Strangers on a Train

1h 41m 1951

Brief Synopsis

A man's joking suggestion that he and a chance acquaintance trade murders turns deadly.

Cast & Crew

Read More

Alfred Hitchcock

Farley Granger

Guy Haines Mr. Granger appears by arrangement with Samuel Goldwyn

Ruth Roman

Robert Walker

Leo G. Carroll

Patricia Hitchcock

Photos & Videos

View All

Dave Karger Intro -- Strangers On A Train (1951)

Tiffany Vazquez Intro -- Strangers On A Train (1951)

Strangers On A Train (1951) -- (Movie Clip) He's Not French

Dave Karger Intro -- Strangers On A Train (1951)

Film Details

MPAA Rating

Genre

Suspense/Mystery

Adaptation

Crime

Drama

Film Noir

Thriller

Release Date

Jun 30, 1951

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.

Distribution Company

Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.

Country

United States

Location

Washington, DC, USA; Warner Bros Studio, Los Angeles, California, USA; New York City, New York, USA; Darien, Connecticut, USA; Chatsworth, California, United States; Darien, Connecticut, United States; Los Angeles County--Toluca Lake, California, United States; Los Angeles County--Ventura Blvd., California, United States; Los Angeles--Toluca Lake, California, United States; Los Angeles--Ventura Blvd., California, United States; New York City, New York, United States; New York City--Pennsylvania Station, New York, United States; San Fernando Valley--Rowland V. Lee Ranch, California, United States; South Gate, California, United States; Washington, District of Columbia, United States; Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Screenplay Information

Based on the novel Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith (New York, 1950).

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 41m

Sound

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color

Black and White

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.37 : 1

Synopsis

On a train, wealthy, neurotic Bruno Antony recognizes tennis player Guy Haines and strikes up a conversation. While using Guy's cigarette lighter, Bruno notices it is inscribed "From A to G," and guesses that "A" is Senator Morton's daughter Anne, whom Guy intends to marry after Miriam, his current wife, divorces him. Over lunch in his compartment, Bruno describes to Guy his hatred of his father, and suggests a plan for a perfect murder. He proposes that two strangers, who each want someone in their life killed, swap murders. In that way, each has murdered a perfect stranger and is unlikely to be apprehended. For example, Bruno says, he could kill Miriam, and Guy would then return the favor by killing Bruno's father. Believing Bruno to be a harmless crank, Guy agrees that the theory is viable and disembarks from the train at his home town of Metcalf, unaware that he has left his distinctive lighter in Bruno's compartment. In Metcalf, Guy proceeds to the music store where Miriam works. There, Miriam tells him that although she is pregnant with another man's baby, she has no intention of divorcing him. In full sight of the other employees, a furious Guy brutally shakes her, then calls Anne and, still angry, shrieks that he would like to strangle his wife. Meanwhile, Bruno, at his parents' home, overhears his father threaten to institutionalize him, and decides to put his plan into action immediately. Traveling to Metcalf one night, he follows Miriam and two boyfriends to an amusement park tunnel-of-love ride and strangles her on a nearby island. While Bruno is murdering Miriam, Guy is on the train to Washington, D.C. The only other passenger in his car is extremely drunk, but tells Guy his name is Prof. Collins. Later, outside of his residence, Guy encounters Bruno, who informs him of Miriam's murder and shows him her eyeglasses as proof of the deed. When a stunned Guy insists that he will turn Bruno over to the police, Bruno convinces him that the police will believe that he was involved and makes it clear that he expects Guy to complete his part of the "bargain." Guy flees from Bruno and is soon summoned by phone to Senator Morton's home, where Morton informs him of Miriam's death. Although Guy hopes that Collins will give him an alibi, Collins reports having no memory of his drunken evening. The police release Guy, but assign Hennessey, a police detective, to keep a constant watch on him. Although Guy tries to evade Bruno, Bruno sends Guy a map of his father's bedroom, a key to the house and a gun. When Guy continues to ignore him, Bruno manages to ingratiate himself with Guy's friends. Anne, who has become increasingly disturbed by Guy's strange behavior, then confronts him. Under her questioning, he admits that Bruno killed Miriam and tells her about their encounter on the train. A desperate Guy then telephones Bruno and tells him that he will kill his father that night. He evades the detective and uses the key to enter the Antony house, intending to beg Antony to get help for Bruno. However, Bruno, suspecting Guy's motives, is waiting for him in his father's room. The following day, Anne tries to enlist the help of Bruno's doting, dotty mother, who insists that Bruno must be playing a practical joke. Before a tearful Anne leaves, Bruno informs her that Guy killed Miriam and offers as proof Guy's request that Bruno retrieve the lighter that he dropped at the scene of the crime. When Anne reports this to Guy, he realizes that Bruno intends to use his lighter to frame him for the murder. Guy is scheduled to play in a tennis tournament in Washington, D.C., but believing that Bruno will plant the lighter after dark, decides not to drop out. In order to reach Metcalf before Bruno, however, Guy must win the tournament in three sets. He wins the first two sets easily, but loses the third. Meanwhile, Bruno arrives in Metcalf and accidentally drops the lighter down a storm drain. While Bruno attempts to retrieve the lighter, Guy continues to play a determined game. After recovering the lighter, Bruno proceeds to the amusement park. Guy wins the final match, and while Barbara distracts Hennessey and his partner Hammond, Guy takes a waiting cab to the train. In Metcalf, the police, alerted by Hennessey, stake out the park. When the sun sets, Bruno joins the long line of people waiting for the tunnel-of-love boat to the island, but is recognized by the ride's operator. Guy arrives just as the man points out Bruno to the police, and the police mistakenly believe that the operator has identified Guy as the killer. Bruno bolts from the line, chased by Guy, and heads for the carousel. The police shoot at the running men and accidentally hit the operator, who falls on the controls and sets the ride spinning wildly. While Bruno and Guy struggle under the plunging hooves of the carousel horses, a volunteer pulls the controls, and the carousel crashes to a stop, breaking down completely. Bruno, who has been pinned beneath the carousel, refuses to clear Guy, but as he dies, his hand opens, revealing Guy's lighter. After the tunnel-of-love proprietor explains that it was Bruno he saw on the night of the murder, Guy tells Anne that he has been cleared.

Director

Alfred Hitchcock

Cast

Farley Granger

Guy Haines Mr. Granger appears by arrangement with Samuel Goldwyn

Ruth Roman

Robert Walker

Leo G. Carroll

Patricia Hitchcock

Laura Elliott

Marion Lorne

Jonathan Hale

Howard St. John

John Brown

Norma Varden

Mrs. Cunningham

Robert Gist

Alfred Hitchcock

Man carrying bass violin and boarding train

John Doucette

Howard Washington

Dick Wessell

Edward Clark

Leonard Carey

Edna Holland

Tommy Farrell

Miriam's boyfriend

Roland Morris

Miriam's boyfriend

Louis Lettieri

Murray Alper

John Butler

Roy Engel

Joel Allen

Eddie Hearn

Mary Alan Hokanson

Janet Stewart

Shirley Tegge

George Renevant

Odette Myrtil

Charles Meredith

Monya Andre

Minna Phillips

Laura Treadwell

J. Louis Johnson

The Morton's butler

Sam Flint

Joe Warfield

Ralph Moody

Harry Hines

Man under merry-go-round

Jack Cushingham

Tennis opponent

Crew

Gordon Bau

Robert Burks

Director of Photography

Gibson Carter

2d Assistant Director

Raymond Chandler

Whitfield Cook

Jack Cushingham

Technical Advisor

Mel Dellar

Assistant Director

Bud Graybill

Ted Haworth

Ray Heindorf

Alfred Hitchcock

George James Hopkins

Barbara Keon

H. F. Koenekamp

Special Effects

Armour Marlowe

Norman Mcclay

Rita Michaels

Script Supervisor

Harold Noyes

Charles O'bannon

Bob O'dell

Czenzi Ormonde

Bill Phillips

Leah Rhodes

Margaret Ross

Women's Wardrobe

William Schurr

Len South

Assistant Camera

Myrl Stoltz

Dolph Thomas

Dimitri Tiomkin

William H. Ziegler

Photo Collections

Videos

Strangers On A Train (1951) -- (Movie Clip) He's Not French The famous tennis-crowd shot appears here as Bruno (Robert Walker) stalks Guy (Farley Granger), from whom he's expecting a reciprocal murder, and pesters Ann (Ruth Roman) and Barbara (Patricia Hitchcock), in Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train, 1951.

