Strangers On A Train (BD)

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. Aboard a train bound for New York, Guy, the tennis pro, is shocked to discover how much information the wealthy stranger, Bruno, knows about him. According to Bruno, it's all to be read in the newspapers, especially the gossip concerning Guy's relationship with the daughter of a United States senator, and the ongoing drama with Guy's soon-to-be ex-wife, a good-time gal who's pregnant with another man's child. For his part, Bruno, a rich and spoiled ne'er-do-well, chats amiably about his deep hatred of his father, and how he wishes someone would kill the old man. 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. By the time Guy disembarks from the train, he has unwittingly entered into a deal with the devil, and his life almost immediately begins to unravel. Released in 1951, "Strangers On a Train" was based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith (who also authored "The Talented Mr. Ripley"). Though the book allegedly describes an affair between the two protagonists--I don't know because I haven't read it--the film somewhat subtley suggests the unrequited yearning of Bruno for Guy. What is certain is that Guy, well-intentioned though he may be, is no match for Bruno's manipulative wiles. The fifties was a decade in which Hitchcock, in my opinion, really flourished. At least it seems that he had a solid string of classics, beginning with "Strangers On a Train" and lasting through "Psycho". It's hard for me to think of more than three Hitchcock films that I dislike, and even harder for me to pick five which I would say were better than all the others. However, if pushed, I'd rank "Strangers" in the top five. It's suspenseful, cleverly written, and wonderfully photographed. Robert Walker easily steals the show as the sly and charming psychopath, Bruno. He's animated, funny, and almost likable when he's not strangling someone, or plotting their demise. As Guy, Farley Granger is stuck in the unenviable shadow of Walker: Guy is a well-intentioned, good-looking shlub, boring and (generally) predictable. We root for Guy only because, for all his dullness and general uptightness, he is still more easy for us to identify with than the murderous (but infinitely more interesting) Bruno. As Guy's girlfriend, Ruth Roman is glamorous and has a low, smoky voice that belies the generally wooden quality of her performance. She's a steadfast companion for Granger's Guy, and they somehow seem to belong together. Although it would be remiss of me not to mention the sheer atrociousness of Roman's hairdo in this film. And with not much better hair, but a lot more flair and a screen personality to match, Patricia Hitchcock is breezy and fun as Roman's younger sister. She gives a delightful and natural performance as a young woman whose mild flirtation with Bruno encites him to attempt murder. It's too bad that she didn't appear in more films because she seems like a vibrant comedienne, adding a note of lightness to otherwise dark films ("Psycho" is the only other film that I can think of that the director's daughter appeared in). Leo G. Carroll, as the senator, is fine, and it's interesting to note that Marion Lorne (as Bruno's mother) and Laura Elliott (as Guy's ill-fated wife) would both appear years later in the TV series, "Bewitched", although Elliott would, by then, be known as Casey Rogers. Less picturesque than many Hitchcock outings--there are no exotic locales such as the French Riviera, Rio de Janeiro, Mt. Rushmore, or a Greenwich Village courtyard, for that matter--"Strangers On a Train", as a film, shares more common ground with the earlier "Shadow of a Doubt". Ostensibly set mostly in Washington D.C. and New York, "Strangers" never feels cosmopolitan; perhaps due to all the familial interactions, it seems more commonplace and "small-town" to me. For anyone interested in suspense films in general, and Hitchcock, in particular, I highly recommend this film.

