since the character mrs Hubbard is a play in the play. Susanne Lothar was wonderful, completely believable. The scene where she confesses to her cocking-skills is backed up by a scene earlier in the dining-car. That´s one thing I love about this adaptation, the clues are backed up by details. When Poirot searches for the uniform he says it has to be found in the luggage of the one person who could not have worn it - the witness who claimed to have seen the false conductor. I don´t seem to remember that Poirot explains that in the book, he simply says it will be found in Hildegarde Smiths luggage.

I loved this episode, in my opinion it´s one of the best Poirot-episodes to this date. It´s very dark and extremely emotional. The issue for Poirot - the question about justice - is stressed and I have to confess: the murder of Ratchett/Cassetti is not very pretty, it has a sense of cruelty to it. Yet I understand the arguments in favor of it and the issue of God, raised by Greta Ohlsson is very strong. Perhaps the question is every bit as hard as it seems to be for Poirot. I found myself crying (for the right reasons, that is) most of the time, especially in the part where the two solutions are presented and the rest of the film to the very strong ending. And indeed, it must be the first time we actually see Poirot cry? In earlier episodes holds his tears back, here he is about to burst… will Hercule Poirot ever be the same after this journey?

I did not like this version of "Orient."  Correct me if I'm wrong but I think Suchet did a version of "Orient" for the A&E network. As well as the video game.

This version made me very upset.  I did not like the way Poirot was portrayed in this one.  Also the time frame it which it was set was unclear.  Usually I can tell the period of a film by the clothes, but all the clothes in this film were muddled.  So, the only period piece was the train.

I hate to think what version number 2 of "Appointment With Death" is going to be like. 

As I have already said (in big words) I loved it. There is, however, one thing I wonder... I have it from differens sources on the internet that the scarlet kimono is indeed in the dvd-version of the movie - but I wonder: what else is? There have to be at least a few minutes cut out from the PBS-version (6 to 9 minutes I have read in different places) so what else might be there?

I hope there is more of the interviews because if there is anything to complain about in this version of MOTOE it is that some of the interviews felt a bit short, and some of the suspects were barely interviewed at all. It didn´t bother me that much, but if there is more of that - this diamond is polished even more.

The problem with the Finney adaptation was that it tried to give as much time as possible to each of its stars. This resulted in really static, overdrawn interviews. Often quite dull, really.

The length of this adaptation seems to me to be ideal, cutting down on on the excess and getting to the bare bones of the whole thing. But PBS for some bizarre reason insists on cutting out about ten minutes more just to put in an unnecessary introduction. So what was a tight-fitting adaptation is now chopped up, fragmented, and just generally tampered with. Why tamper with the original work? Would you cut off parts of a masterpiece painting just so that it would fit a (now more fashionable) circular frame?

But I'm glad to see that the Poirot series seems to have stopped airing one version of an adaptation and then ( WHY?) cutting scenes out of it and recutting other segments. It's a DVD, there's plenty of room for the other segments as well! It's annoying, and usually resulted in poor "let's pretend this never happened" cutting. The Mystery of the Blue Train was particularly guilty over this, as the scene where Van Aldin tries to bribe Derek was entirely cut out. And then uses of "God" prefixing "damn" were also edited out... Anyway, back to what I was saying, so far as I could tell, the DVDs of Mrs. McGinty's Dead and Cat Among the Pigeons do not do partake in any such tomfoolery. Hopefully they've learned a thing or two about how pointless that was.

I admit tat it is a couple of years at lest since I read Murder On The Orient Express but surely the books has all the suspects being interviewed so I don't understand why you say the Finney version gives them too much time, They were big nanes and so they had to be seen or else the film would have lost money, I thought it was fine, not as good as some Ustinov's but then the book isn't as good as some that Ustinov did IMHO, at least he was visually closer to Poirot than Ustinov, I haven't seen the others you mention so can't comment on those go_leafs apart from  The Mystery of The Blue Train which I read 20 Years ago and can't remember much of, the Adaptation didn't stick in my mind.

my dvd version has the red kimono in it.

What else is in your dvd-version that isn´t in the PBS-version, Wolfbridge? I´m very curious.

as i do not have seen the PBS Version i cannot tell :)

As for what i see, during the flashback of murder sence, Ratchett was only stabbed seven times and still very much conscious, yet we all know he was stabbed 12 times, so was the sence of other 5 stabs cut on PBS or is that we never told who gave the fatal one

Dull? Not at all. The 1974 version of Murder on the Orient Express is wonderfully entertaining from start to finish. There isn't a dull moment in the entire production.

As far as the latest version, I would give it a B- or C+. Whereas, I would give the television adaptations of Cards on the Table and the Third Girl A‘s. I enjoyed Suchet’s Murder on the Orient Express, but there wasn't enough background information leading up to the murder. And the interviews were way too short. Yes, brevity is good, but not to the point of obtuseness. This production needed to be about 1 hour and 40 minutes in length to really tell the story in an accurate and compelling manner and allow adequate character development. I must admit though, I was extremely happy I see David Suchet in Murder on the Orient Express, which is definitely one of Agatha’s best mysteries, along with And Then There Were None and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

Wow, interesting reactions being posted.  I taped it and finally got to finish watching it last night. Overall I quite enjoyed it, however it is not without it's flaws.

I thought David Suchet was outstanding in this.  Lets remember that Finney's version is considered by many as the greatest of all Agatha Christie movies.  Finney was comical, serious, and appeared a very excitable person.  Suchet obviously did not want to just copy Finney, and wanted to do something different.  It appears he and the producers chose a darker route to go.  I loved it. This version of 'Orient Express' really took the rule of law theme and in my opinion made it the primary theme of the movie.  This is a huge difference compared to Finney's version where it seems completely glossed over.  I felt this theme really added quality to the movie, making it go beyound a mear whodunnit, and into a murder mystery with an ethical dilemna.  The last 15 minutes featuring a very angry Poirot were great in my opinion.

Where I will agree with others is that the PBS version feels very rushed.  The investigation itself lacks in that viewers who do not know the end may feel like they have not been given enough clues to help them sort out the mystery.  Also, it is just too short.  Many characters felt very undeveloped.

I am fine with the story and cast changes.  Like I said previously, they tried to do something different from the Finney version, and yet tried to stay as true as possible to Agatha's original story.  I hope to get it on DVD and hope to watch a version that has a little more to it.