Orient Express | |
---|---|
Directed by | Paul Martin |
Written by | William M. Conselman Carl Hovey |
Based on | Stamboul Train by Graham Greene |
Produced by | Sol M. Wurtzel |
Starring | |
Cinematography | George Schneiderman |
Music by | Hugo Friedhofer Samuel Kaylin Arthur Lange |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
Release date |
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Running time | 73 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Orient Express is a 1934 American pre-Code drama film directed by Paul Martin and starring Heather Angel, Norman Foster and Ralph Morgan. It is based on the 1932 novel Stamboul Train by Graham Greene, the first of his works to be adapted for the screen. [1] It was produced and distributed by Fox Film. Fox were persuaded to hire Martin as director by Lilian Harvey, the actress who was in a relationship with him, and had signed with the studio after starring in several films directed by Martin in Germany. [2] It was his only Hollywood film and he returned to Germany where he again directed Harvey in several more hits. The film is part of a group set almost entirely on trains or ocean liners during the decade. [3]
A group of passengers travel from Ostend to Istanbul on the Orient Express.
Reviews were generally negative with the New York Herald Tribune noting "the story is a tangle of loose ends and rough edges which grows increasingly obscure as the tale unwinds" while the New York Times critic felt "the earlier sequences are pieced together in a crude way, and the latter ones are unbelievable". [4] This was in line with a wider poor reception of releases by Fox before the merger with Darryl F. Zanuck's Twentieth Century Pictures revived the company's production quality. [5]
The Informer is a 1935 American drama thriller film directed and produced by John Ford, adapted by Dudley Nichols from the 1925 novel of the same title by Irish novelist Liam O'Flaherty. Set in 1922, the plot concerns the underside of the Irish War of Independence and centers on a disgraced Republican man, played by Victor McLaglen, who anonymously informs on his former comrades and spirals into guilt as his treachery becomes known. Heather Angel, Preston Foster, Margot Grahame, Wallace Ford, Una O'Connor and J. M. Kerrigan co-star. The novel had previously been adapted for a British film of the same name in 1929.
Henry Graham Greene was an English writer and journalist regarded by many as one of the leading novelists of the 20th century.
Murder on the Orient Express is a work of detective fiction by English writer Agatha Christie featuring the Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the Collins Crime Club on 1 January 1934. In the United States, it was published on 28 February 1934, under the title of Murder in the Calais Coach, by Dodd, Mead and Company. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.
This is an overview of 1929 in film, including significant events, a list of films released and notable births and deaths.
Harvey is a 1944 play by the American playwright Mary Chase. She received the Pulitzer Prize for Drama for the work in 1945. It has been adapted for film and television several times, most notably in a 1950 film starring James Stewart and Josephine Hull.
Raphael Kuhner Wuppermann, known professionally as Ralph Morgan, was a Hollywood stage and film character actor, and union activist. He was a brother of actor Frank Morgan as well as the father of actress Claudia Morgan.
Bullets or Ballots is a 1936 American crime thriller film starring Edward G. Robinson, Joan Blondell, Barton MacLane, and Humphrey Bogart. Robinson plays a police detective who infiltrates a crime gang. This is the first of several films featuring both Robinson and Bogart.
One Rainy Afternoon is a 1936 American romantic comedy film directed by Rowland V. Lee, starring Francis Lederer and Ida Lupino, and featuring Hugh Herbert, Roland Young and Erik Rhodes. It also marked the last film appearance by actress Florence Lawrence, who died in 1938, who had an uncredited bit role in the film. It was written by Stephen Morehouse Avery, with additional dialogue by Maurice Hanline, from the screenplay for the 1935 French film Monsieur Sans-Gêne by Emeric Pressburger and René Pujol, which was based on the story "The Satyr" by Pressburger. The film was reissued in 1948 as Matinee Scandal.
Paul Martin was a Hungarian film director and screenwriter who worked for many years in the German film industry. He directed 60 films between 1932 and 1967. He was romantically involved with the film star Lilian Harvey and directed her in a number of films until he left her in 1938 for the actress Frauke Lauterbach. They made one final film Woman at the Wheel together during the filming of which their relationship remained cold.
Way of a Gaucho is a 1952 American Western drama film directed by Jacques Tourneur and starring Gene Tierney and Rory Calhoun. It was written by Philip Dunne and based on a novel by Herbert Childs.
Murder in Trinidad is a 1934 American pre-Code mystery film directed by Louis King and starring Nigel Bruce, Heather Angel, Victor Jory, and Murray Kinnell. It was produced and distributed by Fox Film. It is based on the 1933 novel Murder in Trinidad by John Vandercook, which provided the loose inspiration for the later films Mr. Moto in Danger Island (1939) and The Caribbean Mystery (1945).
A Holy Terror is a 1931 American pre-Code Western movie starring George O'Brien, Sally Eilers, Rita La Roy, and Humphrey Bogart. The film is an adaptation by Ralph Block, Alfred A. Cohn, and Myron C. Fagan of the novel Trailin'! by Max Brand. It was directed by Irving Cummings.
The Perfect Gentleman is a 1935 American comedy film directed by Tim Whelan and starring Frank Morgan, Cicely Courtneidge and Heather Angel. It was based on a play by Edward Childs Carpenter. The screenplay concerns the father of a British country vicar, who almost brings scandal on the family when he becomes entangled with an actress.
Let's Live Tonight is a 1935 American musical comedy film directed by Victor Schertzinger and starring Lilian Harvey, Tullio Carminati and Janet Beecher. The film was made as part of an unsuccessful attempt to establish Harvey, who was a top box office draw in Germany, as a major star in Hollywood. Harvey was under contract to Fox Film, but was loaned out to Columbia Pictures for the production. After making it, Harvey returned to Europe, first to Britain to appear in Invitation to the Waltz and then to Germany, where she starred in Black Roses, which relaunched her German career.
Passion is a 1925 German silent drama film directed by Richard Eichberg and starring Otto Gebühr, Lilian Harvey and Camilla von Hollay. Harvey was by this time a rising star, and followed it with her breakthrough film Love and Trumpets released the same year.
Top of the Town is a 1937 American musical comedy film directed by Ralph Murphy, Sam White and Walter Lang and starring Doris Nolan, George Murphy and Ella Logan. It was produced and distributed by Universal Pictures.
Always Goodbye is a 1931 American pre-Code drama film directed by Kenneth MacKenna and William Cameron Menzies and starring Elissa Landi, Lewis Stone and Paul Cavanagh. It was produced and distributed by Fox Film.
Roi Cooper Megrue was an American playwright, producer, and director active on Broadway from 1914 to 1921.
Cheating the Public is a 1918 American silent drama film directed by Richard Stanton and starring Enid Markey, Ralph Lewis and Bertram Grassby.