Like REAR WINDOW, this is another “Perfect Storm” movie for me: Patricia Highsmith is another one of my favorite writers and it’s a shame that Hitchcock only brought one of her novels to the screen because they seem like a perfect match. Highsmith played in the noir playground, often taking the villain’s side and showing how difficult it is to lead a life of crime. Her short stories are often brutal, and she has a way of getting under your skin so that you can’t stop thinking about some scene or nasty plot twist. When you read one of her books and someone does something very very wrong, you often think, “I could do that. I can imagine myself killing someone like that.” And you *shouldn’t* be able to imagine doing these things yourself. But her books take you so far into that world, you can imagine crossing whatever moral lines you might have.
These days, Highsmith is probably best known as the writer of THE TALENTED MR. RIPLEY which was made in to a film with Matt Damon. That’s the first in a series about Tom Ripley, badguy, and by now most have been made into films. What’s ironic is that the best Ripley film is Wim Wenders’ excellent Hitchcock homage AMERICAN FRIEND... with probably the worst Ripley, Dennis Hopper. Just completely miscast. The best Ripley is John Malkovich - he was born to play the role - in the bland remake of FRIEND called RIPLEY’S GAME (title of the novel). I still haven’t seen Barry Pepper’s version in RIPLEY UNDER GROUND, the last of the original trilogy to be filmed.
STRANGERS was the first Highsmith novel to be filmed, and now they are talking about remaking it... a better idea would be to make THE BLUNDERER (filmed in France ages ago), a similar story about two men and two murders. But I don’t think anyone in Hollywood actually knows how to read, so we’ll just be getting remakes of the movies.
Oh, and add in that hardboiled novelist Raymond Chandler took first crack at the script, and the “perfect storm” is complete. Chandler and Hammett and Carroll John Daly were the founders of the Hardboiled genre, and when I was in high school I read everything of theirs I could get my hands on. Chandler wrote the novels THE BIG SLEEP and MURDER, MY SWEET are based on, and the books are sarcastic and brutal and show a corrupt Los Angeles where the people in the mansions are often more dangerous than the thugs on the streets. Though Chandler’s name is on a couple of great films, he wasn’t very successful as a screenwriter. He didn’t get along with anyone, and had a drinking problem. On STRANGERS he was replaced by Czenzi Ormonde, one of Ben Hecht’s assistants.
Nutshell: Tennis player Guy Haines (Farley Granger) meets spoiled heir Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) on a train, where Bruno tells him his plan for a perfect murder - in order to have a perfect alibi and not leave behind any personal evidence, two people with someone to kill *swap murders* - they each do the other’s killing. Though Guy has a crazy estranged wife knocked up by some other guy (she’s not sure who) he would like removed from is life, he laughs it off as a joke. But after his estranged wife (Laura Elliot) is strangled to death, Bruno shows up at his doorstep and demands that Guy kill his stern millionaire father who wants Bruno to, you know, get a job. When Guy refuses, Bruno threatens to plant evidence at Guy’s wife’s murder scene that points directly to Guy. Will Guy kill Bruno’s father... or be arrested and probably convicted for murdering his slutty wife?
All of this is complicated because Guy is leaving tennis for... politics! He is working for Senator Morton (Leo G. Carroll) and dating the Senator’s hot daughter Ann (Ruth Roman) and adored by the Senator’s teenaged daughter Barbara (Patricia Hitchcock, director’s daughter). Guy thought his estranged wife was a problem while she was alive... wait until he’s accused of her murder!
Experiment This is one dark story, and the story experiment is the transference of guilt between Guy and Bruno (from the novel). The story frequently cross-cuts between both characters for suspense as well - and does it in interesting ways.
The film experiment is in sound design. There are several points in the film where a *sound* becomes the flashback. Instead of a visual flashback, we get the sound of a train or a calliope at the amusement park to remind us of a past event.
Also the use of visual symbols, from hands that are used to strangle to glasses that both Guy’s murdered wife and Guy’s girlfriend’s sister wears. If you just watch for the use of hands in the film, you’ll see they pop up again and again - aside from strangling, characters get manicures, they look at their hands, there are big close ups of *hands* doing things throughout the film. Things like this can be in a screenplay, but may be too subtle for most readers to notice. That’s no reason not to put them in, but don’t be surprised when 99% of the folks who read your script never notice.
Hitch Appearance: Carrying a massive string base trying to board a train.
