Stranger on a Train (1951)

Star Rating- 4

Length of Film- 101 minutes
Director- Alfred Hitchcock
Cast- Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker, Leo G. Carroll, Patricia Hitchcock, Kasey Rogers, Marion Lorne, Jonathan Hale, Howard St. John, John Brown, Norma Varden, & Robert Gist
Oscar Nomination- Robert Burks (photography) 






Strangers on a Train, what a great plot line created by novelist Patricia Highsmith!  Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) met tennis player and socialite Guy Haines on the train. He recognized Guy from the newspaper, and immediately started chatting with him. The space between Bruno and Guy was very close.

 It wasn't until I opened up my book "1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" did I find out that Bruno had some homosexual tendencies  In fact, Hitchcock and Robert Walker worked out an elaborate series of gestures and physical appearance to suggest the homosexuality and seductiveness of Bruno's character while bypassing censor objections.

Bruno brought up the fact that he hated his controlling dad, and knowing that Guy was married but wanted a relationship with Anne Morton, a senator's daughter. Bruno devised a perfect plan that both of the men murder the person that they want gone. Especially since there's no ties between the individuals, there's no way to track the connection between them. Bruno was dead serious...

Miriam Haines (Laura Elliott) refused to divorce Guy, and after their fight, she went to the fair with 2 men. I mean...come on, can we say whore?! That night, Bruno follows Mrs. Haines and she is adoring the attention of him. I mean, who wouldn't?! There are 3 pairs of men's eyes on her. 

I'm always impressed watch Hitchcock movies with his choice of camera angles. The murder of Miriam is simple strangling, but Hitchcock has Miriam's glasses mirror back the reflection of the murder. It reminds me of Spellbound. http://moviereviewbylindsey.blogspot.com/2012/11/spellbound-1945.html

Probably the most memorable moment of the film is the climax where Bruno goes after Guy because he has not held up his part of the deal, and murdered his father. A fellow blogspotter actually watched this movie for a film class, and had the most interesting analysis of this scene-tying in the sexuality of these two characters. Here's a direct quote from his site: 

"The mise-en-scene in the "Carousel scene," was carefully constructed and structured to depict the explosion of the sexual tension that had been gradually developing between Bruno and Guy throughout the movie. The motion of the carousel moving slowly in the beginning and gradually getting faster as it moves out of control shows how at first Bruno savours the thrill of Guy chasing him and toys with Guy before getting more serious with him. Then, in the beginning of the scene, Bruno can be seen still running away from Guy whilst the carousel starts getting out of control. As he is on the carousel, he seats on one of the horses. In a sexual context, this symbolizes that Bruno has the power in the relationship and is more dominant over Guy. In other words, Bruno could be considered to be the "top," in a homosexual sense. After that, Guy comes and punches him and the two break out into violence and start fighting and struggling with each other. The struggle can be seen as a struggle of power in the relationship or a kind of foreplay of going back and forth between Bruno and Guy." -http://insight-to-film101.blogspot.com/2011/07/et-16-strangers-on-train-carousel.html

The shot of the carousel operator crawling under the ride to shut it off when it spins out of control did not employ special effects other than speeding up the film slightly. The man actually crawled under the spinning carousel. Hitchcock swore he would never do anything like that again. Here’s what Hitchcock actually said about the scene, taken from an interview with film historian Peter Bogdanovich, which appears as a commentary on the DVD:

AH: The most dangerous thing I ever did in that picture, when the little man crawled underneath. That was actual.

PB: That was for real? How did you get the shot?


AH: I had a camera shooting underneath the merry-go-round – the real one – and my hands sweat now, when I think of it.

This movie sucked me in, it was so intense, that I was clenching to my blanket that was on the couch next to me. The carousel horses hooves were inches away from hitting Guy's face. There was a young boy that was riding alone, who got in the crossfire between the two men and almost flung off the carousel. Of course, the child was fine, but speeding tempo of the carousel, the punches being thrown between the two main characters, I got wrapped up in the movie and gasped out loud. 

I've thoroughly enjoyed researching about this movie AFTER I watched it. The carousel scene was done so well, I wanted to know more about how it was accomplished, that's when I found out that there was no special effects when the actor was crawling under the carousel. The world of internet is wonderful! It has helped flourish my curiosity of films. AND... I gave this a 4 rating. I rarely EVER give this out, but the movie was a thrill, it was a joy to watch. 

Out of the 18 Alfred Hitchcock movies that have made the "1,001 Movies You Must See Before You Die" book, I have viewed 10 of them, and I rated them all high. This movie, being one of them. If you liked this movie, I recommend:
* Rebecca (1940)
*Spellbound (1945)


Happy watching!!!