This is a nifty little murder mystery, set in a train rushing through an anonymous Balkan state. Even though it takes off really well - the train is speeding, a swing band is rehearsing, people embark on a train romance and so on, it gets very confusing once the action is taken from the train. The imaginary Balkan seems a bit fake and outdated, and some of the actors - like the female ingénue, Gusti Wolff, are a bit tiresome to watch, even though she spent 50 years as a leading actress at the Burgtheater in Berlin. Some are really nice, especially the ice-cold beauty Lisa Siebel, who probably was killed - as some other minor actors of this film - towards the end of the WW II, since after mere four pictures she completely disappeared from the screen and also from every database. What makes this film very interesting and a bit uncomfortable, is the fact that the opening night took place on March 8, 1945. This was one of the very last films to be released before the War ended in early May (four more were released in March and April). "Unter den Brücken" by Helmut Käutner was passed the censorship on March 23, but wasn't commercially released till after the war.
Review of Orient-Express