Great Scenes: STRANGERS ON A TRAIN has a couple of iconic Hitchcock scenes that get swiped for other movies and homages. But even the lesser known scenes are packed with tension and suspense and just plain creepiness. This is a film that gets under your skin, because as Bruno says in a scene. Haven’t we all fantasized about killing someone? And haven’t you ever struck up a conversation with a stranger who becomes ever more stranger the more you talk to them?
The movie opens with two sets of train tracks joining into one... and two pair of legs (with very different taste in shoes that give us a clue to character) are on a similar collision course. One going right, one going left... both entering a train... then the shoes takes seats and bump into each other as both sets of legs cross at the same time. That’s the first time we tilt up to see Guy and Bruno’s faces... and Bruno insinuates himself into Guy’s train trip and his life... and comes up with his murder swap idea. Guy laughs it off and gets off the train, leaving his monogrammed cigarette lighter behind.
Listening Booth: Guy was taking the train to his home town to try and negociate a divorce with his estranged wife so that he can marry the Senator’s daughter. His slutty wife Miriam works in a music store with several glass-walled sound proof listening booths, and one of those booths is where they have their little conversation. It is a great location, because if we look at the booth from the outside we get picture without sound. That allows for some interesting choices for the way the scene is presented.
We begin inside the booth as Miriam refuses to grant Guy a divorce. He tries to hang on to his temper by asking her why she wants to remain married to him when she is carrying another man’s baby. Woah! This is a 1951 movie, can they talk about stuff like that? Even in a soundproof booth? What’s more, it’s later implied that she ha no idea who that other man is. She’s “playing the field” and dating a whole bunch of other men. We always think of movies from sixty years ago as being G rated, and some were... but not Hitchcock’s films. Sex was part of all of his films, and here we have a married man who is probably sleeping another woman while his wife is sleeping with just about everybody. And she thinks remaining married to Guy while his political star rises will put her in a much better position when she eventually does grant him a divorce. And what is he going to say? His wife got knocked up by some other guy? He *can’t* divorce her without looking like he’s running out on his pregnant wife.
When Guy loses his temper, we go outside the booth and see the scene from the music store manager’s point of view. Guy seems to suddenly explode with violence and attack his wife in a rage. The manager has to go pull him off of her. The great thing about this scene is that the manager has no idea what Miriam has said, no idea she’s blackmailing Guy and maybe even destroying his political career. He only sees Guy go crazy and attack his wife. If the audience is a little ahead of the curve and guesses that Bruno may act on his crazy scheme and murder Miriam, this scene ratchets up the tension. Now there are witnesses that have seen Guy attack his wife. All of these things will make Guy look guilty and probably get him arrested, tried, convicted and executed for murder.
Tunnel Of Love: The next time we see Miriam, Bruno is following her. She gets on a bus with not one, but two, hunky younger guys... and Bruno hops on the same bus. Miriam and the boy toys get off the bus at an amusement park... as does Bruno. When Miriam notices Bruno following her, he smiles...and so does she. What is clearly a killer stalking his victim becomes twice as creepy because she flirts with him. When they come to one of those carnival games where your strength is gauged by how hard you can pound a sledge hammer like mallet to ring a bell, the two boy toys just aren’t strong enough to ring the bell. Miriam looks around for the man following her... doesn’t see him, and is *disappointed*. Then spots Bruno grabbing the mallet. They smile at each other, then he easily rings the bell. She licks her lips. Most disturbing.
When Miriam and the boy toys get on a little boat that goes through the tunnel of love before berthing on an island in the middle of the amusement park, Bruno hops in the next boat. In the Tunnel Of Love - darkness and shadows. Echoes of laughter. Suspense builds. The killer and victim in the same dark place. Once the tension builds to the breaking point - what is happening in the darkness? - Miriam screams! We see the shadows of one figure grabbing another on the wall of the Tunnel Of Love - Bruno killing Miriam? No - one of her boy toys copping a feel.
The two boats are beached on the little island - filled with couples making out. Miriam runs through the moonlit trees, her boy toys chasing behind. She’s teasing them. She runs into someone in the darkness - Bruno. He flicks a cigarette lighter - Guy’s monogrammed lighter - to illuminate her face. When she sees it’s that older man who was following her through the amusement park, she smiles... and then Bruno strangles her. Miriam’s glasses fall to the ground - and in a great shot, we see the strangulation reflected in the lenses. She falls to the ground, dead. Bruno starts to leave, realizes he’s dropped Guy’s lighter, goes back for it. Picks up Miriam’s glasses while he’s at it. Then, we hear the boy toys scream when they find Miriam dead. More screams and panic as Bruno calmly pilots his little boat back to the amusement park. While everyone else at the amusement park is looking out at the island, Bruno is calmly walking in the opposite direction. The contrast is creepy.
