Strangers on a Train

Strangers on a Train. 1951 Warner Bros. Pictures
Starring: Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Kasey Rogers (billed as Laura Elliott), Robert Walker, Leo G. Carroll, Patricia Hitchcock
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Buy Strangers on a Train (two-disc special edition) at Amazon.
Also part of the Alfred Hitchcock Signature Collection.

Right off the bat, I need to spoil a crucial part of this movie: Alfred Hitchcock's cameo takes place ten minutes into the film. Look for the man carrying a double bass onto a passenger car. All right? Now, for the rest of the movie...

Guy Haines (Granger) is an amateur tennis player who wants to divorce his wife Miriam (Rogers/Elliott) so he can marry his true love, Anne Morton (Roman), the elegant, beautiful, and let's not forget rich daughter of a senator. Miriam is not interested in divorcing, and she is having affairs on the side. She has become pregnant by someone else, and she is content to exploit Haines indefinitely. On a train, Guy runs into a charming lunatic named Bruno Anthony (Walker). Bruno tells Guy about his "amusing" idea on how to commit the perfect murder, where two strangers "exchange" murders. That way, neither one would have a motive, and each could dream up the perfect alibi for the time when the murder took place. Like Bruno called it, it's a "crisscross". Bruno offers to off Miriam, as long as Guy kills Bruno's estranged father. Guy thinks he's just joking, and makes an excuse to leave. However, Bruno imagines that they have, in fact, made a bargain with each other. In his haste to get away from Bruno, Guy lives his gold cigarette lighter behind, and Bruno takes it. He already knows that the lighter was a gift from Anne to Guy.

Tired of waiting for Guy to contact him to plan out an appropriate timetable for the murders, Bruno tracks down Miriam at an amusement park, and kills her on an island in a lake at the park, while she is out on a date with two of her lovers. Suspicion quickly falls on Guy, since he had an obvious motive. He also can't provide a concrete alibi for the time of the murder. Meanwhile, Bruno keeps confronting Guy, to remind him that Guy is now obligated to kill Bruno's dad, according to the bargain that they supposedly made on the train car.

Can Guy clear his name, and escape this "bargain"?

Strangers on a Train was a blind buy for me one day, since I wasn't aware of its existance until I saw it at Borders one afternoon, and decided to get it after reading the synopsis on the back of the package. Highly recommended.