Film: Strangers on a Train

Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Genre: Thriller
Source: USA (1951)
Rating: PG
Location/Format: TCM
Grade: A-

Hitchcock is a master. It's easy to get so focused on the masterpieces of his career (Vertigo, Rear Window, Psycho, The Birds, North by Northwest) and lose track of the fact that the guy may have reached the heights of his craft in those films, but he was making incredible films for years both before and after that fertile period.

Because I think Strangers on a Train is a pretty incredible little film. A lot of that has to do with Hitchcock's skill in creating tension--the carnival scene before the murder, for example, is creepy, seductive, and ultimately frightening. And he uses his villain's distinctive silhouette (with suit and hat) as a great motif throughout the movie. But in this case I think more of it has to do with Robert Walker's inspired and terrifying performance as sociopath Bruno Antony. 

For the first few minutes of the film, he is simply obnoxious, the kind of seatmate everyone hopes not to get on a train (or today an airplane). But quickly that obnoxiousness escalates to something menacing, something frightening, and Walker plays Bruno's casual cruelty with an ease and leisure that makes him all the more terrifying. (By the way, the fact that both this film and The Talented Mr. Ripley are based on books by the same author makes me really interested in reading some Patricia Highsmith. Bruno is sadistic, delighting in making people around him squirm in discomfort and fear. That he shows that same cruelty to his parents, at least one of whom doesn't recognize the monster he is while the other is his object of scorn, is perhaps a simple bit of Freudian psychology but it also underlies the moral emptiness of his character. I was really saddened to see that Walker died not long after this performance, apparently himself haunted by a lot of psychological demons. I don't want to read autobiography into his performance, because it deserves to stand on its own, but it's hard to separate those connections whenever an actor known for a dark role dies not long after (see The Joker from The Dark Knight). As in Heath Ledger's case, however, there's absolutely no indication that his death had anything to do with the role he'd just performed. And Walker's Bruno is so good I don't want to taint it. He's a gleeful sadist long before Hannibal Lecter or any of the other such characters that seem so common nowadays.

I wish Farley Granger had been a match for him, but he falls short for me. He doesn't have the same fire, and his Guy Haines is not just a bit dull but downright flat next to Bruno.

The film, as Hitchcock's best are, is full of both suspense as well as comedy--even the final confrontation between Guy and Bruno has an element of the absurd to it. But I believe that is all intentional, and it's really effective. 

I haven't seen Hitch's full oeuvre, but movies like this make me want to delve a little further into his catalog than just the standard big names. Excellent stuff.

 Alternate Film Title: "Hitchcock's Black Humor: Cast Your Daughter in the Most Annoying Role"