Your Turn: When Guy returns home, Bruno is waiting in the shadows behind a wrought iron gate across the street, “I did it.” Guy joins him in the shadows, each on opposite sides of the gate - opposite sides of the bars. Bruno tells Guy that he killed Miriam, and now it’s Guy’s turn. Guy doesn’t believe him, so Bruno shows him the glasses. Guy thinks Bruno is crazy, threatens to call the police... But Bruno says he can’t go to the police. “Why would I kill your wife?”
And here we get the Transference of Guilt - Bruno’s guilt rubs off on Guy. Guy wished his wife were dead, and he gets his wish. Even though Bruno was the actual killer, that guilt is transferred to Guy. Not only will everyone else believe that Guy is somehow responsible for his wife’s murder, *Guy* will begin to believe he is responsible for his wife’s murder. And the more he tries to escape the guilt, the deeper he will sink. Evidence will begin to mount, and Guy will have to struggle to prove his innocence. Big problem - he *feels* guilty, and it’s much more difficult for an innocent man to prove what he *didn’t* do. Add to that - innocent men are often bad liars, and this is a situation where Guy *must* lie again and again to people who know him well enough that they can tell that he is lying.
While Guy is realizing that he can not go to te police without looking like an accomplice or worse, a police car pulls up in front of his apartment - police there to tell him that is wife is dead. Guy doesn’t want to be seen, and hides deeper in the shadows with Bruno, moving behind the wrought iron gate. Now both men are on the same side of the gate - the shadowed side. And the iron bars cast shadows over Guy’s face - like jail cell bars. This is a great bit, because the sides of the wrought iron gate give us a way to show the transference of guilt - a way to show that Guy is no longer in the light... and is now in the darkness. A cool device like the gate allows something internal to become external - we can see Guy’s guilt, and see the prison bars across his face.
When the police car leaves, Guy comes out from the darkness and tells Bruno he will *not* kill his father... and to leave him alone.
Bruno - Everywhere! Bruno does not leave him alone, the two are now connected by this murder. Everywhere Guy goes, Bruno is there - watching him.
Guy’s alibi for the time of his wife’s murder is a drunken Professor who was in the club car of the train with him. Note: trains again. The police find the Professor, who was on that train... but has no memory of Guy or anything else from that night. Not much of an alibi. And it would have been possible for Guy to murder his wife and then hop the train at a later station - still seeing the drunken Professor in the club car. The police label Guy as prime suspect and give him 24 hour police surveillance.
Guy befriends one of the detectives following him (they’re both going the same place, so why not split a cab?) but everywhere Guy goes... there is Bruno. Will the Detective notice Bruno and ask who that guy is? Since Bruno is the real killer, and killed Miriam *for* Guy, that last thing he wants is the police finding out about Bruno. The great thing about these scenes is that Bruno as been given a distinctive look, so we can have Guy and the Detective driving past the Lincoln Monument with Bruno standing at the top of the steps... and we *know* that’s Bruno’s silhouette. Paranoia builds... where will Bruno pop up next time? He seems to be everywhere!
Guy and Ann (the Senator’s hot daughter) are having a conversation in some public building when Bruno steps out of the shadows and beckons him over. Guy excuses himself and has a whispered conversation with Bruno about killing his father... not too loud - doesn’t want Ann to overhear. But Ann doesn’t need to hear the words - she can see the two men whispering together. I have no idea how popular Patricia Highsmith’s novels are in the Gay Community, but her stories often have a Gay undercurrent to them. Tom Ripley is obviously bisexual, and in STRANGERS we have two men who share a secret... and it’s almost a metaphor for a Gay affair that a straight man is trying to cover up. While Ann is watching them whisper to each other, you can’t help but feel you are watching a woman discovering that the man she loves... loves another man. After the whispered conversation, when Ann asks what that was all about, Guy lies that it was just a tennis fan... and she knows it’s a lie... and he worries that she knows it’s a lie.
