What can I say, this is one great movie. Hitchcock is a famous and acclaimed director for a reason. A great cast and great script in a film that presents people and scenes that feel real.
I will give the story which has been the basis for countless films since of two strangers, the flat and dry Farley Granger and the fantastically diabolical Robert Walker, agreeing to perform each other’s murder (recently as Horrible Bosses), a +2. The Look gets a +2. The Overall Casting scores a +2. The Commitment to the Genre, perhaps a genre that Hitchcock himself created scores another +2 and the Title sums up everything perfectly +2. That brings us to a subtotal of a whopping 10!
I will deduct -1 point because of the carousel scene which I think, spun out of control but I’m going to give it right back for the little old carny who said he could turn it off – that guy would have been an internet sensation if that film had been made in the now!
Along with Harrison Ford responding “I know” when Carrie Fisher confesses her love for him in the Empire Strikes Back and when, after being called a fool, Peter O’Toole responds “Well, we can’t all be lion-tamers” in Laurence of Arabia, a new favourite comes from Strangers on a Train. When the strangers meet on that train and the eccentric Bruno discovers he’s riding along with a tennis star, he declares: “I certainly admire people who do things.”
If they ever remake, and the may have already, they should cast Ricky Gervais as the Robert Walker’s Bruno character and are you sitting down? I’m going to say this out loud…Guy Haines should be played by Hayden Christensen! Sheesh.
