Dad's Movie Lists
 

Strangers on a Train (1951), Director: Alfred Hitchcock, rated PG

You'll be in the grip of love's strangest trip!

Film ClipStarring: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Leo G. Carroll, Patricia Hitchcock, Kasey Rogers, Marion Lorne, Jonathan Hale

DML Rating: ★★★★★★★★☆☆ - great

"Your wife. My father. Criss-cross." - Bruno Anthony

Why watch this? I love this quirky little murder movie about a suave man with a devious plan.

Plot Summary: The story begins when tennis star Guy Haines encounters the wealthy and eccentric Bruno Anthony on a train. Bruno proposes a chilling plan: a murder exchange, where each man eliminates the troublesome person in the other's life, thus creating a perfect crime with no motive. Guy, dismissing it as a morbid joke, is horrified when Bruno goes through with his part of the plan, leaving Guy entangled in a dangerous game of cat and mouse.

Dad's Preview: Hitch must have brainstormed ideas for murder. This one details an inventive way to remove "motive" from the equation. Two strangers meet. One want his wife out of the picture. The other desires his father's demise. They can swap murders and get away scot-free. The problem: one person does not take the other serious. The idea is far-fetched, but that's what movies are for. You'll squirm through this flick as one murder occurs, and an innocent man is suspected. This was loosely remade as the dark comedy, Throw Momma from the Train (1987).


Transatlantic Pictures; Warner Bros.

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