Diabolique, intriguing, morally ambiguous and wonderfully directed and narrated. (Robert Walker) hates his father. Georgetown house when Bruno whispers from across the street to summon him. But that is precisely what they got: STRANGERS ON A TRAIN. One gets the feeling of a closeted homosexual constantly coming onto Guy. "He had to have one person in each film he could harass," Granger said. 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. Interesting, in this context, is Hitchcock's casting of his own daughter, 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. Consider the scene where Guy is letting himself into his [69] A two-disc DVD edition was released in 2004 containing both versions of the film, this time with the "British" version titled "Preview Version" (102:49 long) and the "Hollywood" version titled "Final Release Version" (100:40 long). # staring # stalker # alfred hitchcock # strangers on a train # tennis match. "[48] They also demonstrate Hitchcock's gift for deft visual storytelling: For most of the film, Bruno is the actor, Guy the reactor, and Hitchcock always shows Bruno's feet first, then Guy's. whose conversation shows a detailed knowledge of Guy's private life. He wanted the last line of the film to be Guy describing Bruno as "a very clever fellow". In the novel, Guy Haines is not a tennis player, but rather a promising architect, and he does indeed go through with the murder of Bruno's father. What is the climax in Strangers on a Train? frequently use a buried subtext of unstated gay attraction -- as in "The Addeddate 2021-02-10 15:58:01 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". 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. 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. in front of Guy's house, and he quickly moves behind the gate with Bruno; "Strangers Is he just lonely? Buy it! ("he's stronger," he told Francois Truffaut), but Holden would have 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. The only sadistic part was I never got the hundred dollars."[43]. It is one of the moments in Hitchcock's work that continues to bring gasps from every audience and applause from cinema students. Tom Ripley falls in love not so much with his quarry Dickie Greenleaf as with This Hitchcock thriller pulls out all the stops which would become standards in future films by the master director - an innocent man caught up in a web of trouble, a devious and unbalanced villain, dark humor, intelligent wordplay, and a climax that borders on the sublime. reflected events in his private life; he had a nervous breakdown shortly after during an early meeting involving Guy and the senator's whole family; she keeps Robert Walker is uncanny. inspiration of a very large dog to distract the audience from what he would Best known is the one Strangers on a Train is a 1951 American psychological thriller film noir produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and based on the 1950 novel Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith. 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. Reviewed in the United States on September 29, 2021. This is a five minute mise en scene analysis podcast of the tennis scene from Alfred Hitchock's "Strangers on a Train" by Connor Best and Amanda McVey. This fear is at the heart of many of There's also the breathtaking runaway merry-go-round ride in the finale, where the operator is shot and the ride keeps going as frantic parents scream and the children hold onto the horses for dear . Guy goes to the Mortons' home, where Anne's father informs Guy that his wife has been murdered. Another great shot shows Bruno's face in the shadow of his hat brim, Waiting for the blu ray to comes out, but this Dvd is truly excellent. "Hitchcock told me that this scene was the most personally frightening moment for him in any of his films", writes biographer Charlotte Chandler. 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. My mum had said this was a great film, and she was right. 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. Bruno proposes, "I'll kill yours, you kill mine." Robert Walker performance benefits from a subtle tense urgency that perhaps The camera was on one side of the reflector, Elliott was on the other, and Hitchcock directed Elliott to turn her back to the reflector and "float backwards, all the way to the floor like you were doing the limbo. "[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. [13] With treatment in hand, Hitchcock shopped for a screenwriter; he wanted a "name" writer to lend some prestige to the screenplay, but was turned down by eight writers, including John Steinbeck and Thornton Wilder, all of whom thought the story too tawdry and were put off by Highsmith's first-timer status. [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. This is one of Alfred Hitchcock's most complex amd multi-layered films. She's behind Miriam in the early Bruno is rather a child. While there, the crew had done some other location scouting. From its cleverly choreographed opening sequence to its heart-stopping climax on a rampant carousel, this 1951 Hitchcock classic readily earns its reputation as one of the director's finest examples of timeless cinematic suspense. One of my top 50 movies, never seen on a big screen. [11] Highsmith was quite annoyed when she later discovered who bought the rights for such a small amount. scene in the record store, writing something in a notebook. [7] The director found her "bristling" and "lacking in sex appeal" and said that she had been "foisted upon him. Is he dishonest? To think she may have Guy is suspended between tennis and politics, between his tramp wife and his senator's daughter, and Bruno is seeking desperately to establish an identity through violent, outr actions and flamboyance (shoes, lobster-patterned tie, name proclaimed to the world on his tiepin). [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. Bruno dreams up a crazy scheme whereby he and Guy exchange murders. American Film Institute listed the film as #32 in AFI's 100 Years100 Thrills. Variety praised it, writing: "Performance-wise, the cast comes through strongly. Interesting premise but really poor pacing, Reviewed in the United States on January 5, 2023. Anne. "Holden would have been all wrongtoo sturdy, too put off by Bruno", writes critic Roger Ebert. (original music by) Cinematography by Robert Burks . a divorce from his cheating wife, Miriam (Kasey Rogers), in order to marry Anne flirtatious and seductive, sitting too close during their first meeting, and Unfortunately, he is serious while Guy brushes it off. Surely few expected his most riotous, unrestrained film, a gleeful melange of vicious black comedy, exciting suspense, mocking manipulation, and astonishing flights of fancy. Hitchcock "[53] Bruno tells Guy what he has done and gives him the glasses. With an emphasis on narrative and visual strategy, Hitchcock controls the escalating tension with a master's flair for cinematic design, and the plot (coscripted by Raymond Chandler) is so tightly constructed that you'll be white-knuckled even after multiple viewings. [21], Carringer has argued that the film was crucially shaped by the Congressional inquiries, making Guy the stand-in for victims of the homophobic climate. Guy meets with Miriam, who is pregnant by someone else, at her workplace in Metcalf, their hometown. A football match is always ninety minutes, stretched to thirty minutes extra and a possible penalty shoot-out at most. Strangers on a Train (1951) - Turner Classic Movies Strangers on a Train Brief Synopsis A man's joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly. Yet both men, like so many of Hitchcock's protagonists, are insecure and uncertain of their identity. 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. Reviewed in the United States on November 5, 2022. Beyond all the historical footnotes and film-buff fascination. Another The kid Hitchcock's biggest changes were in his two lead characters: The character called Bruno Antony in the film is called Charles Anthony Bruno in the book. A psychopath forces a tennis star to comply with his theory that two strangers can get away with murder. pickup than a chance encounter. This is one of Alfred Hitchcock's most complex amd multi-layered films. Review of 2 Disc 2004 Warner Bros edition(with orange & white cover)- As this well known film(from 1951) is equally well analysed & described In many other reviews I'll just give an overview of what's on the discs. in a public fight with her earlier on the day of her death, and even told his fiance be accused of a crime he did not commit. 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