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Review: Strangers on a Train (1951)
This was a pretty interesting movie. I enjoyed it. It had an interesting story, but also Alfred Hitchcock is the goat for a reason.
Spoilers.
Story
Guy Haines was a tennis player who met a man named Bruno Anthony on the train. Bruno Anthony suggested the idea of swapping murders so that each of them, as the most highly scrutinized suspects, would have alibis. Guy just took Bruno as talking nonsense but Bruno took it very seriously. One must wonder whether he had specifically targeted Guy, with how much he knew about his personal life, even if all of it was in the tabloids.
Guy was in a difficult marriage where both he and his wife Miriam had affair partners. Miriam had been the one to propose the divorce and was pregnant with another man’s child. However, when Guy went to speak with her, she no longer wanted a divorce, probably starting to appreciate Guy’s fame and money as his tennis career grew. His affair partner was Anne, the daughter of a senator. Bruno had surmised and Guy had later confirmed that marrying Anne would be advantageous for a future political career which he planned to embark on after he retired from tennis.
Bruno struck out on his own, tailing Miriam at an amusement park. She thought Bruno was flirting with her but he ended up strangling her when she was separated from her boyfriend and friend. Bruno then went to tell Guy what he’d done, which shocked him. Guy never agreed to any of this and he refused to kill Bruno’s dad for him. Guy was then called over to Anne’s house. It seemed he had a good relationship with Anne’s father and sister. They ‘broke’ the news of the murder to Guy.
Guy’s alibi was not fully confirmed, so the cops had him tailed by two men called Hennessy and Hammond. From then on, Bruno also started to follow Guy around all the time, pressuring him to fulfill his end of the ‘deal.’ Bruno interrupted Anne and Guy while on a date and Anne noticed his tie clip that had his name. Bruno also later showed up at a tennis game and made friends with some people that Anne knew. Bruno also followed them to a party where he strangled a woman while looking straight at Barbara, Anne’s sister. Bruno was kicked out, but Anne pieced together the clues. Bruno and Guy knew each other before, and Barbara and Miriam looked similar so when Bruno was strangling a woman while looking at Barbara, he was brought back to the time of the actual murder.
Anne tried to confront Mrs. Anthony, Bruno’s mom, to get her to stop Bruno, but she refused to acknowledge anything. Bruno then threatened to pin the murder on Guy by leaving his lighter at the scene of the crime. Anne went back to tell Guy about what happened. Guy figured that Bruno would actually carry out his threat. He knew Bruno wouldn’t act until nighttime, but Guy had a tennis game in the day, so he was trying to rush through it to get all the way to the amusement park in Metcalf to stop Bruno.
When Hennessy and Hammond realized that Guy was going back to Metcalf, they called on Metcalf police to be on standby. At the amusement park, Guy and Bruno got into a fight as Guy was trying to get his lighter back. Due to the cops shooting the merry-go-round operator, the merry-go-round spun out of control. An old worker had to crawl underneath to stop the ride but it spun out of control when it did, crushing Bruno. The worker who operated the boat ride pointed out Bruno as the killer which pleased Guy. While Bruno lay dying, Guy tried to get him to confess but Bruno lied. However, Bruno had Guy’s lighter which convinced the cops that Guy was telling the truth abut Bruno trying to fame Guy.
In the ending scene, Guy and Anne were on a train. A passenger across from them recognized Guy, and the two immediately moved seats, as the first time such an event had happened had resulted in a whole ordeal.
The story is fairly simple but thrilling, so I must give credit to Patricia Highsmith as the writer.
Production
Everything was decently made. I think the two main actors were pretty good, but I do also have to give credit to Hitchcock for his ability to create suspense.
Characters
Guy Haines
To be honest, Guy was a kind of a typical main character. I wouldn’t say his character was particularly strong. He was just a regular, reasonable guy who didn’t want to get caught up in Bruno’s crazy scheme. It’s perfectly normal to strike up conversation with a stranger on a train. It’s perfectly normal to just smile and nod to their crazy scheme because you’re never going to see them again. It’s normal to exaggerate and say you want to kill someone when you’re angry. It’s normal to not have expected someone to go ahead with a murder that you never even explicitly agreed to. It’s normal to think about agreeing to crazy terms just to get someone off your back. It’s normal to not want to kill someone and to try to help them. It’s normal for a person to not want to be framed for a murder they didn’t do. So overall, I think Guy acted in a very normal way.
