In lieu of elucidating my fascination with Alfred Hitchcock's movies, which about now should be tired as hell because I always say it, I'd resort to using an analogy. Imagine how hard it is to find the needle in a haystack. Hitchcock is the frickin' needle. He's a rare treasure. Him and his movies shaped my perspective on cinema - execution, style and precision. Strangers on a Train is a perfect example of this, the epitome of a Hitchcock film. But his popular titles like Psycho and Vertigo get all the recognition and little is left to titles like Strangers. Hence this edition of "Horror Retrospect" (although we know the movie is more of a thriller than a horror).
Hitchcock's first few frames allures you to meeting his gorgeously drawn characters. A suave sociopath-killer named Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker) suggests this cracked idea to swap murders with tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger). After all, "everyone is capable of murder," right?
This unapologetically silly and surprisingly provocative premise is stupendously scripted and animated with stupendous direction. Hitchcock's sensibilities as a director doesn't end in telling the story in million frames, but how to fashionably present them when they begin to move altogether. In a particular scene in which is set in a tennis tournament, Bruno sits in the middle of the crowd, glaring unnervingly at Guy's side of the court. He films this with sufficient amounts of precision, his meticulous choices in style infects you like a virus, an incredible kind, vigorously consuming every part inside you. Strangers on a Train is the kind that its masterfully made that every frame needs to be seen. From the beginning to the climactic end, a tense carousel fight sequence, the movie keeps you from withdrawing, not until the ending credits finally roll.
Hitchcock's most perverse work is one of his finest. Bolstered with neat performances from its leads Walker and Granger, Laura Elliott as Guy's unsuspecting fiancee and Hitchcock's daughter Patricia as the loyal best friend. There is more than to the movie's award-winning black-and-white cinematography. Based on a novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith, Strangers on a Train is impeccably crafted, precisely executed and fearlessly treated.
And even if Bruno was right, that "everyone has somebody that they want to put out of the way," I'm sure as hell mine isn't Alfred Hitchcock. Until I draw my last breath, he will always be my hero.
VERDICT: A+
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