Strangers on a Train
Genre: crime
thriller (in black and white)
With: Farley
Granger (Guy Haines), Ruth Roman (Anne Morton), Robert Walker (Bruno Antony),
Leo G. Carroll (Senator Morton), Patricia Hitchcock (Barbara Morton), Kasey
Rogers (Miriam Joyce Haines), Marion Lorne (Mrs. Antony), Jonathan Hale (Mr.
Antony), Howard St. John (Police Capt. Turley)
Director: Alfred
Hitchcock
Screenplay:
Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde, Whitfield Cook and Ben Hecht (from the novel
by Patricia Highsmith)
Release: 1951
Studio:
Warner Bros. Pictures, First National
Rating: PG
MBiS score: 8.6/10
‟Criss-cross.”
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Story-line:
on the train from Washington to New York City, tennis player Guy Haines meets
Bruno, an avid fan but mostly an obnoxious fellow. He manages to shake off this
unwelcome admirer but is forced to share a table with him in the dinner car. It
is then, while speaking candidly about life, that Bruno says ‟I've got a theory
– that you should do everything before you die.” And, in this pesky man’s
parlance, ‟everything” can even mean murder.
Pluses: excellent performances by Farley Granger (as Guy
the straight man) and Robert Walker, fine support from a good cast (especially
Kasey Rogers and Patricia Hitchcock who steals the show with her zingers),
flawless direction by a master of the genre, a suspenseful and very logical
screenplay that sticks to business and creates a cold, macabre mood, several
perversely funny moments that temper the drama (the test of strength, Mrs.
Antony’s painting and the little cowboy), fine cinematography, adequate production
values and an effective musical score (Dimitri Tiomkin).
Minuses:
none I can think of… and I watched this movie intently.
Comments: the credible and efficient STRANGERS ON A TRAIN recalls the closed-in, ghoulish atmosphere of another Hitchcock thriller, ROPE, but surpasses it with its more compelling story – about evil thoughts, revenge, remorse and other human weaknesses – and its great villain, the insidious and inescapable Bruno. It plays like an itch that won’t go away and dares you to scratch back. Could anyone but Hitchcock make a movie as tense and entertaining as this one? Some… but not many.
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