Is Guy a good person? That’s another question. I wouldn’t say he was good or bad. I think he was portrayed as a good guy, but in reality, he was a celebrity with a messy life. He just looked prim and proper so we might not think that. His marriage was a mess and he’d already ingratiated himself in the Morton family before cutting Miriam off. It’s also implied that his marriage with Anne would be advantageous for his future career, which casted doubt on whether his feelings for Anne were completely pure.
So I guess Guy was a normal guy.
Bruno Anthony
Bruno on the other hand lived his own world. Right from the beginning we saw he was chatty. He also seemed to have an agenda. I keep wondering whether Bruno had specifically targeted Guy, trying to catch him on the same train to propose the plan. Otherwise, how could he have thought up of the entire plan while on the train? I do acknowledge that he could have thought up of the plan before, and wanted to take advantage of Guy since he was his captive conversation partner on the train.
It was completely unreasonable for him to go ahead with the murder. He got ahead of himself, thinking that it was such a perfect plan that it had to be carried out. The other alternative is that he wanted to force Guy’s hand, which was what he was trying to do afterwards with the stalking.
Bruno was suspicious when Guy suddenly said he’d agree to the murder, so he intervened and saw that Guy wasn’t actually planning to murder Bruno’s father at all, and instead was going to warn him. Bruno threatened to pin the murder on Guy, and he would act on that.
There was a part where he lost Guy’s lighter in a sewer and that helped stall. But Bruno also wouldn’t act until nighttime. It’s curious, I wonder if that was symbolic, the idea that Bruno only ever shows his true face at night and that whenever he shows up in the daytime, it’s always when he’s stalking Guy and putting on a face of a wonderful and unsuspecting socialite.
Even in death, Bruno wouldn’t confess, wanting to take Guy down with him. I think Bruno fancied himself a mastermind, and he wanted to show Guy that if Guy didn’t agree to his plan of the crisscrossing murders, Bruno would take him down.
We saw that Bruno didn’t like his father who had high expectations for him. He wanted to Bruno to build some work ethic even though they were rich. Bruno said that he’d gotten kicked out of college three times. While I don’t think Bruno’s father was unusual, I think Bruno’s mom enabled him. She thought he had marvelous stories and she’d just laugh along to anything he said. She didn’t think him capable of anything which made Bruno just want to be a mastermind even more. I think it excited him to be able to pull a grand plan off while everyone underestimated him, and while his mom didn’t even notice anything.
Anne Morton
Anne was Guy’s lover, and the daughter of Senator Morton. She was kept in the dark at first, but after seeing Bruno a few times, she pieced together the clues that Bruno had murdered Miriam. She tried to talk to Mrs. Anthony to get Bruno to stop stalking Guy, but that only exacerbated the situation.
I think Anne was originally meant to be an accessory character as many of her scenes were just of her speaking on the phone as a way to advance the plot. She did smartly surmise that Bruno had killed Miriam though, so I think she was also supposed to help the audience the audience notice the cracks in Bruno’s character to show that he wasn’t infalliable.
Miriam Joyce Haines
Miriam was Guy’s wife who was having an affair and was pregnant with another man’s wife. It’s curious why she didn’t want to have a divorce anymore. I want to say it was because she saw how Guy was making decent money, but it was very sudden that she just decided then and there to not get a divorce anymore.
Miriam went to the amusement park with someone who I assumed was her boyfriend and another guy. To be honest they struck me as a bit juvenile and I wonder if that was the point, or if it’s just a culture/generation gap. Anyway, Miriam assumed Bruno was flirting with her, while she was there with her boyfriend/affair partner. So I assume we were meant to see that Miriam was very flippant with relationships.
Themes
I don’t watch horror movies because they’re usually too scary for me, but the scariest thing that can happen in a non-horror movie for me is stalking. So the stalking parts of this movie were definitely a bit chilling for me.
I think it leads to the bigger theme in this movie I noticed which was that just knowing about a murder makes you guilty. Guy had no part in the murder, but just knowing that Bruno had done it already made him susceptible to being manipulated. Bruno could hold power over him because he knew Guy was afraid of being implicated. When Guy and Anne found out about the murder separately, they both said that they were starting to act guilty just by knowing. And I think that relates back to stalking because the reason why stalking is scary (in real life and in movies) is that the person being stalked knows that something isn’t right. The stalking is scarier because Guy knows the implications. Whereas if he didn’t know who Bruno was at all, it’d be a different kind of fear altogether.
Bruno’s theory about the crisscross murders in theory could work, but the issue was that a deal was never struck, so he kept going back to Guy, which would completely negate the idea of them being strangers. They can’t be strangers if Guy and Bruno keep being seen together. It could only work if being on the train was the only time they’d ever met.