Strangers On A Train (1951) -- (Movie Clip) We Swap Murders Still in the opening scenes, obsequious Bruno (Robert Walker) introduces his diabolical idea to Guy (Farley Granger), in Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train, 1951, from the novel by Patricia Highsmith.

Strangers On A Train (1951) -- (Movie Clip) Try Your Luck, Mister? A famous gag with a balloon, as psychotic Bruno (Robert Walker) follows up on his not-yet-accepted murder swap offer, tracking his target Miriam (Laura Elliott) at the carnival, in Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train, 1951.

Strangers On A Train (1951) -- (Movie Clip) Father Wants To See You Three key players are introduced, Ann (Ruth Roman), Senator Morton (Leo G. Carroll) and Barbara (Patricia Hitchcock, the director's daughter) as shaken tennis pro Guy (Farley Granger) is told what he already knows, in Strangers On A Train, 1951.

Strangers On A Train (1951) -- (Movie Clip) No Man Runs Out On Me! Tennis-pro Guy (Farley Granger), having just been offered a murder-swap on the train, drops by the music store in his home-town to see his philandering wife Miriam (Laura Elliott) about their divorce, early in Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train, 1951.

Strangers On A Train (1951) -- (Movie Clip) Open, My Name's Bruno Opening credits and the famous footsteps, in the opening to Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers On A Train, 1951, starring Farley Granger and Robert Walker, from the novel by Patricia Highsmith.

Strangers on a Train - (Re-issue Trailer) A chance meeting between two men turns into a deadly game of cat and mouse in Strangers on a Train (1951), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Intro Aired: Feb 2019

Dave Karger Intro -- Strangers On A Train (1951) TCM’s Dave Karger introduces Strangers On A Train, 1951.

Intro Aired: Oct 2018

Dave Karger Intro -- Strangers On A Train (1951) TCM’s Dave Karger introduces Strangers On A Train, 1951.

Intro Aired: Jun 2018

Ben Mankiewicz Intro -- Strangers On A Train (1951) Ben Mankiewicz introduces Strangers On A Train, 1951.

Intro Aired: Feb 2017

Tiffany Vazquez Intro -- Strangers On A Train (1951) TCM's Saturday afternoon host Tiffany Vazquez introduces Strangers On A Train, 1951.

Intro Aired: Feb 2016

Ben Mankiewicz Intro -- Strangers On A Train (1951) Ben Mankiewicz introduces Strangers On A Train, 1951.

Film Details

MPAA Rating

Genre

Suspense/Mystery

Adaptation

Crime

Drama

Film Noir

Thriller

Release Date

Jun 30, 1951

Premiere Information

not available

Production Company

Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.

Distribution Company

Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc.

Country

United States

Location

Washington, DC, USA; Warner Bros Studio, Los Angeles, California, USA; New York City, New York, USA; Darien, Connecticut, USA; Chatsworth, California, United States; Darien, Connecticut, United States; Los Angeles County--Toluca Lake, California, United States; Los Angeles County--Ventura Blvd., California, United States; Los Angeles--Toluca Lake, California, United States; Los Angeles--Ventura Blvd., California, United States; New York City, New York, United States; New York City--Pennsylvania Station, New York, United States; San Fernando Valley--Rowland V. Lee Ranch, California, United States; South Gate, California, United States; Washington, District of Columbia, United States; Washington, District of Columbia, United States

Screenplay Information

Based on the novel Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith (New York, 1950).

Technical Specs

Duration

1h 41m

Sound

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Color

Black and White

Theatrical Aspect Ratio

1.37 : 1

Award Nominations

Best Cinematography

1951

Articles

The Essentials - Strangers on a Train

March 11, 2010

SYNOPSIS

Two strangers meet by chance on a train from Washington, D.C., to New York - Guy Haines, a married professional tennis player in love with the daughter of a U.S. Senator, and Bruno Antony, a cynical mama's boy who hates his wealthy father. Bruno poses the wild idea of each committing the other's perfect murder; Guy would kill Bruno's father and Bruno would do away with Guy's promiscuous, blackmailing wife. Guy thinks it's all a joke and laughingly agrees, but when Bruno murders Guy's wife in a small-town amusement park, the joke turns deadly.

Director/Producer: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde, Whitfield Cook, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith
Cinematography: Robert Burks
Editing: William H. Ziegler
Art Direction: Ted Haworth
Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Cast: Robert Walker (Bruno Antony), Farley Granger (Guy Haines), Ruth Roman (Anne Morton), Patricia Hitchcock (Barbara Morton), Leo G. Carroll (Senator Morton), Laura Elliott (Miriam Haines).
BW-101m.

Why STRANGERS ON A TRAIN is Essential

After riding high for several years as one of the most popular directors in film, Alfred Hitchcock produced a string of critical and commercial failures in the late 1940s. Following the great success of Notorious (1946), his next four pictures - The Paradine Case (1947), Rope (1948), Under Capricorn (1949), and Stage Fright (1950) - turned out to be major disappointments. He needed a first-rate thriller that could put him back on top, and he found it in Patricia Highsmith's novel, Strangers on a Train.

In the story, Hitchcock found more than just opportunities for a wild suspenseful ride with a climactic amusement park disaster. He was able to work out in the script and in the film's structure and visual design, the motif of doubling, of opposing forces of dark and light, good and evil, innocence and guilt coming together. Through crosscutting and visual cues that echo each other from one scene to the next, Hitchcock shows how the psychopathic murderer is the shadow of the "innocent" tennis pro, putting into action what the athlete really wants, bringing out the dark underside of potentially murderous desires.

Strangers on a Train isn't usually considered Hitchcock's best work, and in film history, it is generally overshadowed by Notorious (1946), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), and Psycho (1960). (It didn't even make the list of Hitchcock's top ten films compiled by a panel of noted directors at the behest of the British Film Institute in 1999.) But film critics, students and fans love to pick it apart, discuss it, argue over it. Even Hitchcock himself confessed to be enthralled by its elaborate, tightly worked-out design. And even today, such set pieces as the stalking and murder of the young wife, the near-strangulation at the cocktail party, and the climactic carousel scene can still make audiences gasp in unison.

