strangers on a train

i mean how many of you *wanted* guy to kill bruno's old man anyway? i mean what a sucker-punch...

the second "man who knew too much" is annoying because the joke is VERBAL (there is only the subsidiary visual gag of the couple's guests having fallen asleep) which is kind of a betrayal of the inexorable visual logic of the film's set piece

"strangers on a train" is likewise annoying because it denies the many themes of the film and reduces them to "be careful in talking to strangers"

the ending of "rear window" is a little better because the gag is visual (grace kelly lets her exploring book fall to reveal, IIRC, a romance novel or some such--maybe it's a woman's magazine?)

the last shot of "vertigo" is one of the pinnacles of the cinema, and not a word is spoken

i mean i don't think this is really one of hitchcock's very best films--the part that does it in for me is the really contrived set-piece during the tennis match, which seems both too obvious and sort of pointless. but more the greater part of its length it had me in its palm.

Watched this on DVD over the past couple of days--saw it once before, ages ago. It must have more famous sequences than any other Hitchcock film: the murder, the tennis match, the sewer, the merry-go-round. I was also struck by how it explicitly anticipates the three most highly regarded Hitchcock films to come: Rear Window (when the dog at the top of the stairs licks Farley Granger's hand, it's done in dreamlike slow-motion, like the Kelly-Stewart kiss...bizarre), Vertigo (Hitchcock's daughter a double for Granger's wife), and Psycho (Walker and his mother, big-time). I liked it, and, as I often do, came away thinking Hitchcock is as overrated now as he probably once was underrated.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110617/us_yblog_thelookout/woman-says-shes-too-educated-to-be-kicked-off-new-york-train

Interesting post by Glenn Kenny, concluding that Hitchcock would be CGIing all over the place:

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2012/01/big-evil.html

the scene at the fairground is the best 'action' sequence in a thriller or drama from the pre-70s era i'd say. SO exciting and amazing special effects for the time; has barely dated at all.

"I think of a couple of directors as "our modern hitchcock", and Jim Cameron is one of them," said a commenter.

democracy is a bitch

one of my fav dave kehr capsules:

Alfred Hitchcock's famous 1951 thriller, centered on a classic Catholic theme—that there is no difference between thinking a sin and committing it. When Guy (Farley Granger) daydreams the murder of his wife, black, neurotic Bruno (Robert Walker) materializes as if in answer to his prayers: Bruno will kill Guy's wife if Guy, in turn, will kill Bruno's father. Some critics (famously Robin Wood) have claimed that the film cops out by relieving Guy of his end of the deal, but something else is going on here, particularly when Bruno's father—elevated, unseen, all-powerful—is clearly more than a father. Perhaps Strangers on a Train still hasn't yielded all its secrets.

p sure the film couldn't have been made w/ the straight-arrow also committing murder (as he does in Highsmith's book).

the disposal of guy's wife is treated rather too callously, even for hitchcock. no one--except for the senator perhaps-- wastes a second of regret for her life.

Sounds like Washington, DC to me.

And tbf she really was kind of a bitch.

(Joeks!)

TS: imaginary 'strangers on a train' where both guys are murderers vs. imaginary 'suspicion' in which cary grant murders his wife

"I think of a couple of directors as "our modern hitchcock", and Jim Cameron is one of them," said a commenter.

http://pics.livejournal.com/comalies13/pic/000rdche

this should be called psycho

This should have been called Homo-Suspicion.

remake/"reimaging" to come from the Gone Girl triad

http://deadline.com/2015/01/ben-affleck-david-fincher-gillian-flynn-strangers-on-a-train-remake-warner-bros-gone-girl-1201348983/

"reimagining" i mean

at least one hopes they'll not cop out on using Highsmith's plotting that was unacceptable in 1951 Hollywood.

A very good film, I know. And Robert Walker staring straight ahead during the tennis match is unforgettable. But I was flipping around tonight and noticed that sometimes the crowd is a blown-up photo. Really, would it have been too much trouble to send out a second unit to shoot a couple of minutes of an actual crowd and reuse that whenever needed?