Delayed Reaction: Strangers on a Train

The Pitch: A murder pact. That's a thing, right?

Two men meet on a train. One tries to set up an arrangement where they each kill a person in the other's way so that the police don't suspect either of them.

I was under the impression that this was a much different story. I thought the two men were both on board with the plan to kill a person for the other man, but one backs out at the last second. The actual story of this movie is significantly less interesting. Farley Granger is a tennis player who happens to sit next to a psychopath played by Robert Walker. Granger puts up with Walker while they're stuck on the train together. When Walker suggests the murder pact, Granger humors him with no intention of doing that. Walker goes ahead and commits his murder then blackmails Granger for the rest of the movie. Ignoring how much Walker's attempt to frame him wouldn't hold up in court, I don't see how this clear hero/villain dichotomy is interesting at all. Instead of having a story of two conflicted anti-heroes, this is a generic psychopath movie.

Perhaps I'm being unfair. I shouldn't judge a movie based on what I wanted or thought it would be, but the premise presents such an obvious and better alternative that I can't help it.

Regardless, I don't think Hitchcock is capable is making a truly bad movie. This is still plenty suspenseful; especially when Walker is hunting Granger's wife at the fair. It looks good. It's well performed. It was just a waste of a good idea.

Verdict: Weakly Don't Recommend