by Rob Nixon

The Essentials - Strangers On A Train

The Essentials - Strangers on a Train

SYNOPSIS Two strangers meet by chance on a train from Washington, D.C., to New York - Guy Haines, a married professional tennis player in love with the daughter of a U.S. Senator, and Bruno Antony, a cynical mama's boy who hates his wealthy father. Bruno poses the wild idea of each committing the other's perfect murder; Guy would kill Bruno's father and Bruno would do away with Guy's promiscuous, blackmailing wife. Guy thinks it's all a joke and laughingly agrees, but when Bruno murders Guy's wife in a small-town amusement park, the joke turns deadly. Director/Producer: Alfred Hitchcock Screenplay: Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde, Whitfield Cook, based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith Cinematography: Robert Burks Editing: William H. Ziegler Art Direction: Ted Haworth Original Music: Dimitri Tiomkin Cast: Robert Walker (Bruno Antony), Farley Granger (Guy Haines), Ruth Roman (Anne Morton), Patricia Hitchcock (Barbara Morton), Leo G. Carroll (Senator Morton), Laura Elliott (Miriam Haines). BW-101m. Why STRANGERS ON A TRAIN is Essential After riding high for several years as one of the most popular directors in film, Alfred Hitchcock produced a string of critical and commercial failures in the late 1940s. Following the great success of Notorious (1946), his next four pictures - The Paradine Case (1947), Rope (1948), Under Capricorn (1949), and Stage Fright (1950) - turned out to be major disappointments. He needed a first-rate thriller that could put him back on top, and he found it in Patricia Highsmith's novel, Strangers on a Train. In the story, Hitchcock found more than just opportunities for a wild suspenseful ride with a climactic amusement park disaster. He was able to work out in the script and in the film's structure and visual design, the motif of doubling, of opposing forces of dark and light, good and evil, innocence and guilt coming together. Through crosscutting and visual cues that echo each other from one scene to the next, Hitchcock shows how the psychopathic murderer is the shadow of the "innocent" tennis pro, putting into action what the athlete really wants, bringing out the dark underside of potentially murderous desires. Strangers on a Train isn't usually considered Hitchcock's best work, and in film history, it is generally overshadowed by Notorious (1946), Rear Window (1954), Vertigo (1958), and Psycho (1960). (It didn't even make the list of Hitchcock's top ten films compiled by a panel of noted directors at the behest of the British Film Institute in 1999.) But film critics, students and fans love to pick it apart, discuss it, argue over it. Even Hitchcock himself confessed to be enthralled by its elaborate, tightly worked-out design. And even today, such set pieces as the stalking and murder of the young wife, the near-strangulation at the cocktail party, and the climactic carousel scene can still make audiences gasp in unison. by Rob Nixon

Pop Culture 101 - Strangers on a Train

March 11, 2010

The story was presented on radio later in 1951 on CBS Theater with Ray Milland and Frank Lovejoy in the leads and Ruth Roman reprising her role as Anne.

The story was done again on radio in 1954 with Dana Andrews, Robert Cummings, and Virginia Mayo.

The movie was remade as Once You Kiss a Stranger (1969). In that version, Paul Burke plays a pro golfer who gets mixed up with a mentally unstable woman (Carol Lynley) who offers to kill his opponent if he will kill the psychiatrist who wants to have her committed.

Another version was made for TV as Once You Meet a Stranger (1996) with the genders of both the main characters reversed. Jacqueline Bisset plays a former child star whose husband won't give her a divorce. Theresa Russell is the woman who offers to kill the husband in exchange for the murder of the mother she hates.

The story - and the familiar Hitchcock nightmare mother figure - got a comic twist in Throw Momma from the Train (1987) with Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito as the would-be murderers. In this version, the plot is set in motion when teacher Crystal suggests to writing student DeVito that he watch a Hitchcock movie to learn the mechanics of a mystery thriller. DeVito watches Strangers on a Train and gets the inspiration to off Crystal's ex-wife and have his own obnoxious mother killed.

Strangers on a Train was featured in the Barry Levinson film Liberty Heights (1999).

There are three differences in the British version of the film: The first encounter between Bruno and Guy on the train is longer and features a more obvious homoerotic flirtation by Bruno; in the scene where Guy sneaks out of his apartment to go to Bruno's house, a shot of him opening a drawer to get the map Bruno sketched is added; the very last scene of Guy being recognized by a clergyman on a train was deleted.

Murder by strangulation is described, implied, or shown in 17 of Hitchcock's films.

John Frankenheimer paid homage to the scene of Bruno strangling Miriam shot as a reflection in her fallen glasses in his film The Young Savages (1961).

Because he died before filming was complete, the final shots of Walker's last film, My Son John (1952), were taken from Strangers on a Train.

by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford

Pop Culture 101 - Strangers on a Train

The story was presented on radio later in 1951 on CBS Theater with Ray Milland and Frank Lovejoy in the leads and Ruth Roman reprising her role as Anne. The story was done again on radio in 1954 with Dana Andrews, Robert Cummings, and Virginia Mayo. The movie was remade as Once You Kiss a Stranger (1969). In that version, Paul Burke plays a pro golfer who gets mixed up with a mentally unstable woman (Carol Lynley) who offers to kill his opponent if he will kill the psychiatrist who wants to have her committed. Another version was made for TV as Once You Meet a Stranger (1996) with the genders of both the main characters reversed. Jacqueline Bisset plays a former child star whose husband won't give her a divorce. Theresa Russell is the woman who offers to kill the husband in exchange for the murder of the mother she hates. The story - and the familiar Hitchcock nightmare mother figure - got a comic twist in Throw Momma from the Train (1987) with Billy Crystal and Danny DeVito as the would-be murderers. In this version, the plot is set in motion when teacher Crystal suggests to writing student DeVito that he watch a Hitchcock movie to learn the mechanics of a mystery thriller. DeVito watches Strangers on a Train and gets the inspiration to off Crystal's ex-wife and have his own obnoxious mother killed. Strangers on a Train was featured in the Barry Levinson film Liberty Heights (1999). There are three differences in the British version of the film: The first encounter between Bruno and Guy on the train is longer and features a more obvious homoerotic flirtation by Bruno; in the scene where Guy sneaks out of his apartment to go to Bruno's house, a shot of him opening a drawer to get the map Bruno sketched is added; the very last scene of Guy being recognized by a clergyman on a train was deleted. Murder by strangulation is described, implied, or shown in 17 of Hitchcock's films. John Frankenheimer paid homage to the scene of Bruno strangling Miriam shot as a reflection in her fallen glasses in his film The Young Savages (1961). Because he died before filming was complete, the final shots of Walker's last film, My Son John (1952), were taken from Strangers on a Train. by Rob Nixon & Jeff Stafford

Trivia - Strangers on a Train - Trivia and Fun Facts About STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

March 11, 2010

Hitchcock's cameo comes early in Strangers on a Train. He is seen boarding a train carrying a double bass.

Hitchcock cast his own daughter as the younger sister of Guy's girlfriend. Patricia Hitchcock also appeared in her father's Stage Fright (1950) and Psycho (1960).

Similar to the scene of Bruno at the Morton's party, Hitchcock enjoyed showing people in social situations how to strangle someone. Also, a famous sequence of photos by Philippe Halsman shows Hitchcock doing various things to a bust of his daughter, including strangling her.

Advertisements for the film showed Hitchcock inserting the letter "L" into the word "Strangers" in the title to make "Stranglers."

In 1956, Ruth Roman and her son were among the hundreds of passengers rescued when the luxury liner Andrea Doria collided with another ship and sank.

Laura Elliott, who played Guy's murdered wife, is best remembered under her other professional name, Kasey Rogers, as Louise Tate, wife of Darren's boss on the TV series Bewitched.

Marion Lorne, who played Bruno's mother, also appeared on Bewitched for several seasons as Samantha¿ dotty old Aunt Clara.

Hitchcock and cinematographer Robert Burks worked together 12 times. Burks shot every one of Hitchcock's films between this picture and Marnie (1964), except for Psycho (1960). He was Oscar-nominated for this film and Rear Window (1954) and won Best Color Cinematography for To Catch a Thief (1955).

Composer Dimitri Tiomkin also wrote the scores for the Hitchcock films Shadow of a Doubt (1943), I Confess (1953), and Dial M for Murder (1954).

Leo G. Carroll appeared in five other Hitchcock films, including his role as the murderous Dr. Murchison in Spellbound (1945).

Several of Raymond Chandler's novels have been made into movies, including Farewell, My Lovely (1975, and as The Falcon Takes Over, 1942, and Murder, My Sweet, 1944), The Big Sleep (1946 and 1978), Lady in the Lake (1947), and The Long Goodbye (1973).

Chandler also wrote the screenplays for Double Indemnity (1944), The Unseen (1945), and The Blue Dahlia (1946).

