Strangers on a Train (1951)

Strangers on a Train (1951) 

This was my second Hitchcock movie. By now I've seen three, and this was the best by a good margin. Suspicion was very well done, except for the infamous ending. I didn't like I Confess much at all. This one was just about perfect. 

I love movies in confined spaces. I'm not sure why. Planes, trains, submarines. That said, the bulk of this movie doesn't actually take place on the eponymous train. The locations are varied, featuring, from what I can tell, an actual moving train, to various houses and even a carnival (it was very interesting to see a real 50s carnival, which was on an island).

The movie has a great premise, and a great cast to pull it off. Two men meet on a train. They each have someone they could afford to get rid of. An overly friendly and peculiar man named Bruno (Robert Walker) offers a professional tennis player looking to divorce his wife an offer: they do eachother's murders. Bruno offs the wife, and Guy (Farley Granger) kills Bruno's father. 

The two male leads are both strong (and the dialogue snappy), but the standout performance is Robert Walker as the seemingly mentally unsound villain.

What really amazed me was how stunning the movie was visually. This is the kind of movie where almost every frame could be a picture in itself. This is the movie that really made me want to collect more Hitchcock and watch as many as possible.

**** out of ****