A great example of contrast is a practice match Guy plays as a warm up to a big tennis tournament he’ll be playing in later in the film. This scene not only has Guy trying to act normal while Bruno puts the screws into him to kill his father and the Detective watching him is right over there... Bruno is in the stands! The stands are filled with people watching the match, all of them following the ball back and forth across te court. Except Bruno. As every head turns to follow the ball, Bruno remains focused on Guy. Bruno’s focus is so different than everyone else’s that you wonder if the Detective will notice.
He Was Strangling *Me* After the match, Bruno is chatting with Ann and some friends at the country club. Guy has no choice but to join the table... and be seen with the man he’s trying to avoid. Ann’s little sister, Barbara, asks Guy who the attractive man is... and he has to find some way to warn her away from Bruno without explaining how he knows about him. But when Bruno sees Barbara - and her glasses- the calliope music from the amusement park plays in his mind (and on the soundtrack), and he stares at her. Creepy.
Later, the Senator has a party... and there’s Bruno! Guy tries to avoid him... and Ann watches how both men behave when they are in the same room together. Bruno is the life of the party, chatting with a couple of society matrons about the perfect murder. They laugh at the conversation - he’s joking around. Who would they want to kill if they could? How would they do it and get away with it? The whole conversation is something we’ve probably joked about or thought about - which draws *us* into the guilt. And it’s the same thing as the film’s concept - isn’t there someone we wish were dead? Wouldn’t it be great if we could find some way to kill them and get away with it?
Bruno explains that the very best weapon is one that is easy to conceal and difficult to trace - your bare hands. He puts his hands on one of the matron’s necks to demonstrate... then sees Barbara watching him, and that calliope music plays in his mind again (and on the soundtrack so that we can hear it) and his hands tighten on the matron’s neck. Tighter. Tighter. Tighter! The other matron screams, and they pry Bruno off... and this is Guy’s worst nightmare. The man who murdered his wife, the man he wants to have nothing to do with, has just become the focus of attention. Guy has to find a way to get Bruno out of there before people start asking questions... and he knows that’s not going to happen. The can of worms has been opened. The big deep dark secret about his relationship with Bruno is about to be made public.
Afterwards, Barbara tells Guy that the entire time Bruno was strangling the matron, he was staring right at her. “His hands were on her neck, but he was strangling *me*!”
How Did You Get Him To Kill Her? The secret is out. Ann corners Guy and asks him, “How did you get him to kill her?” Guy can’t lie, can’t hide the truth... must confess everything to the woman he loves. What I think is interesting is that there is a similar scene in REAR WINDOW where Grace Kelly finally comes over to Jimmy Stewart’s side after spending much of the film disbelieving him. The male lead and female lead reach a point where they team up - and together they try to resolve the problem. Guy confesses everything, and even though Ann isn’t completely on his side, she’s getting there. Eventually she and Barbara will help him deal with Bruno.
Killing Bruno’s Father: But before things can get better they must become much much worse. Guy realizes there is no way out of this mess without dragging down the Senator and the woman he loves. Bruno has his lighter and Miriam’s glasses and will plant them as evidence that *Guy* killed her... unless Guy upholds his half of the deal and murders Bruno’s father. Bruno has given him a gun and a map of the house and a key to the front door. Guy makes the toughest decision anyone can make... and calls Bruno to tell him to make sure he has an alibi for tonight.
This scene combines dread and suspense... you don’t want Guy to do it. You also don’t want him to be caught doing it. There is no good way for this scene to end. Something should stop Guy from doing it... but that would mean Guy gets caught. It’s a great dilemma - and it draws the audience right into the scene. Guy crosses a huge lawn to get to the front door - will he be seen? Will he turn around and go back? By stretching it out, it becomes agony for the audience. We are on the scene-rack, and stretching the scene makes it more painful. Guy uses the key the door, and is now in Bruno’s house. At this point, he’s broken the law and is in big trouble no matter what happens. He has the gun in his pocket. He opens the map and finds the stairway leading up to Bruno’s father’s bedroom....
And on the steps is a guard dog.
Growling at him.
He must get past the dog.
Step by step as he climbs the stairs he gets closer to the growling dog.
When he reaches the dog, he holds his hand down for the dog to sniff... or maybe bite off. The dog sniffs him, licks his hand, allows him to continue up the stairs.
And this is more great dilemma stuff, because we *don’t want him* to continue up the stairs. If the dog had attacked him, he wouldn’t be able to kill Bruno’s father. But, now he can... and we don’t want that!
Guy follows the map to Bruno’s father’s room. Pulls the gun from his pocket. Approaches the bed where someone is sleeping. Suspense and tension and dread reaching a boiling point. You don’t want to see what’s going to happen next. And....