Raymond Chandler on writing for film: "They hire writers as a necessary evil because all the brilliant second-guessers, who can tell you what is wrong with what you do, can't do anything themselves. They hire writers, I said, and sometimes at a high salary; but they hate them every minute. They would rather save a thousand bucks by cutting off a writer before he has time to catch his breath than save fifty thousand by using their brains during production."

Famous Quotes from STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

BRUNO (Robert Walker): I certainly admire people who do things. People who do things are important. Now me, I never seem to do anything.

BRUNO: Scotch and water please. A pair. Doubles. The only kind of doubles I play.

BRUNO: What is a life or two, Guy? Some people are better off dead. Your wife and my father, for instance.

BRUNO: You do my murder, I do yours. ¿Criss cross.

MRS. ANTONY (Marion Lorne): I do hope you're forgotten all about that silly little plan of yours.
BRUNO: Which one?
MRS. ANTONY: About blowing up the White House.

BARBARA (Patricia Hitchcock): Daddy doesn't mind a little scandal, he's a senator.

BARBARA: I still think it would be wonderful to have a man love you so much he'd kill for you.

SEN. MORTON (Leo G. Carroll): Even the most unworthy of us has the right to life and the pursuit of happiness.
BARBARA: From what I hear, she pursued it in every direction.

BRUNO: My theory is that everyone is a potential murderer.

BARBARA: He looked at me. His hands were on her throat, Anne; he was strangling me. Compiled by Rob Nixon

Trivia - Strangers on a Train - Trivia and Fun Facts About STRANGERS ON A TRAIN

Hitchcock's cameo comes early in Strangers on a Train. He is seen boarding a train carrying a double bass. Hitchcock cast his own daughter as the younger sister of Guy's girlfriend. Patricia Hitchcock also appeared in her father's Stage Fright (1950) and Psycho (1960). Similar to the scene of Bruno at the Morton's party, Hitchcock enjoyed showing people in social situations how to strangle someone. Also, a famous sequence of photos by Philippe Halsman shows Hitchcock doing various things to a bust of his daughter, including strangling her. Advertisements for the film showed Hitchcock inserting the letter "L" into the word "Strangers" in the title to make "Stranglers." In 1956, Ruth Roman and her son were among the hundreds of passengers rescued when the luxury liner Andrea Doria collided with another ship and sank. Laura Elliott, who played Guy's murdered wife, is best remembered under her other professional name, Kasey Rogers, as Louise Tate, wife of Darren's boss on the TV series Bewitched. Marion Lorne, who played Bruno's mother, also appeared on Bewitched for several seasons as Samantha¿ dotty old Aunt Clara. Hitchcock and cinematographer Robert Burks worked together 12 times. Burks shot every one of Hitchcock's films between this picture and Marnie (1964), except for Psycho (1960). He was Oscar-nominated for this film and Rear Window (1954) and won Best Color Cinematography for To Catch a Thief (1955). Composer Dimitri Tiomkin also wrote the scores for the Hitchcock films Shadow of a Doubt (1943), I Confess (1953), and Dial M for Murder (1954). Leo G. Carroll appeared in five other Hitchcock films, including his role as the murderous Dr. Murchison in Spellbound (1945). Several of Raymond Chandler's novels have been made into movies, including Farewell, My Lovely (1975, and as The Falcon Takes Over, 1942, and Murder, My Sweet, 1944), The Big Sleep (1946 and 1978), Lady in the Lake (1947), and The Long Goodbye (1973). Chandler also wrote the screenplays for Double Indemnity (1944), The Unseen (1945), and The Blue Dahlia (1946). Raymond Chandler on writing for film: "They hire writers as a necessary evil because all the brilliant second-guessers, who can tell you what is wrong with what you do, can't do anything themselves. They hire writers, I said, and sometimes at a high salary; but they hate them every minute. They would rather save a thousand bucks by cutting off a writer before he has time to catch his breath than save fifty thousand by using their brains during production." Famous Quotes from STRANGERS ON A TRAIN BRUNO (Robert Walker): I certainly admire people who do things. People who do things are important. Now me, I never seem to do anything. BRUNO: Scotch and water please. A pair. Doubles. The only kind of doubles I play. BRUNO: What is a life or two, Guy? Some people are better off dead. Your wife and my father, for instance. BRUNO: You do my murder, I do yours. ¿Criss cross. MRS. ANTONY (Marion Lorne): I do hope you're forgotten all about that silly little plan of yours. BRUNO: Which one? MRS. ANTONY: About blowing up the White House. BARBARA (Patricia Hitchcock): Daddy doesn't mind a little scandal, he's a senator. BARBARA: I still think it would be wonderful to have a man love you so much he'd kill for you. SEN. MORTON (Leo G. Carroll): Even the most unworthy of us has the right to life and the pursuit of happiness. BARBARA: From what I hear, she pursued it in every direction. BRUNO: My theory is that everyone is a potential murderer. BARBARA: He looked at me. His hands were on her throat, Anne; he was strangling me. Compiled by Rob Nixon

The Big Idea - Strangers on a Train

March 11, 2010

When Alfred Hitchcock read Patricia Highsmith's thriller Strangers on a Train, he immediately decided to buy the film rights. He found he shared with Highsmith an interest in the duality of the human psyche and each person's capacity for evil. He decided to create from the novel a suspense story centering around two men who would represent both sides of the same personality.

Hitchcock instructed his agents to negotiate the purchase of Highsmith's book without mentioning his name for fear of jacking up the price. He ended up getting it for only $7500, which seriously irritated its author.

Hitchcock contracted Whitfield Cook, who worked with him on the screenplay for Stage Fright (1950), to help him hammer out a 65-page treatment of the novel. Their treatment tightened the story, limited the location, and delineated a series of shots that would set up the structure and visual motif of doubles and morally opposing forces.

Hitchcock had a hard time finding a first-rate writer willing to take on the script assignment. "They all felt my first draft was so flat and factual that they couldn't see one iota of quality in it," he later said. "Yet the whole film was there visually."

Hitchcock wanted a mystery writer to handle the script. It was first submitted to Dashiell Hammett, whose novels The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, and The Thin Man had been adapted for the screen. But that collaboration never materialized.

Finally Raymond Chandler was hired at $2,500. Chandler had a great track record, both as a screenwriter himself and as an author whose novels were successfully adapted to screen. He and Hitchcock met only once, briefly, before Chandler took the treatment, Highsmith's novel, and a secretary to his La Jolla home to work.

The working relationship between Hitchcock and Chandler was not a happy one. Chandler was a hard drinker and a difficult person to get along with under the best of circumstances. He had very little respect for Hitchcock. One day when the director was getting out of his car at Chandler's home, the writer turned to his secretary and said, "Look at that fat bastard trying to get out of his car." When the secretary warned that Hitchcock might be able to hear him, Chandler said he didn't care.

The main bone of contention between the two men was that Chandler's writing paid more attention to character motivation while Hitchcock was more interested in the visual development and formal structure of the movie laid out in the treatment. In a letter to a studio executive, Chandler said he preferred to work with a director "who realizes that what is said and how it is said is more important than shooting it upside down through a glass of champagne."

"The thing that amuses me about Hitchcock is the way he directs the film in his head before he knows what the story is," Chandler wrote to his British editor. "He has a strong feeling for stage business and mood and background, not so much for the guts of the business. But he is as nice as can be to argue with."

Chandler and Hitchcock were also at an impasse over the notion of suspense. "Suspense as an absolute quality has never seemed to me very important," Chandler wrote a friend in September 1950. "At best it is a secondary growth, and at worst an attempt to make something out of nothing."

"After a while, I had to give up working with him," Hitchcock recalled later. "I would offer him a suggestion. Instead of giving it some thought, he would remark to me, 'If you can go it alone, why the hell do you need me?' He refused to work with me as director."

