1951 suspense, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, Farley Granger, Robert Walker;
IMDb /
allmovie. Tennis star and
political wannaba Guy Haines meets a strange man on a train, who seems
to know too much about his private life and proposes that they each
commit the murder that the other would find convenient. The price of
fame. Then Guy's estranged wife is killed…
This is based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, but differs in
important ways: when the book's Bruno contacts Guy to demand that Guy
kill his father, he goes through with it, and is caught in the end
only through his own incompetence. This Guy is more sympathetic: he's
trying to deal honestly with Miriam (while she boasts to him that of
course the baby she's now carrying isn't his, but no court will
disbelieve her when she says it is), and doesn't for a moment think of
killing Bruno's domineering father.
I'll admit that this film got me on its side in the opening shots,
when we see Bruno's two-tone shoes walking through the station. I
don't know whether the US ever called them "co-respondent shoes" in the way
the UK did, but at the very least they implied a chap who didn't care
much for the politenesses that let society keep running if they got in
the way of what he wanted.
But Robert Walker, reminding me slightly of the young Robert Vaughn,
does a fine job of seeming like a reasonable person and then pivoting
into being just a bit too creepy. But surely he doesn't mean it
about the murders, right?
I found the excuse for not involving the police something of a weak
one, but it needs to work for the rest of the film to happen: we have
to have Guy blackmailed, Guy on the run, Guy thrown on his own
resources much in the manner that Roger Thornhill would be in North
by Northwest—but Farley Granger is no Cary Grant, and I never find
myself quite believing in the suffering and desperation he's trying to
portray. Obviously any film is a work of artifice, but it shouldn't to
my mind feel like one.
I find myself unreasonably amused by the police tactics here: given a
roundabout with a bad guy in the middle and lots of children riding
it, they happily open fire in an attempt to hit the bad guy.
I like this for the atmosphere much more than for the characters or
plot.
I talk about this film further on
Ribbon of
#Memes.