Alfred Hitchcock loved trains. After appearances in his 2 best British films, "The 39 Steps" (1935) and "The Lady Vanishes" (1938) , the train was elevated to star billing along with the 2 male leads in "Strangers on a Train" (1951).Not only does the train move its passengers around, it is the location where one's diabolical "you do my murder, I"ll do yours" plot is hatched and used to seduce the other. Farley Granger had previously starred in Hitchcock's claustrophobic and homoerotic play adaptation "Rope" (!948}.Here he plays a celebrity tennis player trapped in an unhappy marriage and Robert Walker is a "mamma's boy" acting upon his desire to destroy his disapproving father. In addition to its overall brilliance, the film's cinematography is rendered in a crisp and clean manner particularly impressive for source material that is over 60 years old. The editing itself is a joy to behold, especially the Walker character obsessively watching the Granger character playing a crucial tennis match. All the other onlookers' heads move back and forth as the tennis ball does. The Walker character's gaze never divorces itself from the subject of his fixation,The entire film is encapsulated in this sequence in a manner that the audience, while absorbing the film's plot, themes and characterizations, also has a good laugh. The other stunningly edited sequence takes place at the amusement park where the promised murder had occurred. A cigarette lighter and an out of control carousel play leading roles in the film's highly memorable denouement. Farley Granger has another visual counterpart in Ruth Roman, his fiancee in the film. Both Granger and Roman are striking brunettes, a kind of his and her beauties juxtaposed against the equally dark haired and stylishly dressed Robert Walker, who is the unmoored only child of a dithering mother (the perfectly cast Marion Lorne) and a very wealthy and harsh father who would have him committed. (No argument there but then we'd have no film.) The other father in the film has 2 daughters, the older one hoping to be married to the tennis player and the other a brainy and caustically humourous girl whose major purpose in the film is to serve drinks and make shrewd observations.She is the bespectacled counterpart to Bruno's unfaithful wife and is played by Hitchcock's only child, Patricia.She is priceless here, as she will be in his masterwork "Psycho" (1960) where she plays Janet Leigh's loquacious and clueless real estate office mate. Patricia Hitchcock plays a much more active and important character here. The father of the 2 sisters is a United States senator no less, and is played by Leo G. Carroll, a very proper Briton who was the title character's doctor in Hitchcock's "Rebecca" (1940), and would give his final Hitchcockian performance as the head of a federal spy agency in "North by Northwest" (1959).Carroll's presence in "N by NW" helps to close out Hitchcock's extremely successful decade which began with "Strangers" and embraced the other masterpieces "Rear Window" {1954) and "Vertigo" (1958). Most other directors would be happy to have produced one master work in a career. Hitchcock produced four in a decade.His fantastic fifties begins with "Strangers"' which bears repeated viewings.

An all time oldie favorite. Seen it many times. Will watch it many more.

A classic Hitchcock thriller. Tennis chap Guy Haines meets dissipated playboy bruno antony on a train and they get to talking about their troubles. Seems Bruno knows a good bit about Guys woes with his wife wanting to dump him for another beau and his new attraction to another woman. Bruno too has his dismay with his demanding father. He puts out a suggestion that they swap murders so neither one of them look suspicious because there would be no motive for them wanting to kill a perfect stranger they did not know. Guy thinks Bruno is not serious and dismisses him thinking he will never see him again after the little train ride. But he is wrong. He does visit and trail the wife around and strangles her in a park. He then comes to Guy expecting him to oblige him with the murder of his father. Guy thinks he is insane and tries to get him out of his life, but Bruno is sticking to his wishes and begans to approach the people he knows showing up in uninvited places to put pressure on Guy. Bruno, Robert Walker, is especially memorable as a psychopath who doesn't understand why annoying people shouldn't be murdered. There is also a great merry-go-round crash scene.

I love this movie. I could watch this three times a year.

An excellent, classic Hitchcock! With the usual twist ending!

Robert Walker steals the show easily with his terrifying portrayal of a psychopath but he is nevertheless low-key in that his portrayal is subtle. He in no way goes off the deep end in the movie, not at all out of emotional control but you can almost feel his heart beat, feel his brittleness, his emotional fragility and he perhaps is not far from portraying himself as a person on the edge. Walker died accidentally at thirty two from a mixture of a tranquilizer and alcohol. The first time I saw this picture I was ten years younger than Robert Walker. Now, like the picture of Dorian Grey, Robert Walker stays young and I am over eighty. My feelings about the picture have not changed at all, although I then and now felt hero Guy Haines' wife Miriam with her tremendously thick glasses and unattractive personality was not the type of woman the handsome tennis player would choose. Bruno Anthony's mother is a kick, Played by Marion Lorne, she's an absolute nitwit who thinks her son's antics are cute. Watching the movie after a very long hiatus, I concentrated on Director Hitchcock's artistry. The opening sequence shows two men getting off a train, only their shoes are visible, one pair brilliant brown and white saddle shoes, the other conservatively brown. You learn right away that the owners of the shoes are vastly different, one a fop, the other conventional. You see in the sequence Alfred Hitchcock climbing on the train while carrying an enormous cello in a case. When Miriam is murdered by Bruno the gruesome event is mirrored in Miriam's thick glasses which have been knocked to the ground ,not directly and therefore more terrifying. Bruno's nastiness is shown when a little boy playfully points a toy gun at him and Bruno zaps the child's balloon with a lit cigarette. Much later Guy pulls another little boy to safety when he falls under the hooves of the out of control merry-go-round's horses. A subtle comparison of the two events tells a lot about the hero and the anti-hero. The out of step Bruno is wonderfully pictured when the heads in the stands at a tennis match go back and forth back and forth following the ball. Right in the middle is Bruno staring straight ahead like a fox in a chicken coop. The artistry of Alfred Hitchcock is apparent throughout “Strangers on a train” and is his hallmark. There is no one like him.