Chandler finished a draft of the script that ended with the murderer apprehended and sent to an insane asylum, writhing in a strait jacket in the final shot. Hitchcock noted revisions he wanted made. Although Chandler carped furiously to his agent, he went forward with a second draft. Upon reading the revised version, Hitchcock immediately decided he needed another writer.

Although Chandler had been complaining all along that the reason his work wasn't up to snuff was because Hitchcock interfered too much, after the second draft he began grousing that the director had ignored him and left him to work on his own too much to produce a satisfactory script.

Hitchcock next assigned the script to Czenzi Ormonde, assistant to Ben Hecht, the noted screenwriter with whom the director often worked. With help from Hecht, production associate Barbara Keon, and Hitchcock's wife, Alma, Ormonde completed a script that Chandler said removed "almost every trace of my writing." A comparison of the two scripts bear out Chandler¿ assertion.

Chandler threatened to have his name removed from the credits. "It is obvious to me now, and must have been obvious to many people long since, that a Hitchcock picture has to be all Hitchcock," he wrote in a December 1950 letter. His name, however, was kept on the credits.

With the script complete, casting was begun. Hitchcock wanted - and got - Robert Walker for the role of the psychopathic Bruno. Because Walker was best known as the All-American boy next door in such films as Since You Went Away (1944), The Clock (1945), and One Touch of Venus (1948), Hitchcock liked the idea of casting him totally against type.

Hitchcock wanted William Holden for the role of tennis pro Guy Haines. When he couldn't get Holden, he signed Farley Granger, who played one of the troubled young killers in Rope (1948).

Against Hitchcock's wishes, Warner Brothers cast one of their contract players, Ruth Roman, as Guy¿ love interest.

Hitchcock's daughter Patricia was informed by her agent there might be a part for her in the film. The director handled his daughter as he would any other actor, formally interviewing her, doing a screen test, and discussing her rightness for the role.

by Rob Nixon

The Big Idea - Strangers on a Train

When Alfred Hitchcock read Patricia Highsmith's thriller Strangers on a Train, he immediately decided to buy the film rights. He found he shared with Highsmith an interest in the duality of the human psyche and each person's capacity for evil. He decided to create from the novel a suspense story centering around two men who would represent both sides of the same personality. Hitchcock instructed his agents to negotiate the purchase of Highsmith's book without mentioning his name for fear of jacking up the price. He ended up getting it for only $7500, which seriously irritated its author. Hitchcock contracted Whitfield Cook, who worked with him on the screenplay for Stage Fright (1950), to help him hammer out a 65-page treatment of the novel. Their treatment tightened the story, limited the location, and delineated a series of shots that would set up the structure and visual motif of doubles and morally opposing forces. Hitchcock had a hard time finding a first-rate writer willing to take on the script assignment. "They all felt my first draft was so flat and factual that they couldn't see one iota of quality in it," he later said. "Yet the whole film was there visually." Hitchcock wanted a mystery writer to handle the script. It was first submitted to Dashiell Hammett, whose novels The Maltese Falcon, The Glass Key, and The Thin Man had been adapted for the screen. But that collaboration never materialized. Finally Raymond Chandler was hired at $2,500. Chandler had a great track record, both as a screenwriter himself and as an author whose novels were successfully adapted to screen. He and Hitchcock met only once, briefly, before Chandler took the treatment, Highsmith's novel, and a secretary to his La Jolla home to work. The working relationship between Hitchcock and Chandler was not a happy one. Chandler was a hard drinker and a difficult person to get along with under the best of circumstances. He had very little respect for Hitchcock. One day when the director was getting out of his car at Chandler's home, the writer turned to his secretary and said, "Look at that fat bastard trying to get out of his car." When the secretary warned that Hitchcock might be able to hear him, Chandler said he didn't care. The main bone of contention between the two men was that Chandler's writing paid more attention to character motivation while Hitchcock was more interested in the visual development and formal structure of the movie laid out in the treatment. In a letter to a studio executive, Chandler said he preferred to work with a director "who realizes that what is said and how it is said is more important than shooting it upside down through a glass of champagne." "The thing that amuses me about Hitchcock is the way he directs the film in his head before he knows what the story is," Chandler wrote to his British editor. "He has a strong feeling for stage business and mood and background, not so much for the guts of the business. But he is as nice as can be to argue with." Chandler and Hitchcock were also at an impasse over the notion of suspense. "Suspense as an absolute quality has never seemed to me very important," Chandler wrote a friend in September 1950. "At best it is a secondary growth, and at worst an attempt to make something out of nothing." "After a while, I had to give up working with him," Hitchcock recalled later. "I would offer him a suggestion. Instead of giving it some thought, he would remark to me, 'If you can go it alone, why the hell do you need me?' He refused to work with me as director." Chandler finished a draft of the script that ended with the murderer apprehended and sent to an insane asylum, writhing in a strait jacket in the final shot. Hitchcock noted revisions he wanted made. Although Chandler carped furiously to his agent, he went forward with a second draft. Upon reading the revised version, Hitchcock immediately decided he needed another writer. Although Chandler had been complaining all along that the reason his work wasn't up to snuff was because Hitchcock interfered too much, after the second draft he began grousing that the director had ignored him and left him to work on his own too much to produce a satisfactory script. Hitchcock next assigned the script to Czenzi Ormonde, assistant to Ben Hecht, the noted screenwriter with whom the director often worked. With help from Hecht, production associate Barbara Keon, and Hitchcock's wife, Alma, Ormonde completed a script that Chandler said removed "almost every trace of my writing." A comparison of the two scripts bear out Chandler¿ assertion. Chandler threatened to have his name removed from the credits. "It is obvious to me now, and must have been obvious to many people long since, that a Hitchcock picture has to be all Hitchcock," he wrote in a December 1950 letter. His name, however, was kept on the credits. With the script complete, casting was begun. Hitchcock wanted - and got - Robert Walker for the role of the psychopathic Bruno. Because Walker was best known as the All-American boy next door in such films as Since You Went Away (1944), The Clock (1945), and One Touch of Venus (1948), Hitchcock liked the idea of casting him totally against type. Hitchcock wanted William Holden for the role of tennis pro Guy Haines. When he couldn't get Holden, he signed Farley Granger, who played one of the troubled young killers in Rope (1948). Against Hitchcock's wishes, Warner Brothers cast one of their contract players, Ruth Roman, as Guy¿ love interest. Hitchcock's daughter Patricia was informed by her agent there might be a part for her in the film. The director handled his daughter as he would any other actor, formally interviewing her, doing a screen test, and discussing her rightness for the role. by Rob Nixon

Behind the Camera - Strangers on a Train

March 11, 2010

While the script was still being worked on, Hitchcock went to the Forest Hills tennis club in New York to film the Davis Cup matches between Australia and the U.S. for long shots of Guy competing.

Location scenes were shot in October 1950 at Penn Station in New York, a railroad stop in Danbury, Conn. (standing in for the town of Metcalf), and at various places around the nation's capital.

An amusement park was created according to Hitchcock's exact specifications at the ranch of director Rowland V. Lee in the Los Angeles suburb of Chatsworth. However, the tunnel-of-love scenes were shot at a fairground in Canoga Park.

Farley Granger said that Hitchcock, who worked all his shots out in great detail on paper before shooting, often looked unhappy on the set. When the actor asked him if something was wrong, Hitchcock complained, "Oh, I'm so bored!"

Hitchcock supervised the minutest detail of the filming. He personally selected an orange peel, a chewing gum wrapper, wet leaves, and a bit of crumpled paper that were used as debris in the sewer where Bruno strains to recover Guy's dropped cigarette lighter.

Hitchcock personally designed Bruno's necktie with its threatening lobster claw image.

Cinematographer Robert Burks began an association with Hitchcock on this picture that would last another 13 years and a dozen films. "You never have any trouble with him as long as you know your job and do it," Burks said. "Hitchcock insists on perfection. He has no patience with mediocrity on the set or at a dinner table. There can be no compromise in his work, his food, or his wines."