Overall
A pretty interesting and exciting movie. A good watch.
Spoilers.
Story
Guy Haines was a tennis player who met a man named Bruno Anthony on the train. Bruno Anthony suggested the idea of swapping murders so that each of them, as the most highly scrutinized suspects, would have alibis. Guy just took Bruno as talking nonsense but Bruno took it very seriously. One must wonder whether he had specifically targeted Guy, with how much he knew about his personal life, even if all of it was in the tabloids.
Guy was in a difficult marriage where both he and his wife Miriam had affair partners. Miriam had been the one to propose the divorce and was pregnant with another man’s child. However, when Guy went to speak with her, she no longer wanted a divorce, probably starting to appreciate Guy’s fame and money as his tennis career grew. His affair partner was Anne, the daughter of a senator. Bruno had surmised and Guy had later confirmed that marrying Anne would be advantageous for a future political career which he planned to embark on after he retired from tennis.
Bruno struck out on his own, tailing Miriam at an amusement park. She thought Bruno was flirting with her but he ended up strangling her when she was separated from her boyfriend and friend. Bruno then went to tell Guy what he’d done, which shocked him. Guy never agreed to any of this and he refused to kill Bruno’s dad for him. Guy was then called over to Anne’s house. It seemed he had a good relationship with Anne’s father and sister. They ‘broke’ the news of the murder to Guy.
Guy’s alibi was not fully confirmed, so the cops had him tailed by two men called Hennessy and Hammond. From then on, Bruno also started to follow Guy around all the time, pressuring him to fulfill his end of the ‘deal.’ Bruno interrupted Anne and Guy while on a date and Anne noticed his tie clip that had his name. Bruno also later showed up at a tennis game and made friends with some people that Anne knew. Bruno also followed them to a party where he strangled a woman while looking straight at Barbara, Anne’s sister. Bruno was kicked out, but Anne pieced together the clues. Bruno and Guy knew each other before, and Barbara and Miriam looked similar so when Bruno was strangling a woman while looking at Barbara, he was brought back to the time of the actual murder.
Anne tried to confront Mrs. Anthony, Bruno’s mom, to get her to stop Bruno, but she refused to acknowledge anything. Bruno then threatened to pin the murder on Guy by leaving his lighter at the scene of the crime. Anne went back to tell Guy about what happened. Guy figured that Bruno would actually carry out his threat. He knew Bruno wouldn’t act until nighttime, but Guy had a tennis game in the day, so he was trying to rush through it to get all the way to the amusement park in Metcalf to stop Bruno.
When Hennessy and Hammond realized that Guy was going back to Metcalf, they called on Metcalf police to be on standby. At the amusement park, Guy and Bruno got into a fight as Guy was trying to get his lighter back. Due to the cops shooting the merry-go-round operator, the merry-go-round spun out of control. An old worker had to crawl underneath to stop the ride but it spun out of control when it did, crushing Bruno. The worker who operated the boat ride pointed out Bruno as the killer which pleased Guy. While Bruno lay dying, Guy tried to get him to confess but Bruno lied. However, Bruno had Guy’s lighter which convinced the cops that Guy was telling the truth abut Bruno trying to fame Guy.
In the ending scene, Guy and Anne were on a train. A passenger across from them recognized Guy, and the two immediately moved seats, as the first time such an event had happened had resulted in a whole ordeal.
The story is fairly simple but thrilling, so I must give credit to Patricia Highsmith as the writer.
Production
Everything was decently made. I think the two main actors were pretty good, but I do also have to give credit to Hitchcock for his ability to create suspense.
Characters
Guy Haines
To be honest, Guy was a kind of a typical main character. I wouldn’t say his character was particularly strong. He was just a regular, reasonable guy who didn’t want to get caught up in Bruno’s crazy scheme. It’s perfectly normal to strike up conversation with a stranger on a train. It’s perfectly normal to just smile and nod to their crazy scheme because you’re never going to see them again. It’s normal to exaggerate and say you want to kill someone when you’re angry. It’s normal to not have expected someone to go ahead with a murder that you never even explicitly agreed to. It’s normal to think about agreeing to crazy terms just to get someone off your back. It’s normal to not want to kill someone and to try to help them. It’s normal for a person to not want to be framed for a murder they didn’t do. So overall, I think Guy acted in a very normal way.
Is Guy a good person? That’s another question. I wouldn’t say he was good or bad. I think he was portrayed as a good guy, but in reality, he was a celebrity with a messy life. He just looked prim and proper so we might not think that. His marriage was a mess and he’d already ingratiated himself in the Morton family before cutting Miriam off. It’s also implied that his marriage with Anne would be advantageous for his future career, which casted doubt on whether his feelings for Anne were completely pure.
