Hitchcock left behind two versions of Strangers on a Train. Later in life, while still praising Robert Walker's performance as Bruno, she criticized the casting of Ruth Roman as Anne, Hitchcock's decision to turn Guy from an architect into a tennis player, and the fact that Guy does not murder Bruno's father as he does in the novel. they're now both behind bars as he says, "You've got me acting like I'm a director of photography [41] He was also photographed adding the letter L to Strangers on the official studio poster for the film,[26] thus changing the word to Stranglers. [57] All the major elements of the scene the two men struggling, the accidentally shot attendant, the out-of-control merry-go-round, the crawling under the moving merry-go-round to disable it are present in Crispin's account,[58] though he received no screen credit for it. It's not just a ripping-good thriller but a film student's delight and a perversely enjoyable battle of wits between tennis pro Guy (Farley Granger) and his mysterious, sycophantic admirer, Bruno (Robert Walker), who proposes a "criss-cross" scheme of traded murders. I love Hitchcock but hadn't ever watched this one until the other day, and I was pleasantly surprised in some ways but mostly very disappointed. Another Guy humors Bruno by pretending to find his idea amusing, but is so eager to get away from Bruno that he leaves behind his engraved cigarette lighter. Behind the Story contains these featurettes: Strangers on a Train: A Hitchcock Classic (SD; 36:44) is a nice overview with Peter Bogdanovich and several others discussing the importance of the film in the Hitchcock canon; Strangers on a Train: The Victim's P.O.V. 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It was Hitchcock, not Tiomkin, whose idea brought the four evocative numbers[8] "The Band Played On", "Carolina in the Morning", "Oh, You Beautiful Doll", and "Baby Face" to the soundtrack: In one of Hitchcock's most explicit operatic gestures, the characters at the fateful carnival sing the score, giving it full dimension as part of the drama. Guy (original music by) Cinematography by Robert Burks . The merry-go-round scene is not in the book, but is taken from the climax of Edmund Crispin's 1946 novel The Moving Toyshop. That evening, Bruno follows Miriam to an amusement park and strangles her while Guy is on the train to Washington. audiences would sense qualities in the actors that didn't need to be spelled He knows that Guy is about to divorce his wife, and that he is also in love with Anne, the daughter of a US Senator. The aestheticizing of the horror somehow enables the audience to contemplate more fully its reality. Mysterious Bruno (Robert Walker) hates his father. [17] Although Ormonde was without a formal screen credit, she did have two things in her favor: her recently published collection of short stories, Laughter From Downstairs, was attracting good notices from critics, and she was "a fair-haired beauty with long shimmering hair. By month's end, they were back in California. "[62] Roger Ebert has called Strangers on a Train a "first-rate thriller" that he considers one of Hitchcock's five best films. "[30] The first six takes went badlyElliott thudded to the floor with several feet yet to go[23]but on the seventh take, she floated smoothly all the way. Then a police car pulls up irresistible -- especially since Guy has a motive to murder his wife, was seen Hitchcock said that correct casting saved him "a reel of storytelling time", since audiences would sense qualities in the actors that did not have to be spelled out. The psychopath suggests that because they each want to "get rid" of someone, they should "exchange" murders, and that way neither will be caught. "seductiveness" in the American print. As Bruno dies, his fingers unclench to reveal Guy's lighter in his hand. to agree to the plan, and Guy trying to jolly him along and get rid of him. [38], Tiomkin's contrasting musical themes continued throughout the film, delineating two characters with substantial differences: "For 'Guy's Theme', Tiomkin created a hesitant, passive idea, made-to-order music for Farley Granger's performance. Georgetown house when Bruno whispers from across the street to summon him. Highly recommended. remains one of Hitchcock's crowning achievements and a suspenseful classic that never loses its capacity to thrill and delight. Strangers on a Train Preview Version (SD; 1:42:57). [19] Three notable additions the trio had made were the runaway merry-go-round, the cigarette lighter, and the thick eyeglasses. Next, Hitchcock tried to hire Ben Hecht, but learned he was unavailable. This triggers a flashback; Bruno compulsively squeezes the woman's neck, and other guests intervene to stop him from strangling her to death. (The same technique was used "[60] Leslie Halliwell felt that Hitchcock was "at his best" and that the film "makes superior suspense entertainment," but called the story "unsatisfactory. A film of noir moments galore. This fear is at the heart of many of Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Hitchcock wanted the phone in the foreground to dominate the shot, emphasizing the importance of the call, but the limited depth-of-field of contemporary motion picture lenses made it difficult to get both phone and women in focus. Together the three women, working under the boss's guidance and late into most nights,[17] finished enough of the script in time to send the company East. A recently found longer prerelease British print (Side B) offers "a startling amplification of Bruno's flamboyance, his homoerotic attraction to Guy and his psychotic personality," according to Bill Desowitz of Film Comment. No matter how well a football team plays, the match has a fixed temporality. Highsmith was a chameleon, a renegade, an experimenter, a