Tennis pro Jack Cunningham coached Farley Granger for the scenes that depicted Guy Haines engaged in a tennis match. Cunningham also played his opponent in those scenes.

Hitchcock and Robert Walker worked out an elaborate series of gestures and physical appearance to suggest the homosexuality and seductiveness of Bruno's character while bypassing censor objections.

Granger said Hitchcock, who did not like Ruth Roman in the role, treated her very harshly and criticized her often in front of everyone. "He had to have one person in each film he could harass," Granger noted.

Hitchcock refused to treat his daughter preferentially, which won them both the respect of the other players. "We never discuss Strangers on a Train at home," she told an interviewer at the time. "On the set, he gives me direction as well as criticism. I might as well be Jane Jones instead of Patricia Hitchcock."

Hitchcock's treatment of his daughter went beyond professional in one instance. Pat had begged for a ride on the Ferris wheel constructed on the fairgrounds set. When she reached the top, Hitchcock ordered the ride stopped and all lights turned out. Leaving the area in total darkness, he took cast and crew to another location in the far corner of the park to direct a different scene. His daughter remained in terror at the top of the Ferris wheel for an hour before he sent someone back to lower it and let her out.

The scene of the climactic fight on the carousel and the ride's subsequent explosion was very complicated to shoot with a combination of live action and rear screen projection. It usually took about a half day to set up each shot so the actors and the projected image matched.

The carousel explosion was filmed in miniature then enlarged on a huge rear-projection screen behind the live performers.

The shot of the carousel operator crawling under the ride to shut it off when it spins out of control did not employ special effects other than speeding up the film slightly. The man actually crawled under the spinning carousel. Hitchcock swore he would never do anything like that again.

To achieve the shot of Bruno murdering Miriam reflected in her glasses, an enormous distorting lens was constructed. The two actors were then reflected in it at a 90-degree angle.

On Strangers on a Train, as was his usual practice, Hitchcock shot each scene so that there was only one way to edit it which always conformed to his initial visual concept and pre-production storyboards.

Strangers on a Train was completed just before Christmas 1950.

by Rob Nixon

Behind the Camera - Strangers on a Train

While the script was still being worked on, Hitchcock went to the Forest Hills tennis club in New York to film the Davis Cup matches between Australia and the U.S. for long shots of Guy competing. Location scenes were shot in October 1950 at Penn Station in New York, a railroad stop in Danbury, Conn. (standing in for the town of Metcalf), and at various places around the nation's capital. An amusement park was created according to Hitchcock's exact specifications at the ranch of director Rowland V. Lee in the Los Angeles suburb of Chatsworth. However, the tunnel-of-love scenes were shot at a fairground in Canoga Park. Farley Granger said that Hitchcock, who worked all his shots out in great detail on paper before shooting, often looked unhappy on the set. When the actor asked him if something was wrong, Hitchcock complained, "Oh, I'm so bored!" Hitchcock supervised the minutest detail of the filming. He personally selected an orange peel, a chewing gum wrapper, wet leaves, and a bit of crumpled paper that were used as debris in the sewer where Bruno strains to recover Guy's dropped cigarette lighter. Hitchcock personally designed Bruno's necktie with its threatening lobster claw image. Cinematographer Robert Burks began an association with Hitchcock on this picture that would last another 13 years and a dozen films. "You never have any trouble with him as long as you know your job and do it," Burks said. "Hitchcock insists on perfection. He has no patience with mediocrity on the set or at a dinner table. There can be no compromise in his work, his food, or his wines." Tennis pro Jack Cunningham coached Farley Granger for the scenes that depicted Guy Haines engaged in a tennis match. Cunningham also played his opponent in those scenes. Hitchcock and Robert Walker worked out an elaborate series of gestures and physical appearance to suggest the homosexuality and seductiveness of Bruno's character while bypassing censor objections. Granger said Hitchcock, who did not like Ruth Roman in the role, treated her very harshly and criticized her often in front of everyone. "He had to have one person in each film he could harass," Granger noted. Hitchcock refused to treat his daughter preferentially, which won them both the respect of the other players. "We never discuss Strangers on a Train at home," she told an interviewer at the time. "On the set, he gives me direction as well as criticism. I might as well be Jane Jones instead of Patricia Hitchcock." Hitchcock's treatment of his daughter went beyond professional in one instance. Pat had begged for a ride on the Ferris wheel constructed on the fairgrounds set. When she reached the top, Hitchcock ordered the ride stopped and all lights turned out. Leaving the area in total darkness, he took cast and crew to another location in the far corner of the park to direct a different scene. His daughter remained in terror at the top of the Ferris wheel for an hour before he sent someone back to lower it and let her out. The scene of the climactic fight on the carousel and the ride's subsequent explosion was very complicated to shoot with a combination of live action and rear screen projection. It usually took about a half day to set up each shot so the actors and the projected image matched. The carousel explosion was filmed in miniature then enlarged on a huge rear-projection screen behind the live performers. The shot of the carousel operator crawling under the ride to shut it off when it spins out of control did not employ special effects other than speeding up the film slightly. The man actually crawled under the spinning carousel. Hitchcock swore he would never do anything like that again. To achieve the shot of Bruno murdering Miriam reflected in her glasses, an enormous distorting lens was constructed. The two actors were then reflected in it at a 90-degree angle. On Strangers on a Train, as was his usual practice, Hitchcock shot each scene so that there was only one way to edit it which always conformed to his initial visual concept and pre-production storyboards. Strangers on a Train was completed just before Christmas 1950. by Rob Nixon

Strangers on a Train

August 26, 2003

What could have been a more inspired collaboration than one between the cinematic master of suspense and the hardboiled novelist who made detective fiction a respected literary genre? While it seems like a perfect pairing in retrospect, director Alfred Hitchcock and writer Raymond Chandler clashed continually during the making of Strangers on a Train (1951). In The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock by Donald Spoto, the director admitted, "Our collaboration was not very happy. After a while I had to give up working with him. Sometimes when we were trying to get the idea for a scene, I would offer him a suggestion. Instead of giving it some thought, he would remark to me, very discontentedly, 'If you can go it alone, why the hell do you need me?' He refused to work with me as a director." In the end, Hitchcock threw out Chandler's screenplay and hired Czenzi Ormonde to rewrite it with some additional dialogue supplied by Alma Hitchcock. Even with the last minute change of screenwriters, Strangers on a Train is generally acknowledged as one of Hitchcock's best films and was a remarkable comeback from the director's previous commercial failures of Stage Fright (1950), Under Capricorn (1949), Rope (1948), and The Paradine Case (1948). Of course, Chandler devotees claim they can clearly see the novelist's imprint on the final film but the ironic part is that every trace of the screenwriter's original work was removed by Hitchcock.

Based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley, Strangers on a Train presents us with two men from different worlds who strike up a fateful conversation during a train trip. Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is a professional tennis player with social aspirations. He'd like to marry Anne Morten (Ruth Roman), the daughter of a prominent Washington senator, but Miriam, his spiteful wife, refuses to divorce him. Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) is an effete and emotionally unstable dilettante with a deep hatred for his wealthy father. In the course of their conversation, Bruno makes the suggestion that they exchange murders. If Guy will murder Bruno's father, Bruno will murder Miriam. Guy dismisses Bruno's comment as a macabre joke but soon comes to realize he is dealing with a psychopath.

