Review of Strangers on a Train (1951) by Nick A — 26 Apr 2010

Alfred Hitchcock is the world's best suspense director, and "Strangers on a Train" (1951), an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's '50 novel (about two guys who meet on a train and "joke" about murdering someone the other dislikes), is one of his many sensations.

But it's unique from most of his other great works because of its actors, who equal and heighten the efficacy of Hitchcock's hand with their tense performances. In "Strangers", viewers will get their due share of Hitchcockian angle tweaking, foreshadowing, and distressing silences, but they'll also notice two actors (Farley Granger and Robert Walker) matching wits with the cleverest of all filmmakers.

Robert Walker, in particular, as the film's brooding antagonist, Bruno Anthony, owns this picture as much as its famed director. Blurring the line between obsession and insanity, his Bruno intensified Hollywood's villainous weirdo and would serve as continuous inspiration to rising stars such as Robert Mitchum and, decades later, Anthony Hopkins.

Yet even among the anxious presence of Anthony and under the devious craft of the Master, Strangers on a Train delivers some poignant scenes of beauty and some early lines of humor that press forth Hitchcock's gentler side -- which is almost as fun as his.

..normal one.