Guy whispers - more secrets - to Bruno’s father that Bruno has sent him up here to kill him, and Bruno is a very disturbed person, and needs to be locked away somewhere, and...
The light clicks on and the sleeping man swings out of bed - it’s Bruno. Nothing at all Gay about Bruno in bed having a whispered conversation with Guy at the foot of the bed. Bruno whispers that his father wasn’t home tonight - he tried to tell Guy this when he called. Bruno is not happy with the double cross - and not happy with Guy. He grabs the gun. Guy tries one last time to reason with Bruno, but that is impossible. Guy walks out of the room, down the hall, down the stairs... with Bruno aiming the gun at him the entire time. Will Bruno fire? The closer Guy gets to the front door, the more tension builds.. You *know* Bruno is going to fire. But that would wake mother...
Tennis Match/Lost Lighter: Now we have a great piece of cross-cutting suspense. Bruno is going to plant the monogrammed cigarette lighter at the murder scene the next night... and Guy needs to stop him. Only one problem: that’s the day of the big tennis tournament. So, if Guy can win his match early, he can hop a train and stop Bruno from planting the evidence. Ann and Barbara will help him evade the detectives watching him... which is good, because the police have decided to arrest him after the tennis match. Though all of their evidence is circumstantial, there are no other suspects, and Guy has been acting really guilty.
Guy playing the tennis match is cross-cut with Bruno going out to the amusement park to plant the lighter at the crime scene... But things go wrong on both ends. Guy plays like a lunatic, trying to win the game... but his opponent is much better than he thought and the match ends up tied and is not an easy win. Bruno accidentally drops the cigarette lighter down a drainage grate at the amusement park and has to retrieve it. We cross cut between both actions - will Guy win his match in time to stop Bruno? Will Bruno retrieve the lighter before Guy can win his match? Each action is drawn out to build suspense... and eventually Guy wins his match and Bruno recovers the lighter. Now, can Guy stop Bruno before he plants the lighter on the island?
Carousel Gone Wild: Guy gets to the amusement park *seconds* before Bruno gets on a boat to the island... but the police are in hot pursuit - following Guy. We get a chase and fight that ends up on that carrousel with the calliope music, which goes out of control when the police chasing guy accidentally shoot the operator - who falls onto the controls. As the carrousel starts moving at warp drive - throwing people off - it’s as if both Guy and Bruno are on the same bit of insanity. The carrousel becomes a metaphor for Bruno’s psychosis - and Guy is trapped in it. The two men battle it out on the carrousel as the police watch. The police have found the Tunnel Of Love boat rental dude - and eyewitness who has seen the killer - and ask him if the guy on the carrousel is the same guy. He says “yes”. Now the police are sure that *Guy* is the murderer. A fellow is dispatched to climb under the out-of-control carrousel and switch it off... so that they can capture Guy. Guy continues to battle Bruno... wooden horse hooves almost smashing Guy’s face at one point! The carrousel reaches the breaking point and “crashes” (pieces go flying) (closest thing to an explosion you can get with a carrousel). Bruno is crushed under the carrousel... dying. The police arrest Guy. Not the ending you expected, huh?
The Tunnel Of Love dude says, “No, that’s not him. The other fella.” Guy tells the police that Bruno killed his wife and came here to plant his lighter. They go up to the dying Bruno and try to get him to confess... but he pins it all on Guy! He says Guy asked him to go out to the island to retrieve Guy’s monogrammed lighter, that Guy left behind when he killed Miriam! Then, Bruno dies.
Did Bruno have time to plant the lighter on the island after-all? Is Guy going to be executed for *wishing* his slutty wife were dead?
Not the end you expected, huh?
Then, as Bruno dies, his hand opens... and there’s the lighter. The police let Guy go - he’s innocent. The end.
Sound Track: Another great Dimitri Tiomkin score. Dark, lush, and with that haunting Tiomkin rhythm. Though I prefer the Herrmann scores for Hitchcock, Tiomkin’s partnership with the director produced some great work... as did Rozsa’s (which we’ll come to in a couple of weeks).
STRANGERS ON A TRAIN is one of my favorite Hitchcock films, and it really holds up. The transference of guilt is great in this film, and while watching it *I* always feel guilty. If you have ever fantasized about killing someone, or wished your enemy was dead... this movie will probably haunt you long after you’ve seen it.
- Bill
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