So I guess Guy was a normal guy.
Bruno Anthony
Bruno on the other hand lived his own world. Right from the beginning we saw he was chatty. He also seemed to have an agenda. I keep wondering whether Bruno had specifically targeted Guy, trying to catch him on the same train to propose the plan. Otherwise, how could he have thought up of the entire plan while on the train? I do acknowledge that he could have thought up of the plan before, and wanted to take advantage of Guy since he was his captive conversation partner on the train.
It was completely unreasonable for him to go ahead with the murder. He got ahead of himself, thinking that it was such a perfect plan that it had to be carried out. The other alternative is that he wanted to force Guy’s hand, which was what he was trying to do afterwards with the stalking.
Bruno was suspicious when Guy suddenly said he’d agree to the murder, so he intervened and saw that Guy wasn’t actually planning to murder Bruno’s father at all, and instead was going to warn him. Bruno threatened to pin the murder on Guy, and he would act on that.
There was a part where he lost Guy’s lighter in a sewer and that helped stall. But Bruno also wouldn’t act until nighttime. It’s curious, I wonder if that was symbolic, the idea that Bruno only ever shows his true face at night and that whenever he shows up in the daytime, it’s always when he’s stalking Guy and putting on a face of a wonderful and unsuspecting socialite.
Even in death, Bruno wouldn’t confess, wanting to take Guy down with him. I think Bruno fancied himself a mastermind, and he wanted to show Guy that if Guy didn’t agree to his plan of the crisscrossing murders, Bruno would take him down.
We saw that Bruno didn’t like his father who had high expectations for him. He wanted to Bruno to build some work ethic even though they were rich. Bruno said that he’d gotten kicked out of college three times. While I don’t think Bruno’s father was unusual, I think Bruno’s mom enabled him. She thought he had marvelous stories and she’d just laugh along to anything he said. She didn’t think him capable of anything which made Bruno just want to be a mastermind even more. I think it excited him to be able to pull a grand plan off while everyone underestimated him, and while his mom didn’t even notice anything.
Anne Morton
Anne was Guy’s lover, and the daughter of Senator Morton. She was kept in the dark at first, but after seeing Bruno a few times, she pieced together the clues that Bruno had murdered Miriam. She tried to talk to Mrs. Anthony to get Bruno to stop stalking Guy, but that only exacerbated the situation.
I think Anne was originally meant to be an accessory character as many of her scenes were just of her speaking on the phone as a way to advance the plot. She did smartly surmise that Bruno had killed Miriam though, so I think she was also supposed to help the audience the audience notice the cracks in Bruno’s character to show that he wasn’t infalliable.
Miriam Joyce Haines
Miriam was Guy’s wife who was having an affair and was pregnant with another man’s wife. It’s curious why she didn’t want to have a divorce anymore. I want to say it was because she saw how Guy was making decent money, but it was very sudden that she just decided then and there to not get a divorce anymore.
Miriam went to the amusement park with someone who I assumed was her boyfriend and another guy. To be honest they struck me as a bit juvenile and I wonder if that was the point, or if it’s just a culture/generation gap. Anyway, Miriam assumed Bruno was flirting with her, while she was there with her boyfriend/affair partner. So I assume we were meant to see that Miriam was very flippant with relationships.
Themes
I don’t watch horror movies because they’re usually too scary for me, but the scariest thing that can happen in a non-horror movie for me is stalking. So the stalking parts of this movie were definitely a bit chilling for me.
I think it leads to the bigger theme in this movie I noticed which was that just knowing about a murder makes you guilty. Guy had no part in the murder, but just knowing that Bruno had done it already made him susceptible to being manipulated. Bruno could hold power over him because he knew Guy was afraid of being implicated. When Guy and Anne found out about the murder separately, they both said that they were starting to act guilty just by knowing. And I think that relates back to stalking because the reason why stalking is scary (in real life and in movies) is that the person being stalked knows that something isn’t right. The stalking is scarier because Guy knows the implications. Whereas if he didn’t know who Bruno was at all, it’d be a different kind of fear altogether.
Bruno’s theory about the crisscross murders in theory could work, but the issue was that a deal was never struck, so he kept going back to Guy, which would completely negate the idea of them being strangers. They can’t be strangers if Guy and Bruno keep being seen together. It could only work if being on the train was the only time they’d ever met.
Overall
A pretty interesting and exciting movie. A good watch.