A book club I belong to, at Spirit of Christ Catholic Community, discuss a different book each month. On April 2024, I will lead the discussion and it will be on The Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. The book was first published in 1934 and I have read the story in the past and watched a movie about the story, but today the memory is blurry about what happens in the story.
I picked up the book from the Jefferson County Library in Arvada to reread the book and one of the workers asked, "Have you seen the movie?" I told him I had, and he said, "We have some DVD's because a few have been made about The Murder on the Orient Express." I checked out the DVD but when I got home I realized I have no way to watch it. Now a days, with streaming, there is no need for discs! When I would babysit with my grandchildren, I would let them watch videos on a mall 7" disc player. Luckily, I still have it and I put the DVD in and began watching the tiny screen. I also have a 19" inch t.v. with a slot on the side where I can slide a disc in, but it had not been used for over twenty years so I was not sure it would work.
The seven-inch player worked but the audio was terrible, and I could not understand any words spoken by the actors. I watched a bit on it, and it was frustrating trying to guess what was being said. I decided to try the old television and hooked it up. To my surprise it worked! The disc even had closed captioning so I could watch and read what was being said in the movie. I glad I did not get rid of that television set along with some older sets I had accumulated. In 2023 I got rid of all the extra t.v.'s but kept the one with the DVD slot. Don't even ask me why I had so many televisions in my house but when I purchased a new set, I just hung on to the old one.
I watched part of the movie and then stopped to fix dinner. After eating I could not get the DVD to work again. I must have fooled with it for over an hour by pushing buttons, but nothing worked. My next idea was to use my previous laptop that has a tray for a DVD, but I did not have the wires I needed. It was a disappointing evening. When I got ready to go to bed, I decided to give it one more try and lo and behold it worked! I do not know what the problem was, but it got straightened out.
The first movie made in 1974 had some great actors: Albert Finney, Lauren Bacall. Ingred Bergman, Sean Connery, Martin Balsam, Richard Widmark, Anthony Perkins and Jacqueline Bisset. In 2001 Alfred Molina, Meredith Baxter, Leslie Caron, and Peter Strauss were the actors. There were other actors but the ones I listed are the ones I recognized. The movie I am watching filmed in 2017 has Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz, Willem DeFoe, Kenneth Branagh, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Judi Dench.
When I return the DVD I want to watch the 1974 and 2001 version of the story. After reading and seeing the story I should be able to lead the discussion at our book club!
"All round us are people of all classes,
of all nationalities, of all ages. For three days
these people, these strangers to one another
are brought together. They sleep and eat under one roof,
they cannot get away from each other, and
at the end of three days they part, they go several ways,
never, perhaps, to see each other again."
Agatha Christie
February 28, 2024, I watched the 1974 DVD and liked it better than the 2017 version. I liked the actors better and the film followed the story line closer to the book. It begins with the kidnapping and murder of the child, Daisy Armstrong. It made making the story easier to understand. The 2001 will be the last version of the mystery if the library can find a copy of the DVD. The librarian seemed pretty sure that it would be found!
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