Orient Express (1934 film)
1934 film by Paul Martin
Orient Express | |
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Spanish poster
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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 |
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Distributed by | Fox Film Corporation |
Release date
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Running time
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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]
Synopsis
The plot follows a group of passengers as they travel from Ostend to Istanbul on the Orient Express .
Cast
- Heather Angel as Coral Musker
- Norman Foster as Carlton Myatt
- Ralph Morgan as Dr. Richard Czinner
- Herbert Mundin as Herbert Thomas Peters
- Una O'Connor as Mrs. Peters
- Irene Ware as Janet Pardoe
- Dorothy Burgess as Mabel Warren
- Lisa Gora as Anna
- Roy D'Arcy as Josef Grunlich
- Perry Ivins as Major Petrovich
- Frederick Vogeding as Colonel Hartep
- Marc Loebell as Lieutenant Alexitch
Critical reception
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]
References
Bibliography
- Ascheid, Antje. Hitler's Heroines: Stardom & Womanhood In Nazi Cinema . Temple University Press, 2010.
- Dooley, Roger B. From Scarface to Scarlett: American Films in the 1930s . Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1981.
- Solomon, Aubrey. The Fox Film Corporation, 1915-1935: A History and Filmography . McFarland, 2011.
External links
The films of
Paul Martin
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