Cheap Strangers on a Train (DVD) (Farley Granger, Robert Walker) (Alfred Hitchcock) Price

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Customer Reviews of Strangers on a Train

Hitchcock builds the film into a great final climax, holding your complete attention from the very start of the story, at the train station.

Good acting by the leading couple, Farley Granger and Ruth Roman (playing his sweetheart and bride-to-be, after the divorce from his obnoxious wife). Excellent performances by the aforementioned Walker as Bruno Antony, Patricia Hitchcok (as Roman's sister, who has a liking for criminal stories), Kasey Rogers (as Granger's wife) and Marion Lorne (as Bruno Antony's mother).

The fact that the DVD contains the original US and UK versions, the latter two minutes longer, is a must. Especially noticing the trimming that underwent the initial scenes between Walker and Granger in the american version, and the final "happy ending" scene added for the same version.

Fans of '60s TV series "Bewitched", will have a field day watching "Aunt Clara" (Marion Lorne) as the over-indulging mother of spoiled and egotistical Bruno Antony and "Louise Tate" (Kasey Rogers, billed as Laura Elliott) who plays over-sexed and amoral Miriam, Guy Haines' wife.

Don't talk to strangers!
Farley Granger appeared in only two Hitchcock films. He was the nerve racked killer in Rope who ended up not being able to handle the reality of his crime and gave up in the end, and he is the ill-fated tennis star who happens upon a total stranger during a train ride in this film, Strangers on a Train. Too bad. Granger is talented in this role, evoking sympathy from the audience even when he was guilty as sin in Rope. In this movie, it's hard to really blame him for the events that transpire.

Two men meet and strike up a conversation based on Bruno's (Robert Walker in a chilling performance) ability to recognize Guy Haines (Granger) from the tennis court. During the conversation, it is discovered that Bruno hates his father and wants him dead, and that Guy has a wife who is causing trouble for him. Guy wants to marry the daughter of a senator, but needs his current wife out of the picture.

Bruno has the answer. We swap murders, and then there is no motive. Guy laughs it off, but he stops laughing quick when Bruno actually kills Guy's wife and expects him to murder his father in return. By the way, the murder of the wife is some of Hitch's best camera work ever, as he shows the choking in the reflection of the woman's eyeglasses.

Guy has no credible alibi, so he is suspect number one. Bruno keeps on him the whole time, threatening to frame him (Bruno has Guy's lighter that he can plant at the scene), so it becomes a race for Guy to prove his innocence. The scene on the merry go round is a classic, even if a bit unrealistic.

The characters are great, the story strong and the direction superb. You simply can't go wrong with this one. The great suspense films of today owe a debt of gratitude to Strangers on a Train.

Misinformed
I recently purchased, yet , another copy of STRANGERS ON A TRAIN because the description of this edition read WIDESCREEN. Lured by that promise, I again spent the money, because the copy I already owned was not widescreen. To my great disappointment, I have learned (by watching my newly purchased DVD) that my new copy is, in fact, the exact same edition I already owned: STANDARD format and NOT WIDESCREEN. Beware the description for this issue: it misinforms. If it is WIDESCREEN you want, this is not it!