Review of Strangers on a Train (1951) by Lewis C — 26 Jun 2010
"What is a life or two, Guy? Some people are better off dead. Well, like your wife and my father, for instance.".
It's the perfect murder. Two strangers meet, and each kill off the victim of the other. There's no motive linking the killer to the crime, so theoretically the police would never have a reason to suspect what actually happened. Of course, even the perfect plan can fail when one of the participants has no intention of actually going through with the crime, and the other is mentally disturbed.
We've seen Hitchcock tackle "the perfect murder" before in Dial M for Murder, and it's no real surprise that both movies deal with the disastrous results of a crime that turns out to be not nearly so perfect. I also ended up liking both movies to about the same degree.
Strangers on a Train does one thing extremely well, and that's suspense. It may be one of the most suspenseful Hitchcock movies that I've seen, and that's saying something. But unlike my favorite Hitchcock movies, it doesn't have much to offer beyond that near-constant tension. I didn't find the characters particularly interesting, and the story didn't do much for me. The merry-go-round scene at the end was incredibly impressive, but it probably will be quite a while before I revisit this one. With that said, an average Hitchcock movie is still worth seeing at least once.
This review of Strangers on a Train (1951) was written by Lewis C on 26 Jun 2010.
Strangers on a Train has generally received very positive reviews.
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