Strangers on a Train (1951)

 ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Strangers on a Train (1951) – A. Hitchcock

There is something a bit unsatisfying about Strangers on a Train despite Hitchcock’s awesome technical prowess and complete mastery of the use of suspense. I’ll chalk it up to the presence of Farley Granger and Ruth Roman, a rather dull pair of lead actors.  Robert Walker, in contrast, is magnificently psychopathic as the stranger who strikes up a conversation (on a train) with Granger, offering to kill his wife (Kasey Rogers) in exchange for Granger killing Walker’s father.  You see, Granger, an up and coming tennis star, is seeking a divorce from cheating Rogers that will allow him to marry Roman, a senator’s daughter (the film takes place in DC).  Walker’s father may or may not be a tyrant – it seems more likely that Walker perceives persecution that is not there.  At any rate, Walker carries out his side of the “bargain” (again, all in his head) at a small town carnival and then pressures Granger to follow through on his end.  Of course, he won’t and Walker promises to retaliate.  The police are closing in all the while.  The suspense arrives when Granger must finish a tennis match at Forest Hills, NY, before racing back to the small town carnival to catch Walker before he plants evidence at the scene of the crime (when Walker also drops said evidence down the drain, the tension is ratcheted up even further). Indeed, Hitchcock is near the top of his game, playing with audience expectations and spiking the film with a dash of morbid humour).  If only he’d managed to get a stronger cast…but of course, his real masterworks were soon to come.