Originally William Holden was considered for the role of Guy but when he wasn't available, Hitchcock signed his former leading man from Rope, Farley Granger. The director was less pleased with the casting of Ruth Roman as Anne Morten who was forced on him by Warner Brothers. For the role of Anne's spunky sister, Barbara, who witnesses Bruno's dark side at a social gathering, Hitchcock cast his own daughter Patricia in the part after she agreed to a screen test. However, you couldn't really say she was treated with kid gloves. A press release from the set revealed a cruel joke Hitchcock played on her one night. When Pat begged for a ride on the Ferris wheel on the fairground set, he gave his permission and then stopped the ride when she reached the topmost point, extinguishing all the lights. Hitchcock then went off to direct another scene in a far corner of the park, leaving her stranded for more than an hour in the darkness.

Of course, the real surprise of Strangers on a Train is Robert Walker as Bruno Anthony. Walker had always been typecast as the All-American boy-next-door in such wholesome MGM fare as See Here, Private Hargrove (1944) and The Clock (1945) but Hitchcock saw another side of Walker which he effectively exploited in his film. Unfortunately, Walker, who had just recovered from a nervous breakdown prior to filming Strangers on a Train, would die just a year later during the filming of My Son John (1952), a rabid anticommunist melodrama that ended up using some outtake footage of Walker in Strangers on a Train to fill in some continuity gaps. Hitchcock later said in an interview with Jay Robert Nash: "I remember one night we had him at a party, God rest his soul....a little party after the picture's showing at our house and my wife gave him brandy. Someone said, 'Oh, you should never do that, never give him brandy, because he'll be gone.' And he was gone, too. He had two or three. Then he took my wife aside and talked about me. He said: 'You know, I love him, but I hate him at the same time!' This was Robert Walker. It's scary, isn't it? In our own home!"

Director/Producer: Alfred Hitchcock
Screenplay: Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde, Whitfield Cook (adaptation), Patricia Highsmith (novel)
Cinematography: Robert Burks
Music: Dimitri Tiomkin
Principle Cast: Farley Granger (Guy Haines), Ruth Roman (Anne Morton), Robert Walker (Bruno Antony), Leo G. Carroll (Senator Morton), Patricia Hitchcock (Barbara Morton)
BW-104m.

by Jeff Stafford

Strangers on a Train

What could have been a more inspired collaboration than one between the cinematic master of suspense and the hardboiled novelist who made detective fiction a respected literary genre? While it seems like a perfect pairing in retrospect, director Alfred Hitchcock and writer Raymond Chandler clashed continually during the making of Strangers on a Train (1951). In The Dark Side of Genius: The Life of Alfred Hitchcock by Donald Spoto, the director admitted, "Our collaboration was not very happy. After a while I had to give up working with him. Sometimes when we were trying to get the idea for a scene, I would offer him a suggestion. Instead of giving it some thought, he would remark to me, very discontentedly, 'If you can go it alone, why the hell do you need me?' He refused to work with me as a director." In the end, Hitchcock threw out Chandler's screenplay and hired Czenzi Ormonde to rewrite it with some additional dialogue supplied by Alma Hitchcock. Even with the last minute change of screenwriters, Strangers on a Train is generally acknowledged as one of Hitchcock's best films and was a remarkable comeback from the director's previous commercial failures of Stage Fright (1950), Under Capricorn (1949), Rope (1948), and The Paradine Case (1948). Of course, Chandler devotees claim they can clearly see the novelist's imprint on the final film but the ironic part is that every trace of the screenwriter's original work was removed by Hitchcock. Based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith, the author of The Talented Mr. Ripley, Strangers on a Train presents us with two men from different worlds who strike up a fateful conversation during a train trip. Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is a professional tennis player with social aspirations. He'd like to marry Anne Morten (Ruth Roman), the daughter of a prominent Washington senator, but Miriam, his spiteful wife, refuses to divorce him. Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) is an effete and emotionally unstable dilettante with a deep hatred for his wealthy father. In the course of their conversation, Bruno makes the suggestion that they exchange murders. If Guy will murder Bruno's father, Bruno will murder Miriam. Guy dismisses Bruno's comment as a macabre joke but soon comes to realize he is dealing with a psychopath. Originally William Holden was considered for the role of Guy but when he wasn't available, Hitchcock signed his former leading man from Rope, Farley Granger. The director was less pleased with the casting of Ruth Roman as Anne Morten who was forced on him by Warner Brothers. For the role of Anne's spunky sister, Barbara, who witnesses Bruno's dark side at a social gathering, Hitchcock cast his own daughter Patricia in the part after she agreed to a screen test. However, you couldn't really say she was treated with kid gloves. A press release from the set revealed a cruel joke Hitchcock played on her one night. When Pat begged for a ride on the Ferris wheel on the fairground set, he gave his permission and then stopped the ride when she reached the topmost point, extinguishing all the lights. Hitchcock then went off to direct another scene in a far corner of the park, leaving her stranded for more than an hour in the darkness. Of course, the real surprise of Strangers on a Train is Robert Walker as Bruno Anthony. Walker had always been typecast as the All-American boy-next-door in such wholesome MGM fare as See Here, Private Hargrove (1944) and The Clock (1945) but Hitchcock saw another side of Walker which he effectively exploited in his film. Unfortunately, Walker, who had just recovered from a nervous breakdown prior to filming Strangers on a Train, would die just a year later during the filming of My Son John (1952), a rabid anticommunist melodrama that ended up using some outtake footage of Walker in Strangers on a Train to fill in some continuity gaps. Hitchcock later said in an interview with Jay Robert Nash: "I remember one night we had him at a party, God rest his soul....a little party after the picture's showing at our house and my wife gave him brandy. Someone said, 'Oh, you should never do that, never give him brandy, because he'll be gone.' And he was gone, too. He had two or three. Then he took my wife aside and talked about me. He said: 'You know, I love him, but I hate him at the same time!' This was Robert Walker. It's scary, isn't it? In our own home!" Director/Producer: Alfred Hitchcock Screenplay: Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde, Whitfield Cook (adaptation), Patricia Highsmith (novel) Cinematography: Robert Burks Music: Dimitri Tiomkin Principle Cast: Farley Granger (Guy Haines), Ruth Roman (Anne Morton), Robert Walker (Bruno Antony), Leo G. Carroll (Senator Morton), Patricia Hitchcock (Barbara Morton) BW-104m. by Jeff Stafford

Critics' Corner - Strangers on a Train

March 11, 2010

Although civic and religious groups in some states objected to the explicit murder scene and the implicit homosexuality in the relationship between the male leads, critics and audiences loved Strangers on a Train and made it a hit.

The box office success was boosted by personal appearances by Hitchcock and his daughter Pat, who traveled extensively to promote the film. He went to all 12 cities where it opened between late June and early July 1951, and she represented him at the New York premiere July 3.

Strangers on a Train was re-released by Warner Brothers in 1957 and again did well at the box office.

Strangers on a Train received an Academy Award nomination for Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Robert Burks).

"Given a good basis for a thriller in the Patricia Highsmith novel and a first-rate script, Hitchcock embroiders the plot into a gripping, palm-sweating piece of suspense." - Variety, 1951

"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. Certainly, Mr. Hitchcock is the fellow who can pour on the pictorial stuff and toss what are known as 'touches' until they're flying all over the screen. From the slow, stalking murder of a loose girl in a tawdry amusement park to a 'chase' and eventual calamity aboard a runaway merry-go-round, the nimble director keeps piling 'touch' and stunt upon 'touch.' Indeed, his desire to produce them appears his main impulse in this film." - Bosley Crowther, New York Times, July 4, 1951

"One of the most remarkable aspects of the picture is the bold manipulation of time, the way in which it is contracted and dilated. - That dramatic play with time is really stunning." - Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock (Simon & Schuster, 1983)

"As I see it, the flaws of Strangers on a Train were the ineffectiveness of the two main actors and the weakness of the final script. If the writing of the dialogue had been better, we'd have had stronger characterizations. The great problem with this type of picture, you see, is that your main characters sometimes tend to become mere figures." - Alfred Hitchcock, Hitchcock, by Francois Truffaut (Simon & Schuster, 1983)

