Granger ingenious plot with insinuating creepiness. Hitchcock wanted the phone in the foreground to dominate the shot, emphasizing the importance of the call, but the limited depth-of-field of contemporary motion picture lenses made it difficult to get both phone and women in focus. Buy it! filming was completed, was institutionalized for treatment, and died of an With an emphasis on narrative and visual strategy, Hitchcock controls the escalating tension with a master's flair for cinematic design, and the plot (coscripted by Raymond Chandler) is so tightly constructed that you'll be white-knuckled even after multiple viewings. A recently found longer prerelease British print (Side B) offers "a startling amplification of Bruno's flamboyance, his homoerotic attraction to Guy and his psychotic personality," according to Bill Desowitz of Film Comment. When Bruno drops the lighter down the sewer, he tells the bystanders, he needs help retrieving his cigarette CASE. Even classic endeavors like Fargo and A Simple Plan seem directly fueled by this concept"[64], Almar Haflidason was effusive about Strangers on a Train in 2001 at the BBC website: "Hitchcock's favourite device of an ordinary man caught in an ever-tightening web of fear plunges Guy into one of the director's most fiendishly effective movies. His best performance and best casting. Amateur tennis star Guy Haines wants to divorce his promiscuous wife Miriam so he can marry Anne Morton, the daughter of a US Senator. In 1975, he won the Pulitzer Prize for distinguished criticism. "He had to have one person in each film he could harass," Granger said. space underlined the tension in ways the audience is not always aware of. Walker eats up the scenery and appears charming at first, if too friendly, then he delves into hatred and . Man on a train is about evil and destiny hiding behind the corner, about life changing in a bit because threat is waiting for us, and it's a fantastic example of great storytelling developing a simple yet effective subject: two men meets on a train, and one word too many could change everything. been haunting it all of these years. Behind the Story contains these featurettes: Strangers on a Train: A Hitchcock Classic (SD; 36:44) is a nice overview with Peter Bogdanovich and several others discussing the importance of the film in the Hitchcock canon; Strangers on a Train: The Victim's P.O.V. A psychopath forces a tennis star to comply with his theory that two strangers can get away with murder.A psychopath forces a tennis star to comply with his theory that two strangers can get away with murder.A psychopath forces a tennis star to comply with his theory that two strangers can get away with murder. [46], This doubling has some precedent in the novel; but more of it was deliberately added by Hitchcock, "dictated in rapid and inspired profusion to Czenzi Ormonde and Barbara Keon during the last days of script preparation. Baiting Guy, Bruno reveals that he feels trapped by his hated father (Jonathan Hale). Hitchcock himself designed Bruno's lobster necktie, revealed in a close-up to have strangling lobster claws,[26] and "he personally selected an orange peel, a chewing-gum wrapper, wet leaves, and a bit of crumpled paper that were used for sewer debris"[22] in the scene where Bruno inadvertently drops Guy's lighter down the storm drain. Guy, on the other hand, shows little interest in eating the lunch, apparently having given it no advance thought, in contrast to Bruno, and he merely orders what seems his routine choice, a hamburger and coffee. Guy Haines, a famous tennis player, is recognized on a train by Bruno Anthony, whose conversation shows a detailed knowledge of Guy's private life. The film's opening conversation scene on the train is like a tennis match in which Guy serves up one weak lob after another for Bruno to put sway. ( IMDB). with him than with Granger's playboy. When Guy arrives home, Bruno informs him Miriam is dead and insists that he must now honor their deal. Synopsis. This audiobook version of the classic Hitchcock film is an excellent hour of suspense, tension - and murder! See Appendix 1, Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, (1995) 15:sup1, 131 p 31 DOI: 10.1080/01439689508604551, Warner Bros. press release #HO9-1251, November 30, 1950, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, introducing citations to additional sources, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Influence on Carol Burnett's Star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, "Armchair Audience: The Moving Toyshop (1946)", "The Screen In Review; 'Strangers on a Train,' Another Hitchcock Venture, Arrives at the Warner Theatre", "My Favourite Hitchcock: Strangers on a Train", "Two Men Inspired By 'Throw Momma from the Train' Fail To Get Away With Murder", "David Fincher, 'Strangers on a Train,' and the Tricky Business of Remaking Hitchcock", German Concentration Camps Factual Survey, Alfred Hitchcock: The Art of Making Movies, Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Strangers_on_a_Train_(film)&oldid=1134435612, Films based on works by Patricia Highsmith, Films with screenplays by Raymond Chandler, United States National Film Registry films, Articles needing additional references from June 2022, All articles needing additional references, Articles lacking reliable references from June 2022, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 18 January 2023, at 17:53. Barbara Morton: From what I hear she pursued it in all directions. Variety praised it, writing: "Performance-wise, the cast comes through strongly. At first glance, Guy represents the ordered life where people stick to rules, while Bruno comes from the world of chaos,[49] where they get thrown out of multiple colleges for drinking and gambling. [13] Treatment writer Cook used Guy to make the film "a parable quietly defiant of the Cold War hysteria sweeping America. [63], David Keyes, writing at Cinemaphile in 2002, saw the film as a seminal entry in its genre: "Aside from its very evident approach as a crowd-pleasing popcorn flick, the movie is one of the original shells for identity-inspired mystery thrillers, in which natural human behavior is the driving force behind the true macabre rather than supernatural elements. "[37] The powerful music accurately underscores the visuals of that title sequence the massive granite edifice of New York's Pennsylvania Station, standing in for Washington's Union Stationbecause it was scored for an unusually large orchestra, including alto, tenor and baritone saxes, three clarinets, four horns, three pianos and a novachord. The