Alfred Hitchcock is remembered more for his movies that had outlandish plots that stick in people's memory. Movies like The Birds, Vertigo and the proto-slasher Psycho are better remembered because they have been referenced in other forms of popular culture for years. Strangers on a Train may not be one of his movies that younger audiences would recognise, but that doesn't mean that it isn't an incredibly suspenseful and enjoyable thriller.Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is an amateur tennis star on the way to his next tournament. Whilst on the train he meets Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), who starts to quiz Guy on all the personal details of his life that can be found in the gossip section of the paper. He is most intrigued by the divorce Guy is trying to get so that he can marry his new girlfriend Anne Morton (Ruth Roman). Bruno soon offers what he thinks is an ingenious scheme, he'll murder Guy's soon to be ex-wife Miriam (Laura Elliott) in return for murdering Bruno's father. Guy wants nothing to do with it, but the situation is taken out of his hands when Bruno murders Miriam anyway and Guy is the prime suspect.
It takes a while for Strangers on a Train to get to any of the suspenseful stuff, but that's not at all to its detriment. With this time, Hitchcock is better able to construct his characters and get to know every part of his character's personalities. We learn of the strange Oedipal Complex that Bruno has toward his mother. While it isn't entirely sexual, he views his father as competition of his mother's affections and that is why he must be eliminated. Guy's relationship with his wife and Anne are fleshed out in great detail too. We learn that he has aspirations for politics and it helps that Anne's father just so happens to be a senator. We also find out that Miriam looks exactly like Anne's younger sister Barbara, a fact that will haunt Bruno later in the movie.
The movie is also the ultimate for suspense. Rather than giving us suspense for things we don't know are going to happen, Hitchcock tells us in advance exactly what is going to occur and then lets us writhe in agony as we watch them play out. Take for example, the murder of Miriam. We can see this coming a mile off, but Hitchcock chooses to torture us in such a prolonged manner. Bruno stalks Miriam and her two male companions through a carnival so slowly and painfully, that we are unsure if he is even going to do it. At the end, Hitchcock also manages to make a match of tennis terrifying to watch because we know Guy needs to win it in order to stop Bruno from framing him.
Strangers on a Train is a great movie to revisit, especially because you don't know what to expect. The twists and turns of Hitchcock's other movies have all been parodied to death in sitcoms, in particular The Simpsons, who have referenced every Hitchcock movie, even this one (but that was in a later season that no one saw).
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