I am well aware that everyone wants to be like me, and as such, here is what I will be doing tomorrow (Sunday, the 10th). You should be doing it too.

Turner Classic Movies Day!

If you get TCM you should watch all of these movies.

9:30AM - Gaslight (solid flick with Ingrid Bergman, winning her her first Oscar)

11:30AM - Spellbound (Ingrid Bergman again, this time with Hitchcock)

1:30PM - The Maltese Falcon (arguable one of the best movies ever made)

3:15PM - Murder on the Orient Express (decent movie with more Ingrid, her third Oscar here)

5:30PM - Sleuth (Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine, directed by Joe Mankiewicz)

8:00PM - The Nightmare Before Christmas (everyone knows this one)

9:30PM - Lord of the Rings: Return of the King (best of the trilogy)

1:00AM - Silence of the Lambs (we all know how great this one is)

Oh man, what a great schedule. I wish I didn't need to eat, I'd watch all of those. I'll probably just opt for Spellbound and Sleuth, since I've seen all the rest.

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Murder on the Orient Express - IMDb

First, and for the record, Sidney Lumet is the shit.

A great 'whodunit,' set in the 1930s when a train is stuck in deep snow en route to... wherever. A man is murdered one night on the train and Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney), who had boarded at the last minute, being the detective he is, is enlisted to solved the crime.

I haven't read much Agatha Christie, but she has said this is the only film adaptation of her work that she was totally satisfied with, and there's good reason for that. Slow-paced but not lethargic, the story is unraveled in a way only Sidney Lumet could tell it.

It's been said everywhere else, so I guess I'll say it here. This is an amazing all-star cast. Albery Finney is perfect for this detective role. Anthony Perkins is always one of my favorites and he is a perfect fit for the timid assistant. Sean Connery, well, it's Sean f-ing Connery. Lauren Bacall, Wendy Hiller, Martin Balsam, John Gielgud, and of course my ever-favorite Ingrid Bergman. With so much talent there was no way this movie could go wrong.

There's more than a dozen suspects, a complex plot, and only the small area of a train to work with. For most people this would spell 'disaster,' but the film is executed perfectly and with a style that I rarely see anymore - though I wish I did.

Rating: 9/10

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