Review of Strangers on a Train (1951) by Jonathan R — 25 Jul 2010

A movie that shows how many psychotic people there are in this world. Truly a great film. Usually with suspense films, they can be very cliche, and you find yourself able to predict exactly what happens in the movie.

But not in this movie, there were two good moments in the movie that completely threw me off. I guess that's just what Hitchcock loves to do, and he does it well. The characters are surprising and fresh, and thinking about being in the main character's shoes is quite terrifying.

After all, he is being stalked by a man named Bruno (and no, not the Bruno you are thinking of, although that would probably be even scarier) who is convinced that Guy (the main character's name) is his best friend.

Bruno also has the power to ruin Guy's life and send him to jail for a crime Guy did not commit. Scary huh? There are a lot of good scenes in this movie, such as the scenes leading to the climax. These scenes involve Bruno trying to frame Guy for a murder.

Guy would love to stop him, but he can't because he has a tennis match to play. Any sane person would skip this and run and stop the psychotic man, but Guy can't. If he does, the police will suspect him of trying to escape (because they suspect him for murder), and he will look guilty.

So while we watch scenes of Bruno briskly walking to the place where he will frame Guy, we see scenes of Guy playing a tennis match that is going on WAY too long for his comfort. Bruno eventually encounters a setback, and so does Guy, who can't end that tennis match, and it's really interesting to watch them try to recover from their setbacks and try to defeat each other.

Sounds great doesn't it? It is. If you are a fan of suspense, a great story, or anything Hitchcock, I'm positive you will like this movie.