loner, and a fantastically brave innovator. Warner Bros financial information in The William Shaefer Ledger. face, and Guy stands to his right, outside the gate. [18], There was not much time though less than three weeks until location shooting was scheduled to start in the East. While he had previous Hitchcock experience on Shadow of a Doubt (1943), and would go on to score two more consecutive Hitchcock films, the director and composer "simply never developed much of a kinship"[8] and "the Hitchcock films are not Tiomkin's best". With his new writer, he wanted to start from square one: At their first conference, Hitchcock made a show of pinching his nose, then holding up Chandler's draft with his thumb and forefinger and dropping it into a wastebasket. And the chocolate ice cream is probably what he thought about first. the DVD, 12 minutes and 16 seconds into the running time. My mum had said this was a great film, and she was right. So Hitchcock had an oversized phone constructed and placed in the foreground. Screenshots. [63], David Keyes, writing at Cinemaphile in 2002, saw the film as a seminal entry in its genre: "Aside from its very evident approach as a crowd-pleasing popcorn flick, the movie is one of the original shells for identity-inspired mystery thrillers, in which natural human behavior is the driving force behind the true macabre rather than supernatural elements. [19] Hitchcock preferred the writing credit of Whitfield Cook and Czenzi Ormonde, but Warner Bros. wanted the cachet of the Chandler name and insisted it stay on. While Hitchcock strips out much of the textured sociopathy of Bruno's machinations, Hitchcocks preserves the ripely perverse relationship and its intimacy and murderous expression. his identity and lifestyle. compartment, Bruno reveals that he wants his father dead, and suggests a In Alfred Hitchcock's suspense classic, "Strangers On a Train", a naive and weary tennis pro unwisely allows himself to be enticed into the confidence of a seemingly silly stranger. the Master of Suspense often asked. BARDO, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, 23rd Annual Black Reel Awards to Celebrate its 2023 Honorees on February 6th, 15 Films We Cant Wait to See at Sundance 2023, 14th Annual African American Film Critics Association Awards Recipients Revealed, Child of Graceland: Lisa Marie Presley (1968-2023). Actually, it's doubly fascinating. "[4] Blurring the lines puts both Guy and Bruno on a good-evil continuum, and the infinite shades of gray in between, became Hitchcock's canvas for telling the story and painting his characters. "[44], The film includes a number of puns and visual metaphors that demonstrate a running motif of crisscross, double-crossing, and crossing one's double. "[5], The two characters, Guy and Bruno, can be viewed as doppelgngers. conversational web instead of flatly rejecting him. Summaries A psychopath forces a tennis star to comply with his theory that two strangers can get away with murder. The copy is terrific and worth every penny. This is one of Alfred Hitchcock's most complex amd multi-layered films. Buy it! (Leftover closeups from this film were Bruno knows about Guy well from reading gossip papers. Add on for my new cinema room setup. Strangers on a Train movie clips: http://j.mp/1yz9FQeBUY THE MOVIE: http://j.mp/UinqkeDon't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1u2y6prCLIP DESCRIPTION:Guy (Farley Granger) notices a sinister face watching him from the crowd.FILM DESCRIPTION:In one of Alfred Hitchcock's suspense classics, tennis pro Guy Haines (Farley Granger) chances to meet wealthy wastrel Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) on a train. --Jeff Shannon, Better still, the two-sided DVD edition of this enduring classic includes both the original version of the film and also the longer prerelease British print, which offers a more overt depiction of Bruno's flamboyant and dangerous personality, and his homoerotic attraction to Guy by way of his deviously indecent proposal. Robert Walker performance benefits from a subtle tense urgency that perhaps Bruno is standing behind an iron gate, the bars casting symbolic shadows on his been haunting it all of these years. Guy wants to move into a career in politics and has been dating a senator's daughter (Ann Morton) while awaiting a divorce from his wife. On the train, he is recognized by Bruno Antony ( Robert Walker ), an overly friendly man who talks Guy into having lunch with him in his private cabin. Walker plays Bruno as See production, box office & company info. "He had to have one person in each film he could harass," Granger said. Amateur tennis star Guy Haines wants to divorce his vulgar and unfaithful small-town wife Miriam, in order to be able to marry the woman he loves. Each will murder a stranger, with no apparent motive, so neither will be suspected. One could study it forever. Off-handedly, he suggests to Guy that they trade murders: Bruno will kill Guy's troublesome wife, and Guy will eliminate Bruno's despised father. It is a twisting story of a male-on-male relationship that Patricia Highsmith often proffered (same-sex, male or female) in her best novels like this one. One of the most popular psychological crime thrillers that Hitchcock ever made is definitely Strangers on a Train, the master's adaptation of crime novelist Patricia Highsmith's debut novel that hit theaters back in 1951.Even though a lot of film scholars over the years considered the movie at least to a degree inferior to Hitchcock's landmark films such as Vertigo or Rear Window, this . Is he just lonely? This includes lots of great home movies; Alfred Hitchcock's Historical Meeting (SD; 1:08) is a weird little snippet without sound that shows Hitch interacting with actors made up as historical characters. "[55], Although its first