Saw this at a revival theater the other night, the 35 mm print was in excellent condition. This film is basically review proof. Strangers on a Train was adapted from the novel by Patricia Highsmith which is even more perverse than Hitchcock's movie.
Robert Walker in the best performance and probably the best role of his career is the obviously gay villain Bruno Anthony who latches on to the unsuspecting Farley Granger and traps him into a murder plot.
This film is extremely well written and needless to say well made. This film marked the beginning of Hitchcock's association with Robert Burks the cinematographer who was really responsible for the "Hitchcock look, " for the next fourteen films. Burks died in a house fire in 1968. Hitchcock's films never looked so good again, a great loss.
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| Robert Burks |
Hitchcck's daughter Patrica shows up in a featured part along with the actor Leo G. Carroll best remembered as Mr. Waverly in The Man From Uncle series. Carroll must have been a favorite of Hitchcock's he appeared in 6 films.
It's well known that Raymond Chandler has a screen writing credit on this film but none of his material was used. He apparently didn't get along with Hitchcock at all.
Hitchcock was unhappy with the actor Farley Granger as Guy Hanes, however he was wrong in this case Granger gives a very good performance.
Again one of Hitchcock's best films, he was about to enter a run of 11 excellent films from 1951-1963.
The writing credits on the film are, Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde, Whitfield Cook and Hitchcok's wife Alma Reville who is uncredited. The running time is 101 minutes
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