Strangers on a Train

Strangers on a Train (1951)
Starring: Farley Granger and Robert Walker
Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock
Rating: ***1/2

Strangers on a Train is one of those movies that I've really wanted to see for a long time and thanks to the power of Netflix, I was able to watch it tonight.

I don't neccessarily consider myself the biggest Hitchcock fan... I mean, I really didn't enjoy Pscyho that much (blasphemy!) and I haven't even been able to get through all of Vertigo yet (The horror!) but I was expecting good things from this film and for the most part I wasn't disappointed.

Everyone pretty much knows how this movie starts out, two strangers, one is a tennis star by the name of Guy Haines (Granger) and the other is a man named Bruno Antony (Walker) who seems slightly deranged from the get go. Bruno begins chatting up Guy while they are in the same passenger car, dropping hints that he's been paying attention to the gossip pages and knows that Guy is in the process of a messy divorce with his wife and has been seen around town with another woman.

Guy tries to ignore the conversation, but Bruno insists... bringing up the idea that Guy probably wants his wife taken care of. In fact, Bruno himself says his father is someone who he doesn't care for much either and the perfect plan would be for them to swap murders... he does Guys and Guy does his. Criss Cross.

While this all seems laughable to Guy... Bruno doesn't seem to be kidding but once off the train, he doesn't think much of it, that is until he is confronted by Bruno in the middle of the night saying that he did his part, now it is Guy's turn to do his... and don't even think about turning him in to the police because Guy will be labeled an accessory. After all, who are they going to believe? The man who never met Guy's wife or the husband with a perfect motive to do away with his wife?

In typical Hitchock style, this is a film about mistaken identity, running from the law, and trying to entrap the real killer so the innocent man can go free. Personally, this really isn't one of my favorite Hitchock films... I was more of a fan of his other train-based venture: The Lady Vanishes and if I had to place it on a list of Hitchcock films I've seen so far, it would be lagging behind North by Northwest, The Birds, The Lady Vanishes, and Rear Window... that being said, this is definately one of the better films in cinema history.

Hitchock is famous for breaking the rules and setting the standard for these types of films... but I can't help but think Strangers on a Train is a rehashing of some of his earlier, British films, but at the same time, a test run for later films like North by Northwest which, IMO, kept things interesting throughout the entire film where as Strangers on a Train really seemed to drag in the middle.

On a 5-star scale, I'd give this one a 3-1/2... like I said, it's definately above average as far as cinema standards go and a neccessity to see (for fans of Hitchock or cinema in general), but with a man like Alfred Hitchcock you can only judge his films compared to the standard he has set in his comparable works and my opinion is that this one just doesn't make the grade.

That being said, I think I'll rewatch this one and see if my opinion changes.