rumblings came in 1947 with the trial and conviction of the "Hollywood Ten," the so-called Red Scare was gathering steam in 1950, with the espionage-related arrests of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and the trial of Alger Hiss. The U.S. Senate was busy investigating the suspicion that 'moral perverts' in the government were also undermining national security going so far as to commission a study, Employment of Homosexuals and Other Sex Perverts in Government. [9], Kasey Rogers (credited as Laura Elliott) noted that she had perfect vision at the time the movie was made, but Hitchcock insisted she wear the character's thick eyeglasses, even in long shots when regular glass lenses would have been undetectable. [12], Securing the rights to the novel was the least of the hurdles Hitchcock would have to vault to get the property from printed page to screen. Highsmith Unfortunately, he is serious while Guy brushes it off. Here you will find unforgettable moments, scenes and lines from all your favorite films. [7] For six days, they shot at Penn Station in New York City, at the railroad station at Danbury, Connecticutwhich became Guy's hometown Metcalfand in spots around Washington, D.C.[7]. She threatens to claim that he is the father, in order to thwart any divorce attempt. villains, and Hitch agreed with Truffaut that the audience sympathy was more in his childhood, when his father sent naughty little Alfred to the police "[59], Conversely, Bosley Crowther of The New York Times criticized the film: "Mr. Hitchcock again is tossing a crazy murder story in the air and trying to con us into thinking that it will stand up without support. allowed an aging actress to manipulate him in "Sunset Boulevard"). As Guy listens with detached amusement, Bruno discusses the theory of \"exchange murders.\" Suppose that Bruno were to murder Guy's wife, and Guy in exchange were to kill Bruno's father? Guy tries to persuade Bruno to seek psychiatric help, but Bruno threatens to punish Guy for breaking their deal. As with Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train is one of many Hitchcock films to explore the doppelgnger theme. To amuse another guest, Bruno playfully demonstrates how to strangle a woman. Is he just lonely? See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 131 p 31 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551, Warner Bros. press release #HO9-1251, November 30, 1950, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, introducing citations to additional sources, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Influence on Carol Burnett's Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, "Armchair Audience: The Moving Toyshop (1946)", "The Screen In Review; 'Strangers on a Train,' Another Hitchcock Venture, Arrives at the Warner Theatre", "My Favourite Hitchcock: Strangers on a Train", "Two Men Inspired By 'Throw Momma from the Train' Fail To Get Away With Murder", "David Fincher, 'Strangers on a Train,' and the Tricky Business of Remaking Hitchcock", German Concentration Camps Factual Survey, Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strangers_on_a_Train_(film)&oldid=1134435612, Films based on works by Patricia Highsmith, Films with screenplays by Raymond Chandler, United States National Film Registry films, Articles needing additional references from June 2022, All articles needing additional references, Articles lacking reliable references from June 2022, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 18 January 2023, at 17:53. "When Bruno openly suggests he would like to kill his wife, he merely grins and says 'That's a morbid thought,' but we sense the tension that underlies it. # staring # stalker # alfred hitchcock # strangers on a train # tennis match. [8], Nevertheless, the score does pick up on the ubiquitous theme of doubles often contrasting doubles right from the opening title sequence: "The first shot two sets of male shoes, loud versus conservative, moving toward a train carries a gruff bass motif set against Gershwin-like riffs, a two-part medley called "Strangers" and "Walking" that is never heard again. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 30, 2017, Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 26, 2016. Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2022. He's endearing and menacing, intimate and unknowable. The police question Guy, but cannot confirm his alibi: a professor Guy met on the train was so drunk that he cannot remember their encounter. Strangers on a Train ( 1951) 100-101 mins | Drama | 30 June 1951 Cast: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker [ More ] Director: Alfred Hitchcock Writers: Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde, Whitfield Cook Producer: Alfred Hitchcock Cinematographer: Robert Burks Editor: William Ziegler Production Designer: Edward S. Haworth Production Company: It's worth noticing that --Jeff Shannon, Customer Reviews, including Product Star Ratings help customers to learn more about the product and decide whether it is the right product for them.Learn more how customers reviews work on Amazon, [{"displayPrice":"$8.99","priceAmount":8.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"8","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"ljxr4RXVFhT%2BPKRvZQtlYfMQPNkFvRWItSCJh6gvH8GODWGblG4sOglXU76ALdS03DRPExbb%2FgT4ZclL52JN1JP63V80l0djKnnQ%2FjE7RB2b7X5Iga6UtCyo5UN0UwFtFdwFKEiMfxcgxAttav%2FH4txtYXoihOdmJf71qTDZgulgppJc7UoNeUIOV4CKcI3Q","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED"}]. In Hitchcock's cameo he carries a double bass. Strangle a woman Bruno playfully demonstrates how to strangle a woman Hitchcock tried to hire Ben Hecht but. Follows Miriam to an amusement park and strangles her while Guy brushes off. 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