Rating of
3/4
"Starngers On A Train" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 07/02/12
A tennis player encounters what he assumes is an eccentric but harmless stranger, but when the man actually follows through on his hypothetical plan to "trade" murders he finds himself prime suspect and unable to turn to the police for help.
Alfred Hitchcock turns his hand to Film Noir in this tense thriller co-written by cornerstone of the genre Raymond Chandler. Combining both the crisp and attractive photography that is its hallmark with the director's typically dark humour and sense of the macabre, Strangers On A Train is a murder mystery with a twist; that we know who the murderer is all along but the trick is in how to prove it. The cast are all very effective, particularly Robert Walker who is wonderfully creepy as the amusingly camp psychopath who plagues Farley Granger's every waking moment. The plot is both original and clever, there are some beautiful directorial flourishes and it has a memorable climax involving a runaway carousel.
Perhaps the plot is a little too easily resolved but it's still an extremely watchable thriller from a master honing his craft.
