Strangers on a Train (1951, NR)

Directed by: Alfred Hitchcock

Grade: A—

Strangers on a Train is classic Hitchcock: cool, witty, calculated and sharp.  Even so, it isn't among the most talked-about Hitchcock movies: Dial M for Murder, Rear Window, Vertigo, North by Northwest and Pyscho are all far better known.  I remember watching some of North by Northwest years back, and I’ve more recently seen part of Dial M for Murder.  I will need to watch both of these films in their entirety before I can have them graded and reviewed, and all the other Hitchcock films I mentioned are at or near the top of my films I need to watch soon list.

Anyway, this is a review of Strangers on a Train, not an overview of the famous movies directed by Alfred Hitchcock.  I sat down with the hopes of watching a good movie, and was rewarded with something of greater value then of what I would define as ‘good’.  Strangers on a Train is something different from other mystery/thriller films, even if though it cooks most of the ingredients a mystery/thriller films has: a bizarre maniac, the accused or soon-to-be-confused protagonist, a victim (or more than one), the slow on the uptake police, and the crucial evidence.  However, things in Strangers on a Train are made more interesting by the fact that it presents a new idea: criss-cross murders; a murder is done in exchange for another murder.  It is due to this rather fresh concept that makes Strangers on a Train standout as a thriller.

The narrative is skillfully set up, as each scene builds upon the other all the way up to the potent climax.  This isn’t a gratuitous thriller where everything banquets from the first murder; Hitchcock is wise in having the first murder resourcefully built upon.  We see in the characters eyes and expressions their sentiments, their feelings and their emotions.  Looking at Bruno (the film’s bizarre maniac) once is enough for us to figure out what kind of guy he really is, and he ends up driving the whole movie!  We really can tell that he is a fanatic murderer, so much as to that he can’t really contain himself.  His victims are nearly seduced at his charming ways, only to be turned over into terror as soon as his gloved hands grasp their throat.  The story never throws away a hint of predictability, either.   

Surprises in movie-watching aren’t the easiest or hardest things to come across, and whether or not Strangers on a Train will be an admirable surprise to anyone is too hard to tell.  I can understand why if it isn’t: the film isn’t exactly a well-rounded one, as it is far more likely to be reserved for movie enthusiasts and even more so for Hitchcock fans.  Therefore, taken as a whole, Strangers on a Train isn’t to be viewed as a pleasuring, sit back and watch experience.  It’s out of the ordinary, but all too gratifying in that way.  In other words, Strangers on a Train is inimitable. 

A—