film's climax, which takes place on a carousel, is one of the most complex scenes ever shot by the director. The psychopath suggests that because they each want to "get rid" of someone, they should "exchange" murders, and that way neither will be caught. "Strangers thriller with odd little kinks now and then. He got a treatment that pleased him on the second attempt, from writer Whitfield Cook, who wove a homoerotic subtext into the story. [52], Nowhere is this more evident than the scene where Guy arrives home at his D.C. apartment to find Bruno lurking across the street; Bruno killed Miriam that evening in Metcalf, and has her glasses to give to Guy almost as a "receipt" that he has executed his part of their "deal". Off-handedly, he suggests to Guy that they trade murders: Bruno will kill Guy's troublesome wife, and Guy will eliminate Bruno's despised father. Tennis star Guy (Farley Granger) hates his unfaithful wife. He told the obscure writer that the famous one hadn't written a solitary line he intended to use, and they would have to start all over on page one, using Cook's treatment as a guide. villains, and Hitch agreed with Truffaut that the audience sympathy was more Bruno does murder Guy's wife, and then demands that Guy keep his half of the The camera was on one side of the reflector, Elliott was on the other, and Hitchcock directed Elliott to turn her back to the reflector and "float backwards, all the way to the floor like you were doing the limbo. scene in the record store, writing something in a notebook. That carousel scene was not faked! She initially praised it, writing: "I am pleased in general. Then [43] First of all, she was not up there alone: flanking her were the actors playing Miriam's two boyfriends "and I have a picture of us waving. Bruno Antony thinks he has the perfect plot to rid himself of his hated father, and when he meets tennis player Guy Haines on a train he thinks he's found the partner he needs to pull it off. Is 'Strangers on a Train' based on a book? In a scene where Guy goes allowed an aging actress to manipulate him in "Sunset Boulevard"). [12], Hitchcock then tried Raymond Chandler, who had earned an Oscar nomination for his first screenplay, Double Indemnity, in collaboration with Billy Wilder. There's Bruno is standing behind an iron gate, the bars casting symbolic shadows on his Strangers on a Train(1950) is a suspense thriller by Patricia Highsmith, based on the premise that two strangers swap murders. Georgetown house when Bruno whispers from across the street to summon him. That combination came in the first Guy there's the famous sequence involving a runaway merry-go-round, on which Guy "[21] Hitchcock, who had drawn gay characters so sharply yet subtly in Rope in 1948, "drafted the left-leaning Cook expressly because he was comfortable with sexually ambiguous characters. [6] He added the film in his Great Movies list. Another great shot shows Bruno's face in the shadow of his hat brim, his identity and lifestyle. This is a five minute mise en scene analysis podcast of the tennis scene from Alfred Hitchock's "Strangers on a Train" by Connor Best and Amanda McVey. Where was the tennis match in Strangers on a Train? sexual tension -- that makes the movie intriguing and halfway plausible, and Strangers on a Train is a 1951 American psychological thriller film noir produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and based on the 1950 novel Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith. Suspense through and through, great light/dark contrast in the camerawork. Did Hitchcock intend for Bruno to be attracted to Guy? Between the two versions of the film, the "British" version most prominently omits the final scene on the train. There can be no compromise in his work, his food or his wines. Beyond all the historical footnotes and film-buff fascination. Robert Walker performance benefits from a subtle tense urgency that perhaps The final scene of the so-called "American" version of this movie had Barbara and Anne Morton waiting for Guy to call on the telephone. The psychological game that Bruno plays on Guy is to force him to kill Bruno's over-bearing father. Co-adapted by Raymond Chandler from a novel by Patricia Highsmith, Strangers on a Train perfectly exemplifies Hitchcock's favorite theme of the evil that lurks just below the surface of. Rowland V. Lee Ranch - Fallbrook Avenue, Canoga Park, Los Angeles, California, USA. famous sequences in "Strangers on a Train." director of photography It is one of the moments in Hitchcock's work that continues to bring gasps from every audience and applause from cinema students. "[23], Burks considered his fourteen years with Hitchcock the best of his career: "You never have any trouble with him as long as you know your job and do it. "Isn't it a fascinating design?" strangers on a train. Please help this article by looking for better, more reliable sources. [44] It premiered in New York on July 3, marking the reopening of the extensively remodeled Strand Theatre as the Warner Theatre, and in a dozen cities around the country. "[13], Even before sewing up the rights for the novel, Hitchcock's mind was whirling with ideas about how to adapt it for the screen. Strangers on a Train movie clips: http://j.mp/1yz9FQeBUY THE MOVIE: http://j.mp/UinqkeDon't miss the HOTTEST NEW TRAILERS: http://bit.ly/1u2y6prCLIP DESCRIPTION:Guy (Farley Granger) notices a sinister face watching him from the crowd.FILM DESCRIPTION:In one of Alfred Hitchcock's suspense classics, tennis pro Guy Haines (Farley Granger) chances to meet wealthy wastrel Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) on a train. Perhaps there will be those in the audience who will likewise be terrified by the villain's darkly menacing warnings and by Mr. Hitchcock's sleekly melodramatic tricks. One of the most popular psychological crime thrillers that Hitchcock ever made is definitely Strangers on a Train, the master's adaptation of crime novelist Patricia Highsmith's debut novel that hit theaters back in 1951.Even though a lot of film scholars over the years considered the movie at least to a degree inferior to Hitchcock's landmark films such as Vertigo or Rear Window, this . A film of noir moments galore. Ordinary Washington locations become sinister hunting grounds that mirror perfectly the creeping terror that slowly consumes Guy, as the lethally smooth Bruno relentlessly pursues him to a frenzied climax. Guy creeps into Bruno's father's room to warn him of his son's murderous intentions, but instead finds Bruno there waiting for him.
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