150 Word Review: 'Strangers On A Train' (1951)
Criss-cross
The conversation starts lightly, almost flirtatiously, and suddenly turns into a sinister plot: you do my murder, and I do yours. Your wife, my father.
Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train is a nearly perfect little black-and-white thriller and a reminder of what made Hitchcock such a beloved filmmaker before his celebrated full-color blockbusters like Rear Window and North by Northwest. He was so clever and cold-blooded. And visually inventive: a killing is reflected in the dropped glasses of the victim. The dialogue pops like corn in hot oil thanks to a screenplay by Raymond Chandler and Czenzi Ormonde, based on Patricia Highsmith's novel.
The two titular strangers are mesmerizing: hapless Farley Granger as Guy and Robert Walker's Bruno, a stylish and playful sociopath. He's a proto-Tom Ripley, Highsmith's most famous character, another homicidal libertine. Hitchcock's daughter Pat plays the sister of Guy's angelic lover—an excellent nepo baby performance.
NEXT 150 WORD REVIEW: ‘California Split’ (1974)
GIFS THAT KEEP ON GIVING
Doubles Partners In Crime: In this creepy shot from Strangers on a Train, deadly dandy Bruno sits in the stands and stares at Guy as he competes in a professional tennis match.
Hitch played his audiences like a Stradivarius.
The first time I saw this movie, the ending was so shocking, I actually felt sorry for the guy who did commit the murder.
Every Hitchcock movie is excellent. I watch his old TV reruns.
But since I now know the ending after watching it two times, that’s it for me.
I’m a TCM fanatic but since the new owner bought it, it’s been going downhill.
Layoffs. Sometimes I go there to watch a movie and a blank screen is on and says, the owner of this film is not allowing this film to be available.