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Old 03-02-2018, 05:35 PM
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Sculpt Sculpt is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: USA, IL
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Originally Posted by FryeDwight View Post
SOYLENT GREEN (1973). Time and Pop culture references have somewhat diluted this, but still not a bad watch. The "Going Home" scene with Heston and Edward G Robinson is very well acted and quite moving. Read MAKE ROOM! MAKE ROOM! by Harry Harrison. ***
Never seen it. Once I knew the ending, it's been hard to bother seeing it. I saw the demise scene of Robinson on youtube, very well done. I like film noir and sci-fi, so I'd probably like it. But that whole overcrowded NY thing is really a drag to see.


Murder on the Orient Express (1974)
7/10

Not really a horror film, but has a murder.

Various folks are traveling on the Orient Express, traveling through Eastern Europe when there is a murder on the train! The train is delayed on the tracks by a snow slide, and a famous detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) is tasked to solve the murder before the unpleasantness of foreign police arrive.

I was expecting a lot of over-the-top goofy performances by the all-star cast of Lauren Bacall, Ingrid Bergman, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Vanessa Redgrave, Michael York, Jacqueline Bisset, Anthony Perkins and Wendy Hiller, but that was not the case. There is a slight tongue-in-cheek nature to the film, but the characters play it straight, though they might be slightly caricature.

First there's a visual montage of a famous kidnapping murder, modeled after the famous Lindbergh Kidnapping. Then there's a slow introduction of the travelers, the murder, and then most of the film involves the interviewing of everyone on the train. Hints of how it relates to the murder slowing evolves. This processes isn't entirely enjoyable nor riveting, though Lauren Bacall (Harriet Belinda Hubbard) provides some snarky lines.

One notable scene is a one-take one-shot interview of 59-year-old Ingrid Bergman, playing the missionary Greta Ohlsson, the character she insisted on playing. It is a captivating scene, within the context of the film, where we do notice it's length, a scene that won Bergman a Best Supporting Actress Oscar award.

All-in-all, I don't know that it's satisfying as a mystery, as the exposition is a bit rigid, and almost impossible to anticipate (the exposition, that is). There are no character interactions that precipitates the murder. And so the unfolding of the cards are rather matter of fact and historical, leaving the emotion more a matter of record.
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Last edited by Sculpt; 03-05-2018 at 08:31 PM.
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