Strangers on a Train (1951)

Strangers on a Train (1951)

After a fairly brief hiatus from writing anything on this site (~397 Days, or How I Stopped Worrying And Left For Costa Rica) it’s a welcome experience to start again with Hitchcock Chasers and films by The Master of Suspense himself.  Not only is this exploration important for film history, technique, and understanding Hitchcock’s personality on celluloid intra and inter-picture, but also for the fact that the majority of these films are extremely worthwhile and entertaining on there own.  With this post’s topic of discussion sitting at a pretty 63 years of age, are you really confident you can watch many other movies in the Year of Our Lord 2013 that are even nearly as good?  Within the movie’s first opening minute, you know that Strangers On A Train is certainly going to be exciting, which with the exception of the fantastic The Lego Movie, I’m hard pressed to recall a modern film delivering such a feeling.

You’ll know enough about the premise going in, especially if you’ve seen Throw Momma From The Train: two men meet on a train and through a seemingly innocuous discussion about murdering undesirables close to each person, one of them proceeds to take it seriously.  What you may not know is that instead of a thriller, more of a dark comedy follows as displayed with the almost jovial music covering the film’s opening.  Our main protagonists Guy (straight laced tennis player) and Bruno (excited and slightly flamboyant socialite) appear to lead perfectly happy lives in the upper class, but the latter is clearly starting to teeter on boredom from his comforts.  In this way they are also opposites with Bruno acting as devil’s advocate to Guy’s repressed desires.  There is a creeper in most of Hitch’s films and Bruno certainly fits the bill here.

Without giving it all away, we’re taken on a journey with Guy (appropriate as he’s like an average guy… but probably not intended) as he descends into an unavoidable and inescapable nightmare with Bruno the stalker always on his trail.   Though Guy sees Bruno as a complete psychotic (the original motivator of the murder switch) Bruno is without a doubt kindly following up on a promise he believes they both made.  He also keeps his dark actions fairly lighthearted all things considered, though as time goes the character appears much more disturbed/borderline insane as displayed through sequences revealing his inner psychology.  After all, would anyone sane start to strangle a U.S. Senator’s wife at a formal dinner function?

The supporting characters add relevant pathos, as they are essentially the object of affection from multiple perspectives and opinions such as Guy’s late wife (late = spoiler) and Bruno’s parents.  Just as well, Guy’s girlfriend and her sister (played with precocious gusto by Hitch’s daughter) help showcase some sanity in the movie as they try to assist the much cared for tennis player through his plight and understand what is happening. 

This will vary from other films by Hitch: no clear Macguffin (though a cigarette lighter could be argued as such) and almost a constant duel between two characters throughout.  It’s also difficult to truly appreciate this film’s originality if you’ve already seen the aforementioned Throw Momma From The Train (try and not imagine Danny DeVito saying “Criss-cross”).  However, the fun is truly present throughout, especially with Bruno (played wonderfully by Robert Walker in his prematurely final screen performance) being difficult to completely hate even with his misguided and slightly evil point of view.   Also, we still get the director’s penchant for beautiful cinematography and experimentation (one needs look no further than glasses in the grass).  In this film (if in no other) Hitchock is actually omnipresent, like a little boy on the merry-go-round having a great time as our characters proceed through this ordeal. 

Clearly, he is having much more fun than anyone on the merry-go-round at the end of the movie.