All back on the Orient Express!
... for a remake of the classic film with a cast even more stellar than the original — including Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Dame Judi Dench and Sir Kenneth Branagh
THE extra-special, special effect in a new all-star version of Murder On The Orient Express featuring Agatha Christie’s famous sleuth, Hercule Poirot, involved months of research. All that effort was to create a spectacular moustache for the eccentric Belgian detective.
So impressive was the result that Christie’s grandson, Mathew Prichard, described it as ‘the most magnificent moustache in England’.
Kenneth Branagh, who plays Poirot, says the aim was to achieve something that is ‘both striking visually from the front and from the side — as well as little hint of a military background because Poirot was a soldier in the Belgian army before becoming an inspector in the police force’. The intention was to give a sense of Poirot’s past involvement with ‘physical encounters with violence’. Murder On The Orient Express is based on Christie’s 1934 novel, and there are 13 suspects who could have plunged a dagger into the chest of shady American businessman Samuel Ratchett on the journey to Istanbul.
Branagh, who also directs the film, says Oscar-nominated hair and make-up designer Carol Hemming combed as many period references as she could find to devise the double moustache — or ‘face furniture’ as Branagh calls it. Wisely, she created several copies in case they were damaged or lost.
The film features a central prop, almost like a James Bond attache case, that opens up to reveal moustache brushes, tweezers, scissors, curling tongs and everything needed to wax a moustache.
Indeed, Christie had stipulated that it should be an ‘immense’ affair.
AlBERT FInnEy sported a more shipshape moustache in the 1974 original — and others who have played the role on screen have been David Suchet, Peter Ustinov and Alfred Molina.
The dynamic on set was said to be ‘electric’ because of the cast’s star power. They include Michelle Pfeiffer as glamorous American Mrs Caroline Hubbard; Judi Dench as sharp-tongued fellow passenger Princess natalia Dragomiroff; Johnny Depp as the murder victim; Penelope Cruz as Greta, a Spanish missionary with a ‘secret past’; Olivia Colman as Princess Dragomiroff’s maid; Derek Jacobi, the victim’s valet and Daisy Ridley, of recent Star Wars fame, as a governess.
Relative newcomer lucy Boynton plays Countess Helena Andrenyi, leslie Odom Jr (a star from the Broadway hit show Hamilton) is soldier Colonel John Arbuthnot and Tom Bateman has the role of Bouc, a director of the SimplonOrient-Express line.
In this £100million-plus spectacular, they follow in the footsteps of cinematic greats such as lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Jacqueline Bisset, Sean Connery and many more.
Branagh hopes the movie will reflect ‘the lavish care and attention that is a journey in the golden age of travel.
He added: ‘I wanted to give people a real taste of the train itself. The situation is full of dread. It’s not a glossy romp.’
Set designers built a railway sidings with two tracks at longcross Studios in Surrey so that the train — which becomes stranded by an avalanche — could crash (in a controlled way!) in real time.
Branagh said that filming was huge fun and that Judi Dench was ‘the naughtiest’ — teasing him about giving the other actors orders.
Among many witty scenes, there’s one in which, in the haughtiest way, she says: ‘I order the fish!’ Branagh remarks: ‘She might as well have been saying: “I’ll have the fish, bitch!”’