Strangers on a Train
1 Oscar Nominations·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
A charming psychopath tries to coerce a tennis star into his theory that two strangers can commit the perfect crime by exchanging murders—each killing the other’s most-hated person.
What critics thought
Mixed on arrival in 1951 — with Bosley Crowther dismissing the central premise as too thin to hold — Strangers on a Train has since become one of Hitchcock's most celebrated films, with modern opinion nearly unanimous in calling it a masterwork of suspense. The reversal between contemporary notices and lasting reputation is as stark as any in the director's career, driven in large part by Robert Walker's charismatic, unsettling performance as Bruno.
“Walker's role has extreme color, and he projects it deftly.”
Variety
“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. 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. Fast, exciting, and woven with wicked style, this is one of Hitchcock's most efficient and ruthlessly delicious thrillers.”
Almar Haflidason·BBC
“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.”
David Keyes·Cinemaphile
“Hitchcock's study of the guilt that taints the human condition is just one cinematic masterstroke after another”
The Guardian
Genres
Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Cast & Crew
DirectorAlfred Hitchcock
StarringFarley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker, Leo G. Carroll, Patricia Hitchcock
ComposerDimitri Tiomkin
Strangers on a Train
1 Oscar Nominations·National Film Registry
A charming psychopath tries to coerce a tennis star into his theory that two strangers can commit the perfect crime by exchanging murders—each killing the other’s most-hated person.
What critics thought
Mixed on arrival in 1951 — with Bosley Crowther dismissing the central premise as too thin to hold — Strangers on a Train has since become one of Hitchcock's most celebrated films, with modern opinion nearly unanimous in calling it a masterwork of suspense. The reversal between contemporary notices and lasting reputation is as stark as any in the director's career, driven in large part by Robert Walker's charismatic, unsettling performance as Bruno.
“Walker's role has extreme color, and he projects it deftly.”
Variety
“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. 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. Fast, exciting, and woven with wicked style, this is one of Hitchcock's most efficient and ruthlessly delicious thrillers.”
Almar Haflidason·BBC
“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.”
David Keyes·Cinemaphile
“Hitchcock's study of the guilt that taints the human condition is just one cinematic masterstroke after another”
The Guardian
Genres
Crime, Drama, Film-Noir
Cast & Crew
DirectorAlfred Hitchcock
StarringFarley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker, Leo G. Carroll, Patricia Hitchcock
ComposerDimitri Tiomkin
Rent/Purchase