"The power of the story - adapted from the novel by Patricia Highsmith - lies in its simplicity, and Hitchcock piles on the sinister layers as only he can." - Emma Cochrane, Empire Magazine, June 1, 2001

By Rob Nixon

Critics' Corner - Strangers on a Train

Although civic and religious groups in some states objected to the explicit murder scene and the implicit homosexuality in the relationship between the male leads, critics and audiences loved Strangers on a Train and made it a hit. The box office success was boosted by personal appearances by Hitchcock and his daughter Pat, who traveled extensively to promote the film. He went to all 12 cities where it opened between late June and early July 1951, and she represented him at the New York premiere July 3. Strangers on a Train was re-released by Warner Brothers in 1957 and again did well at the box office. Strangers on a Train received an Academy Award nomination for Best Black-and-White Cinematography (Robert Burks). "Given a good basis for a thriller in the Patricia Highsmith novel and a first-rate script, Hitchcock embroiders the plot into a gripping, palm-sweating piece of suspense." - Variety, 1951 "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. Certainly, Mr. Hitchcock is the fellow who can pour on the pictorial stuff and toss what are known as 'touches' until they're flying all over the screen. From the slow, stalking murder of a loose girl in a tawdry amusement park to a 'chase' and eventual calamity aboard a runaway merry-go-round, the nimble director keeps piling 'touch' and stunt upon 'touch.' Indeed, his desire to produce them appears his main impulse in this film." - Bosley Crowther, New York Times, July 4, 1951 "One of the most remarkable aspects of the picture is the bold manipulation of time, the way in which it is contracted and dilated. - That dramatic play with time is really stunning." - Francois Truffaut, Hitchcock (Simon & Schuster, 1983) "As I see it, the flaws of Strangers on a Train were the ineffectiveness of the two main actors and the weakness of the final script. If the writing of the dialogue had been better, we'd have had stronger characterizations. The great problem with this type of picture, you see, is that your main characters sometimes tend to become mere figures." - Alfred Hitchcock, Hitchcock, by Francois Truffaut (Simon & Schuster, 1983) "The power of the story - adapted from the novel by Patricia Highsmith - lies in its simplicity, and Hitchcock piles on the sinister layers as only he can." - Emma Cochrane, Empire Magazine, June 1, 2001 By Rob Nixon

Quotes

I beg your pardon, but aren't you Guy Haines?
- Bruno Anthony

I still think it would be wonderful to have a man love you so much he'd kill for you.
- Barbara Morton

How do you do, sir? I, uh, I'd like to talk with you sometime, sir, and tell you about my idea for harnassing the life force. It'll make atomic power look like a horse and buggy. I'm already developing my faculty for seeing _millions_ of miles. And Senator, can you imagine being able to smell a flower... on the planet Mars? I'd like to, uh, have lunch with you someday soon, Sir, and tell you more about it.
- Bruno Anthony

Poor unfortunate girl.
- Senator Morton

She was a tramp.
- Barbara Morton

She was a human being. Let me remind you that even the most unworthy of us has a right to life and the pursuit of happiness.
- Senator Morton

From what I hear she pursued it in all directions.
- Barbara Morton

Don't worry, I'm not going to shoot you, Mr. Haines. It might disturb Mother.
- Bruno Anthony

Trivia

early in the film boarding a train carrying a double bass fiddle as Guy gets off the train (see also his cameo in Paradine Case, The (1947)).

Hitchcock bought the rights to the original novel anonymously to keep the price down, and got them for just $7,500

Raymond Chandler is credited as the main author of the script, but it was almost completely written by Czenzi Ormonde who was credited as second author.

The stunt where the man crawled under the carousel was not done with trick photography. Hitchcock claimed that this was the most dangerous stunt ever performed under his direction, and would never allow it to be done again.

Raymond Chandler's version of the script ended with Bruno Antony being arrested and institutionalized, with the final image being the villain writhing in a straight jacket.

Notes

Robert Walker was borrowed from M-G-M for the film. Farley Granger's opponent in the tennis match scene was played by tennis pro Jack Cushingham, who also served as the film's technical advisor. In the film, Hitchcock appeared in a cameo as a man boarding the train carrying a bass violin. According to a modern source, Hitchcock originally wanted William Holden to play the role of "Guy." Although an October 1950 Hollywood Reporter news item reported that James Millican tested for a role, he was not in the released film. A modern source adds Fred Reynolds to the cast, in the role of a tennis player.
       Warner Bros. production notes state that scenes were shot on location in New York, Washington, D.C. and Darien, CT, including Washington Station, Jefferson Memorial, the U.S. Capitol, Mellon Art Gallery, Arlington Bridge and Pennsylvania Station. According to a November 1950 Hollywood Reporter news items, the amusement park set was constructed at director Rowland V. Lee's Ranch, which was located in the San Fernando Valley, and the tennis scenes were filmed at South Gate, CA tennis courts. Information found in the file on the film in the Warner Bros. Archives at the USC Cinema-Television Library stated that background footage was shot in Toluca Lake and on Ventura Blvd. in Los Angeles, CA. Modern sources add that filming also took place at the railroad stop in Danbury, CT (standing in for Metcalf) and that the tunnel-of-love ride was found in a Canoga Park, CA fairground.
       Robert Burks was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Cinematography for his work on Strangers On a Train, but lost to William C. Mellor for A Place in the Sun. Strangers On a Train marked Robert Walker's last completed film and director Alfred Hitchcock's daughter Patricia's American film debut. The film marked noted author Raymond Chandler's last screenplay. According to a 1998 The Times (London) article, motion picture restorers at UCLA found a print of the film, marked "British version," which appears to have been planned for distribution in Great Britain. In the alternate version, the initial conversation on the train between "Guy" and "Bruno" is two minutes longer than the original and a final scene was added, in which Guy is again recognized by a stranger on a train. These scenes were included in a new release of the film that marked Warner Bros.' seventy-fifth anniversary. According to modern sources, the final shots of Walker's film My Son John were taken from the final shots of Strangers On a Train.
       Lux Radio Theatre aired two adaptations of the film. Ruth Roman and Patricia Hitchcock reprised their roles in a December 3, 1951 broadcast, which starred Ray Milland and Frank Lovejoy as Guy and Bruno, respectively. Hitchcock recreated her role in an adaptation that aired on Lux Radio Theatre on April 12, 1954. That version co-starred Robert Cummings, Dana Haines and Virginia Mayo. A 1969 remake, Once You Kiss a Stranger, was directed by Robert Sparr. In 1996, a television production based on Strangers On a Train aired, titled Once You Meet a Stranger, starring actresses Jacqueline Bisset and Teresa Russell in the Guy and Bruno roles. Strangers on a Train was the inspiration for the Orion Pictures' 1987 dark comedy Throw Momma From the Train, which was directed by Danny De Vito and starred De Vito and Billy Crystal. In 2002, Warner Bros. announced plans to produce another version of Strangers on a Train. In May 2005, Noam Murro was set to direct that version, with a screenplay to be written by David Seltzer.

Miscellaneous Notes

Released in United States June 30, 1951

Released in United States March 1979

Released in United States November 1998

Released in United States Summer July 3, 1951

Re-released in United States November 21, 1996

Shown at London Film Festival November 5-19, 1998.

Remade as "Once You Kiss a Stranger" (1969) directed by Robert Sparr.

Re-released in London August 13, 1999.

Released in United States March 1979 (Shown at FILMEX: Los Angeles International Film Exposition (The 50-Hour Mighty MovieMarathon: Mystery and Suspense) March 14-30, 1979.)

Released in United States June 30, 1951

Released in United States Summer July 3, 1951

Released in United States November 1998 (Shown at London Film Festival November 5-19, 1998.)

Re-released in United States November 21, 1996 (Nuart; Los Angeles)

Re-released in Paris July 11, 1990.

By using this site, you agree to our updated Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use