Criss Cross: Strangers on a Train

The beginning of "Strangers on the Train" shows two men walking into a train station, we don't see their faces, only their feet as they walk. They enter the train and sit across from one another, one of the men crosses their leg and bumps the other man's shoes, we now see their faces as they look at one another. This fateful meeting of these two polar opposites is so simple, yet in Hitchcock's hands it turns into a truly cinematic moment. Hitchcock was a master at showing people what they need to know through film and not through dialogue, here we are introduced to the two main characters without even seeing their faces, yet we know they are the main characters by Hitchcock's creative use of storytelling.

The two men are Guy Haines (Farley Granger) and Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), they are opposite men but with a similar problem. Guy is a tennis star and is deeply involved with a politicians daughter whom he wants to marry, the problem is he's currently married to a woman who has been unfaithful and won't give him a divorce. Bruno's problem stems from his father who wants him to become responsible and get a job even though he's very well off. It seems both Guy and Bruno would be better off if these two people in their lives would disappear. Bruno is the more impulsive one who barges in on Guy's privacy, a man he has just met, and starts talking to him about about his philosophy and certain clever theories he has. The conversation soon leads to the problems with the wife and the father, which gives Bruno the opening for his theory of "The perfect murder". The theory goes as follows, two strangers meet, each of them has a person they would like to put out of the way, so in order for that to happen, the strangers agree to swap murders, the idea being that there will be no motive to connect them to it. "Criss cross" as Bruno puts it. At the time Guy just thinks this is just talk from the outrageous Bruno, but Bruno takes it seriously.

I've just rewatched "Strangers on a Train" again for the first time in a long time, and my appreciation for it has grown even more. The film remains part of Hitchcock's continuous themes of the perfect murder, other films like these include "Dial M for Murder", "Rope" and "Shadow of a Doubt" where the killer always believes their plan is foolproof and they could never be caught. Like in those films there is that little piece of evidence that always trips them up, and in "Strangers on a Train" that piece of evidence happens to be a cigarette lighter. The difference with "Strangers on a Train" is the murderer is always in possession of this little piece of evidence which makes him probably the smartest person in the film, even the police have the wrong man.

The problem with Bruno's theory is it takes two people to execute it and since Guy is unwilling to kill anyone, this leaves Bruno to use the cigarette lighter in order to frame Guy. This leads to one of the most suspenseful moments in all of Hitchcock films where Bruno drops the lighter in a storm drain. His attempts to grab it are cross cut with shots of Guy in a tennis tournament he must finish soon in order to stop Guy from planting the lighter. It's ingenious because we as the audience actually want Bruno, the bad guy to get the lighter before Guy is finished, if he gets the lighter, the film can go on. Hitchcock is known for getting on the villain's side in many of his films, just think of Anthony Perkins in "Psycho" when he attempts to bury a victim's car in the swamp. For a split second, the car refuses to sink, and we like Perkins are holding our breath to see if it does.

Robert Walker's Bruno is one of Hithcock's most likable and cunning villains, even though he's sadistic, there is a charm to him, we laugh when he pops a child's balloon with the end of his cigarette, and chuckle at the scenes with him and his mother, who is just as crazy as he is. The film is full of much dark humour even though it can't be confused as a thriller comedy like his "The Lady Vanishes". Hitchcock must've delighted in the conversations Bruno has with a dinner guest about the best way to murder someone.

The film is also full many of Hitchcock's most famous set pieces like the murder through the lens of an eyeglass, or the tennis match with the bobbing heads going back and forth, and of course the climactic merry-go-round fight near the end. I must say I found the merry-go-round too ridiculous to go along with when I first saw the film, but now I have come to accept it better, and have realized just how thrilling it all is.

My personal favorite part is a rather small scene but displays how Hitchcock plays the audience like an organ. It's the early amusement park scene where Bruno is following his soon-to-be-victim on a boat ride through the Tunnel of Love. We see nothing in the tunnel, but we hear the woman scream as if she is being attacked, when they come out of the tunnel, we see she is fine and the scream was actually from laughter. I loved that moment, and in a way it was a preview of red herrings to come in later films like "Psycho".

"Strangers on a Train" has been thought of as a return to form for Hitchcock after his "Stage Fright" and "Under Capricorn" came off as commercial and critical disappointments. Hitchcock was entering the 1950s, which many consider is his most creative decade, soon we would see "Rear Window", "Vertigo", "The Wrong Man", and "North by Northwest", but I think it was "Strangers on a Train" that showed for the first time Hitchcock was the master of the medium.