MovieChat Forums > Murder on the Orient Express (1974) Discussion > Wendy Hiller

Wendy Hiller

posted 8 years ago by jd-276
7 replies | jump to latest

I have to start by saying that I am not a particular fan of this movie, despite being brought up in a family addicted to Agatha Christie and Hercule Poirot. The genre while very accessible, is too dusty for me and was deliciously lampooned in "Sleuth" (1972). There are a few people in the cast who stand out for me: Anthony Perkins, Lauren Bacall and Ingrid Bergman (of whom much has already been said) but one who never seems to attract much comment is Wendy Hiller. I found her darkly hilarious. Her manner - that of a noblewoman of faded stature - is only exceeded by her cadaverous make up. In the early part of the move I thought she was going to be the dead body and in fact, looked even more like a corpse than the real one! Surely I'm not the only one to be tickled by this.

[–] liscarkat (19427) 5 years ago

My grandma used to say "tickled". She was born in 1891.

[–] greenbudgie (2358) 5 years ago

She was wonderfully half-dead as Princess Dragomiroff. I like her reply when Poirot asks her why she never smiles. She says "My doctor has advised against it." And she survived till the end of the journey.

[–] Bercilak (300) 5 years ago

I saw this movie today for the first time and I am firmly convinced that Wendy Hiller's performance was the model for Gary Oldman's Dracula. I don't know whether that's intended to be amusing, but I am convinced of it.

[–] PaladinNJ (21784) 5 years ago

LOL

[–] Bercilak (300) 5 years ago

You see it, don't you?

[–] roreyking (637) 4 years ago

No, we don’t.

[–] Otter (24464) 4 years ago

When I first saw this movie many years ago, I was under the impression that Wendy Hiller was a very old grande dame actress who'd actually been disabled by a stroke, and who was bravely carrying on acting in spite of her age and disability.

Apparently I'd mixed her up with some other grande dame actress who'd had a stroke and kept acting, because Hiller was actually 62 and in good health when she made the movie! I just looked it up a couple of weeks ago, the last time I saw the movie, and hoo boy was I surprised to find out the woman was barely out of middle age. She was only three years older than Ingrid Bergman, but to see her you'd think it was thirty.