Strangers on a Train

It's been a little while since I last wrote a piece about a classic film here but, today I wanted to look back at the 1951 film Strangers on a Train. Though often overshadowed by some of Hitchcock's other works like Psycho, North by Northwest, Vertigo, Rear Window, The Birds, and Dial M for Murder, this film is up there with one of his best.

The set up is straight forward, simple, and is laid out brilliantly and succinctly early on with this line: "A couple of fellows meet accidentally, like you and me. No connection between them at all. Never saw each other before. Each of them has somebody he'd like to get rid of, but he can't murder the person he wants to get rid of. He'll get caught. So they swap murders." The issue here that drives the whole plot is that while the character Bruno (played Robert Walker) who delivers this line is ready to go ahead with the plan, the man he's been talking to Guy (played by Farley Granger) isn't interested. Bruno goes ahead anyway and commits a murder that Guy never asked for, and then he expects Guy to return the favor. 

 Anyone who is a regular reader of this blog knows I'm a huge Alfred Hitchcock fan and films like this one are the reason why. This movie is suspenseful, well paced, and has some great characters. Amongst all of the tension Hitchcock sprinkled in little bits of humor and there is a 'criss-cross' motif that runs throughout that I really enjoy. I highly recommend Strangers on a Train if you've never seen it.
It's one of my favorites, and I give it a 5 out of 5.