Agatha Christie’s Murder on the Orient Express is one of her most popular stories, no doubt thanks to the always captivating detective work of legendary sleuth Hercule Poirot, and (no spoilers!) the case’s extraordinary solution. That, combined with the luxury setting and the typical Christie-esque ensemble cast of intriguing characters, has made the story equally popular with filmmakers and storytellers in the near-century since it was first published in 1934, and it has been adapted for film, television, and radio several times over the years. 

But which of the story’s major adaptations is the best? Well, we’ve taken the likes of box office gross, critics’ reviews, Rotten Tomatoes scores, and awards and nominations into account to rank the five biggest-name adaptations out there from worst to best.

5. Murder on the Orient Express (2001)

In 2001, CBS produced a feature-length, made-for-TV adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express, starring Alfred Molina as Hercule Poirot. Molina’s performance in particular was lauded by critics—along with that of an ensemble cast that included Meredith Baxter, David Hunt and Leslie Caron—but the adaptation as a whole fell somewhat flat. 

The biggest misstep singled out by critics and diehard Christie fans alike was the curious decision to update the story entirely and set it in the present day, replacing many of the tale’s iconic characters with a cast of 21st-century equivalents. In doing so, much of the complexity of the characters’ backstories was excised, leaving this version a little light on detail and garnering only a lukewarm reception. 

4. Murder on the Orient Express: An Audible Original Drama (2017) 

Audiobook and radio adaptations of classic novels aren’t for everyone, but Murder on the Orient Express fans are spoilt for choice here. In the early 1990s, the BBC produced an all-star series of more than two dozen Agatha Christie adaptations for BBC Radio 4, with British actor John Moffatt playing Poirot in every single one, including 1992’s Murder on the Orient Express. 

Legendary actor Sir David Suchet (more on him in a moment) has also recorded audiobook editions of a great number of Christie’s, including this one too—but perhaps pipping even him to the post here was a memorable 2017 recording commissioned by Audible, which starred Tony Award-winner Tom Conti as Poirot, alongside a stellar cast including fellow Oscar nominee Sophie Okonedo, Rula Lenska, Art Malik, Eddie Marsan and Jane Asher. The adaptation won the inaugural CAMEO Award for Best Book to Audio in 2018, and has remained just as popular with Christie fans and audiobook fans ever since.

3. Murder on the Orient Express (2017)

Kenneth Branagh’s glitzy, all-star adaptation of Murder on the Orient Express landed in cinemas in 2017 and quickly became the highest-grossing Christie adaptation of all time, taking over $350 million at the global box office. (Inevitably, several more Branagh-helmed adaptations of Poirot stories have followed.) 

Branagh both directed and starred as Poirot in this version of the story, somehow finding room to share the screen with a supporting cast of wall-to-wall A-listers including no less than three fellow Oscar winners. Here, Dame Judi Dench, Olivia Colman and Penélope Cruz are joined by Michelle Pfeiffer, Johnny Depp, Willem Defoe, Daisy Ridley, Josh Gad, Lucy Boynton, and British acting royalty Sir Derek Jacobi. Despite the cast’s pedigree, however, reviews of Branagh’s adaptation were largely mixed, earning it the middle place on this list.  

2. Agatha Christie’s Poirot: Murder on the Orient Express (2010)

Not as well known outside the UK as some of the other titles here (nor perhaps as well-known as it deserves to be), British television network ITV spent almost 25 years and 13 series adapting every single one of Agatha Christie’s Poirot stories for television, with the aforementioned Sir David Suchet taking on the title role in all 70 of them. 

The series earned multiple BAFTAs and remained a fan and ratings favourite throughout its entire run. The series became such a TV mainstay in the UK that its long-awaited adaptation of Christie classic Murder on the Orient Express was broadcast on Christmas Day evening in 2010. Alongside nine-time Olivier nominee Suchet, this adaptation included a host of other A-list British stars, including Dame Eileen Atkins, Hugh Bonneville, Toby Jones, Samuel West and David Morrissey, as well as Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain as Mary Debenham and Barbara Hershey as the mysterious widow Mrs. Hubbard. The formidable cast understandably didn’t disappoint, and nor did this adaptation as a whole, which received rave reviews. 

1. Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Having been disappointed (if not downright horrified) by several earlier big-screen adaptations of her novels, Agatha Christie was reportedly wary of signing on to another, and so reportedly only grudgingly agreed to allow producers John Brabourne and Richard Goodwin the chance to adapt Murder on the Orient Express in 1974 after a little arm-twisting from Brabourne’s father-in-law—who just so happened to be Lord Louis Mountbatton, the uncle of Queen Elizabeth II’s husband, Prince Philip. She needn’t have worried, though, as the movie went on to become not only arguably the best Orient Express adaptation, but one of the most lauded crime fiction adaptations in all movie history. 

Critics at the time were hugely impressed, not least with director Sidney Lumet’s expert handling of a truly iconic cast (which includes no less than six Oscar winners). Alongside Albert Finney as Poirot (who likewise earned an Oscar nod for his performance), this Orient Express starred Lauren Bacall, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Vanessa Redgrave, Martin Balsam, Anthony Perkins, Jacqueline Bisset, Richard Widmark, Michael York and, notably, Ingrid Bergman, who took home the Best Supporting Actress Oscar that year (her third Academy Award) for her brief yet scene-stealing performance as a timid Swedish missionary and former nursemaid to a murdered child. The film went on to earn a total of five Oscar nominations. 

Lumet supposedly had the far flashier role of Princess Dragomiroff in mind for Bergman (which would eventually go to fellow Oscar-winner Wendy Hiller), but Bergman opted for the smaller and subtler part of Greta Ohlsson. Her decision, which Lumet tried repeatedly to get her to go back on, nonetheless inspired him to film her one big scene—a breathtaking four-minute monologue—in a single take, with no cuts. “A lot of actresses would have hesitated over that,” he later explained. “She loved the idea and made the most of it. She ran the gamut of emotions. I’ve never seen anything like it.” It remains one of the shortest Oscar-winning performances of all time. 

Unsurprisingly, audiences loved this lavish and multifaceted adaptation, which became one of the highest-grossing films of the year. And even Christie herself was won over, later ranking Lumet’s Murder on the Orient Express alongside Billy Wilder’s Witness for the Prosecution as among her most favorite adaptations of her own work. There was, however, one flaw. “I wrote that [Poirot] had the finest mustache in England,” Christie later confessed, “but he didn’t in the film. I thought that a pity—why shouldn’t he?”

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