I have been a fan of many of Alfred Hitchcock's great screen masterpieces such as Rebecca and North By Northwest, but I was not nearly as familiar with some of his other works including Strangers on a Train. I am now sold on the value of this classic. Three things stand out. It is a terrific mystery, Farley Granger as an innocent but hunted man is a revelation as a terrific actor, and the ending is one of Hitchcock's most memorable film passages. I dislike the word, but it really is "iconic." No one who watches the dramatic carnival set piece will ever forget it. This is outstanding film noir.

Ce film de Alfred Hitchcock est plein de suspens jusqu'au dernier instant . Le dvd est en parfait état et les images très belles , le son est un peu "faiblard" parfois mais il suffit d'augmenter le volume .

Un grand Hitchcock, toujours très agréable à revoir. Pour les amateurs du genre.

"Strangers on a Train" is one of my favourite Hitchcock films. Its plot is compelling though in lesser hands than Hitchcock's it would seem far-fetched and over the top. The director's control over this subject matter, his brilliant cinematic touches, his collaboration with two vital actors, all add up to an enjoyable and absorbing, thrilling whole. Hitchcock, capitalises on Farley Granger's wholesomeness tinged with some ambiguity as to his sexuality, and on Walker's dizzy, perhaps unbalanced, charm. Both men show considerable development as actors and turn in superb performances. Saying anything more about their relationship would constitute spoilers. The film is taut and beautifully edited, as in the very famous tennis match and the carousel sequences. The lighting is at times breathtaking; the light and shadow, the uprights like the iron railings behind which we see Walker and a bit later with Granger behind them with him, and any number of other uprights that act ideationally as prison bars. The transfer to DVD is very good and the extras are both entertaining and informative.

Magnifica película, excepcional calidad de vídeo (4,5/5) y audio que cumple. Muchos extras, de hecho trae los mismos que la edición USA, por una vez no se han quedado por el camino al cruzar el charco. Incluye entre los extras la versión de la película (en calidad SD y V.O.S.) llamada "Strangers on a Train Preview Version", también llamada "Versión Inglesa" que dura un par de minutos mas y lleva algunas tomas alternativas. Y ademas sale a un muy buen precio, incluso mas barata que en USA. La pega la de siempre, la maldita manía de Warner de no subtitular los audiocomentarios, por lo demás 100% recomendable en todos los sentidos, esta vez Warner merece mi aplauso.

Strangers On A Train, a masterpiece, presented here in a finely produced HD release. Great transfer, great black and white contrast. A film of noir moments galore. Robert Walker is fabulous as the twisted Bruno. Buy it! Strangers on a Train Blu-ray, Special Features and Extras: Commentary by Peter Bogdanovich, Peter Benchley, Alfred Hitchcock and many more. Strangers on a Train Preview Version (SD; 1:42:57). This is the so-called "British" version of the film (which was included on the "flipper" DVD a few years ago) which runs about two minutes longer than the final cut and has some alternate takes. Interesting more as an "intellectual exercise" than anything else, but indispensable for those interested in seeing how Hitchcock continued to shape his films after an initial cut. 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. (SD; 7:22) focuses on Kasey Rogers, who performed under the name Laura Elliot in the film; Strangers on a Train: An Appreciation by M. Night Shyamalan (SD; 12:46) has the director espousing his love for Hitch and the film; The Hitchcocks on Hitch (SD; 11:20) features Hitch's daughter and granddaughter talking about Hitch. 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. Theatrical Trailer (SD; 2:34)