Where was the tennis match in Strangers on a Train? Burks was an exceptionally apt choice for what would prove to be Hitchcock's most Germanic film in years: the compositions dense, the lighting almost surreal, the optical effects demanding. Is 'Strangers on a Train' based on a book? always used the convention that the left side of the screen is for evil and/or Leopold-Loeb case; it was another story about a murder pact with a homosexual In accordance with the cautious censorship guidelines of the period, Hitchcock would later tame these elements of Walker's memorable performance by trimming and altering certain scenes, so the differences between the original and prerelease versions provide an illuminating illustration of censorship's effect on the story's thematic intensity. flirtatious and seductive, sitting too close during their first meeting, and Sir. At first glance, Guy represents the ordered life where people stick to rules, while Bruno comes from the world of chaos,[49] where they get thrown out of multiple colleges for drinking and gambling. His vigorous tennis match is a highlight of Strangers on a Train. [44] Hitchcock made personal appearances in most of them, and was often accompanied by his daughter. I like how he displays paranoia as the killer follows him around. Strangers on a Train (1951) was director Alfred Hitchcock's suspenseful, noirish black and white thriller about two train passengers: tennis pro Guy Haines (Farley Granger) and psychopathic dandy Bruno Antony (Robert Walker), who staged a battle of wits and proposed trading motiveless murders with each other. "[53] Bruno tells Guy what he has done and gives him the glasses. A film of noir moments galore. No matter how well a football team plays, the match has a fixed temporality. Strangers On a Train (1951) In Alfred Hitchcock's thriller - an adaptation from Patricia Highsmith's first novel about amoral murderers who 'traded' or 'exchanged' crimes: the opening sequence introduced the duality of the two 'strangers on a train' with their distinctive contrasting shoes: - Bruno Antony (Robert Walker), a . Guy tries to persuade Bruno to seek psychiatric help, but Bruno threatens to punish Guy for breaking their deal. My mum had said this was a great film, and she was right. The Did Hitchcock intend for Bruno to be attracted to Guy? famous sequences in "Strangers on a Train." The two men are as different as can be but both have the saem problem. would have worked perfectly -- except for the detail that only one of the It proceeds, as Hitchcock's films Guy infers that Bruno intends to plant it at the scene of the murder and incriminate him. Is he just lonely? How perfect for a playful proposal: I'll kill yours, you kill mine. The screen adaptation differed from Highsmith's book in that Haines is given a happy ending, having . Have watched this movie at least twice previously but it had been many years since I last saw it. [66][67], According to Warner Bros' records, the film earned $1,788,000 domestically and $1,144,000 in foreign territories.[1]. Anne. That evening, Bruno follows Miriam to an amusement park and strangles her while Guy is on the train to Washington. There can be no compromise in his work, his food or his wines. Robert Walker is uncanny. Alfred Hitchcock's cameo appearance occurs 11 minutes into the film. The He must play as hard and as fast as he can in order to win the match, get off the court, and overtake the villain . The film initially received mixed reviews but has since been regarded much more favorably. "The Band Played On" makes its final reprise during Guy's and Bruno's fight on the merry-go-round, even itself shifting to a faster tempo and higher pitch when the policeman's bullet hits the ride operator and sends the carousel into its frenzied hyper-drive. Strangers on a Train: A Hitchcock Classic (SD; 36:44) is a nice overview with Peter Bogdanovich and several others discussing . An early preview edit of the film, sometimes labeled the "British" version although it was never released in Britain or anywhere else, includes some scenes either not in, or else different from, the film as released. [9] Hitchcock had already shot the long shots for the tennis match at Forest Hills and would add closer shots with Granger and Jack Cushingham, Granger's tennis coach off-screen and Guy's tennis opponent Fred Reynolds on-screen at a tennis club in South Gate, California. Hitchcock had written exacting specifications for an amusement park, which was constructed on the ranch of director Rowland Lee in Chatsworth, California. 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. 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. to agree to the plan, and Guy trying to jolly him along and get rid of him. "[13] In the novel, Guy is pursued and entrapped by a tenacious detective.[17]. The laying bare of Bruno's hidden nature, along with the great set pieces (head-turning tennis match, disintegrating carousel) and suspense as only Hitchcock can deliver, makes for a first-class trip. 'If the man had raised his head even slightly", Hitchcock said, "it would have gone from being a suspense film into a horror film. with any force or conviction. The worker who called the police tells them that Bruno, not Guy, is the one he remembers seeing the night of the murder. To the man committed to a career in politics, Bruno represents a tempting overthrow of all responsibility. [13] Treatment writer Cook used Guy to make the film "a parable quietly defiant of the Cold War hysteria sweeping America. [44] Of greater interest to Warner was the box office take, and the "receipts soon told the true story: Strangers on a Train was a success, and Hitchcock was pronounced at the top of his form as master of the dark, melodramatic suspense thriller. First Hitchcock got the exterior shots in Canoga Park, using both actors, then later he had Elliott alone report to a soundstage where there was a large concave reflector set on the floor. Hecht suggested his assistant, Czenzi Ormonde, to write the screenplay. As usual, Hitchcock kept his name out of the negotiations to keep the purchase price low. Realizing that Guy is not the murderer, the police ask him to come to the station to tie up loose ends. Interesting, in this context, is Hitchcock's casting of his own daughter, The 1987 film Throw Momma from the Train by Danny DeVito was inspired by Strangers on a Train, which is also watched by DeVito's character in the film.[71][72]. Yet as Bruno describes his "theories" over lunch, "Guy responds to Bruno we see it in his face, at once amused and tense. There's 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. 2003 biography says she often fell in love with straight women, and her stories Ordinary Washington locations become sinister hunting grounds that mirror perfectly the creeping terror that slowly consumes Guy, as the lethally smooth Bruno relentlessly pursues him to a frenzied climax. 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. [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. Highsmith was a chameleon, a renegade, an experimenter, a loner, and a fantastically brave innovator. "[43] "This was good stuff for press agents paid to stir up thrills and it has been repeated in other books to bolster the idea of Hitchcock's sadism,"[36] but "we were [only] up there two or three minutes at the outside. My father wasn't ever sadistic. In 2021, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".[3]. Baiting Guy, Bruno reveals that he feels trapped by his hated father (Jonathan Hale). "criss-cross" murder deal in "Strangers on a Train" indeed The psychopath suggests that because they each want to "get rid" of someone, they should "exchange" murders, and that way neither will be caught. Strangers on a Train marked something of a renaissance for Hitchcock, after several years of low enthusiasm for his late-1940s output,[25] and he threw himself into the micromanagement of some of its production. 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. The aestheticizing of the horror somehow enables the audience to contemplate more fully its reality. BBC Radio 4's Afternoon Play broadcast on 29 September 2011 was Strangers on a Film by Stephen Wyatt, which gives an imagined account of a series of meetings between Hitchcock (Clive Swift) and Raymond Chandler (Patrick Stewart), as they unsuccessfully attempt to create the screenplay for Strangers on a Train. That was my favorite part of the movie. Hitchcock's trademark cameo) but you can look for yourself, in chapter six of the Forest Hills tennis club. After winning a tennis match, Guy evades the police escort and heads for the amusement park to stop Bruno. similar eyeglasses; Bruno is playfully demonstrating strangling techniques at a Having read all about Guy, Bruno is aware that the tennis player is trapped in an unhappy marriage to to wife Miriam (Laura Elliott) and has been seen in the company of senator's daughter Ann Morton (Ruth Roman). 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. ${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}. Reviewed in the United States on January 10, 2023. Hitchcock insists on perfection. 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