Sidney Lumet directed this film-version of Agatha Christie's book "Murder on the Calais Coach", and his penchant for letting his actors carry on at length is tempered quite a bit by the setting here (a snowbound train) and by the large collection of characters (posers, as it turns out, all pretending to be something they are not). Albert Finney gives an exhaustingly busy performance as detective Hercule Poirot, piecing together the murder of a disreputable lout on a train after the victim was found stabbed multiple times in the cabin right next to Poirot's. The foreboding preamble to much of the discontent (centering around the kidnapping and subsequent killing of a high society infant) is jagged and eerie, yet the sweeping cast of glamorous stars who collect on the screen soon after do not quite fit into this terse introduction--nor the subsequent flashbacks--which Lumet has so vividly set up (it's rather like "In Cold Blood" as staged by Hitchcock). Poirot's interrogations of the passengers are jaunty and lively, and each of the actors gets a quick opportunity to have a little fun, but Poirot's summation is laid out for us in a didactic fashion which leaves no room for surprise, suspense or intrigue. The movie certainly looks handsome, and Finney does have some fine moments, but the final tally seems a bit staid. Best of the supporting performances would be Rachel Roberts' glinty-eyed turn as a German maid and Wendy Hiller in heavy makeup as a Russian dowager. Anthony Perkins, as another of his Nervous Nellies (this time a male secretary with the surname McQueen!) is fun to watch, as is Ingrid Bergman in her Oscar-winning turn as an overemotional missionary. Martin Balsam is amusing if miscast as an Italian travel logistics director for the train-line, while Richard Widmark, John Gielgud, Michael York, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean Pierre Cassel, Vanessa Redgrave and Sean Connery are unable to bring much to the table. **1/2 from ****