{"id":7314,"date":"2009-06-09T16:22:47","date_gmt":"2009-06-09T23:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=7314"},"modified":"2021-02-09T09:19:14","modified_gmt":"2021-02-09T16:19:14","slug":"strangers-on-a-train-1951","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=7314","title":{"rendered":"Strangers on a Train (1951)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Everyone has somebody that they want to put out of the way.&#8221;<\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td\n\n\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Strangers-on-a-Train-Poster.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Strangers-on-a-Train-Poster-195x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"195\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-56529\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Strangers-on-a-Train-Poster-195x300.png 195w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Strangers-on-a-Train-Poster-666x1024.png 666w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Strangers-on-a-Train-Poster-83x128.png 83w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Strangers-on-a-Train-Poster-176x270.png 176w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/Strangers-on-a-Train-Poster.png 723w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 195px) 100vw, 195px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nA disturbed sociopath (Robert Walker) confronts a politically-aspiring tennis star (Farley Granger) on a train and proposes a &#8220;criss-cross&#8221; murder swap, in which Walker will kill Granger&#8217;s duplicitous wife (Laura Elliott) and Granger will kill Walker&#8217;s controlling father (Jonathan Hale). Granger dismisses the plan as nonsense &#8212; but when his wife is murdered, Walker suddenly demands that Granger keep up his end of the bargain.\n<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Genres:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Blackmail<\/li>\n<li>Farley Granger Films<\/li>\n<li>Hitchcock Films<\/li>\n<li>Plot to Murder<\/li>\n<li>Robert Walker Films<\/li>\n<li>Ruth Roman Films<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: <\/strong><br \/>\nIn his <em>Alternate Oscars<\/em> book, Peary selects this &#8220;supreme thriller&#8221; by Hitchcock &#8212; based on an early novel by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.answers.com\/topic\/patricia-highsmith\">Patricia Highsmith<\/a> &#8212; as the best film of the year, and awards an Oscar to Robert Walker as best actor. In addition to telling a humdinger of a story, it&#8217;s visually one of Hitchcock&#8217;s most stunning films: from beginning to end, he strategically utilizes creative camera angles, framing, and editing to heighten suspense, and as a result, it&#8217;s full of countless memorable moments: Elliott&#8217;s murder as viewed through her glasses; the back-and-forth cutting between Guy&#8217;s hurried tennis match and Bruno&#8217;s desperate attempt to retrieve Guy&#8217;s lighter from a gutter; Bruno staring straight at Guy during an earlier tennis match as the eyes of the crowd around him move back and forth on the ball; wooden horses which &#8220;become smirking monsters hovering over the men&#8217;s heads&#8221; as Guy and Bruno duke it out on a carousel in the final scene. Equally impressive is Robert Burks&#8217; noir-ish cinematography, which heightens the drama of several key scenes (most notably Guy&#8217;s night-time visit to see Bruno&#8217;s father). <\/p>\n<p>With that said, the film has its flaws: as one avid poster on IMDb has pointed out, there are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0044079\/board\/thread\/122667304\">more than 20 instances<\/a> in which the characters in the film act irrationally and\/or foolishly, simply to move the plot forward (a policeman shoots into a crowd with children, for instance). But Hitchcock&#8217;s films aren&#8217;t designed to present the most &#8220;logical&#8221; progression of events; they&#8217;re strategically crafted for maximum dramatic and psychological effect.  Indeed, the story is presented as a sort of &#8220;living nightmare&#8221; for Guy, who &#8212; desperately hoping for some kind of resolution to the seemingly impossible situation with his sluttish, obstinate wife (delightfully played by Elliott, a.k.a. Kasey Rogers, in Coke-bottle glasses) &#8212; finds that her convenient &#8220;disappearance&#8221; merely resolves one dilemma while opening up a host of others. <\/p>\n<p>Most of Peary&#8217;s review in <em>GFTFF<\/em> centers on an analysis of Walker&#8217;s character (Bruno Anthony), who he refers to as a &#8220;picaresque hero&#8221; &#8212; someone who, &#8220;if it weren&#8217;t for a domineering father and daffy mother (Marion Lorne), might have been a great person.&#8221; He argues that &#8220;we like this fellow Walker plays; it&#8217;s as if we were under his skin, sweating his sweat. We care more about his hurt feelings than about the survival of Guy and Ann&#8217;s relationship.&#8221; But I can&#8217;t entirely agree. While it&#8217;s true that Walker does a remarkable job humanizing Bruno, I disagree that we actually &#8220;like&#8221; him; he&#8217;s far too vengeful and unhinged to really empathize with. And while it&#8217;s true that Granger (who Peary argues is miscast; I think he&#8217;s ideal for the part) fails to project even a fraction of Walker&#8217;s complexity, his character remains at the very least a decent fellow, someone we can&#8217;t help hoping will emerge from the situation unscathed. Meanwhile, watch for a host of other engaging performances &#8212; most notably Patricia Hitchcock (in what was arguably the best role of her brief acting career) as Granger&#8217;s fiancee&#8217;s younger sister, and Marion Lorne as Bruno&#8217;s incomparably eccentric mother. <\/p>\n<p><strong>Note:<\/strong> There are multiple other &#8220;layers&#8221; to the film as well; while Peary doesn&#8217;t touch upon it at all in his review, it&#8217;s impossible to ignore the homoerotic tensions between Walker (fairly openly &#8220;coded&#8221; as gay) and Granger (bisexual in real life). <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities and Moments: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Robert Walker as Bruno<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/strangers-train-walker.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/strangers-train-walker.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7316\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Laura Elliott as Miriam<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/strangers-train-elliott.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/strangers-train-elliott.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"469\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7317\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Patricia Hitchcock as Barbara Morton<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/strangers-train-pat-hitchcock.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/strangers-train-pat-hitchcock.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7320\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Robert Burks&#8217; stunning (Academy Award nominated) b&#038;w cinematography<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/strangers-train-glasses.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/strangers-train-glasses.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7321\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Masterful direction by Hitchcock<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/strangers-train-direction.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/strangers-train-direction.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-7322\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Marion Lorne in a tiny role as Mrs. Anthony (Bruno&#8217;s mother)<\/li>\n<li>Dimitri Tiomkin&#8217;s classically-heavy score<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See? <\/strong><br \/>\nDefinitely, as one of Hitchcock&#8217;s finest thrillers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Categories<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Genuine Classic<\/li>\n<li>Important Director<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p> (<span style=\"color:red;font-weight:bold;\">Listed in <a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-static\/1001Movies.htm\"><em>1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die<\/em><\/a><\/span>) <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.imdb.com\/title\/tt0044079\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.tcm.com\/tcmdb\/title\/16135\/strangers-on-a-train#articles-reviews\">TCM Articles<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.combustiblecelluloid.com\/classic\/strangerstrain.shtml\">Combustible Celluloid Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1357stra.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1951\/07\/04\/archives\/the-screen-in-review-strangers-on-a-train-another-hitchcock-venture.html\">NY Times Original Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.moviediva.com\/website\/MD_root\/reviewpages\/MDStrangersonaTrain.html\">Movie Diva Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.teako170.com\/dial37.html\">The Films of Hitchcock Review<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/uD5FvTdXkWo\">Tired Old Queen at the Movies Video Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Everyone has somebody that they want to put out of the way.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7314","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7314"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7314\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69313,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7314\/revisions\/69313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}