Don't Make a Scene: Strangers on a Train

The Story: Another Hitchcock movie. Another train.

Bruno and Guy "meet cute", literally bumping into each other on a mutually-shared train, riding on the same parallel track, both entitled, different from the working stiffs, but also different from each other. Guy Haines is well-known, as a tennis professional. Bruno Antony wants to be...as anything. Guy is living a dream (slightly tarnished though it may be). Bruno isn't—at least the dream he thinks he deserves. And Bruno is enough of a spoiled, self-centered sociopath that he sees Guy as an equal who has the same needs and desires and outlook that he does. Maybe less than an equal. Maybe a bourgeousie.

Basically, Bruno hears what he wants to hear, and, since his ego crowds a conversation, mostly what he hears is his own echo chamber. Any polite deference is heard as a definite "yes." Any negative is deflected until an affirmative can be achieved. It's all aligned to line up with Bruno's world-view.

Which is crazy. 

Bruno Antony is the first of Patricia Highsmith's ambitious sociopaths (the most famous being "The Talented Mr. Ripley"). But, Bruno is a bit worse than Ripley, less brilliant, too. For Ripley, murder was a means to an end. For Bruno, murder is an obsession, keeping him awake nights how to accomplish one without consequences. Guy may harbor the same secret wish to murder his cheating wife (whom he's trying to divorce), but he'll never act on it, fearing the scandals that would cause. There's "no dolby/no squelch" between Bruno's secret wish and reality—he's just trying to find the best way to do it. 

And the best way? Get someone else to do it, and in Guy Haines, he finds an unwilling accomplice, with no motive for committing Bruno's murder, but enough to accomplish another.

Hitchcock stages their lunch somewhat conventionally with his own twists: when the two men are seeing eye to eye (as Bruno sees it, anyway) the two are occupying the same amount of real estate in the film-frame (usually with the momentum of the train visible through the window in the background). In the singular shots, Guy is photographed across the table, slightly reduced. But Bruno's one-shots have him looming in the frame, occupying much more space than Guy does in his, emphasized by Hitchcock placing the camera slightly below Bruno, making him uncomfortably close. It certainly communicates his insistence. 

And once Guy leaves and Bruno is alone, Hitchcock moves behind the table and Bruno disappears except for Guy's left-behind cigarette lighter with the engraved crossed tennis rackets ("criss-cross"), which will figure prominently in Strangers on a Train, a purloined talisman that will function as a perceived promise and evidence of guilt, depending on who has it.

The Set-Up: You haven't missed much. All we've seen so far are two sets of legs getting out of taxi's and onto a train. In the car, two shoes bump and a flash of recognition leads to an invitation to dinner. Bruno (Robert Walker) and Guy (Farley Granger) are just finishing dinner. 

Now, here's dessert.

Action!

INT. BRUNO'S COMPARTMENT ON TRAIN (PROCESS)
Bruno and Guy are finishing lunch. Bruno has been drinking and his eyes are bright and feverish. An almost empty liquor bottle is near a couple of detective novels covered with gaudily Illustrated dust jackets. Bruno has in unlighted cigarette in his mouth. Guy's lighter is on the table. Bruno snaps it a couple of times, as though fascinated, lights his cigarette and puts the lighter on the table again. 

BRUNO: Sure, I went to college. Got kicked out of Three of them. Every time they kicked me out my father threw me back in. (bitterly)

BRUNO: He finally gave up. He thinks I'm awfully small fry, not worth the bait. (wistfully) Drinking and gambling. Not like you, huh?

BRUNO: You my friend, Guy? What can I say?  So, I'm a bum!
GUY Sure. I'm your friend, Bruno. Who said you were?

BRUNO(a little woozy) No, you're not, nobody thinks I'm anything special. Only my mother. My father. 
(empties the bottle into his glass)

BRUNO: My father He hates me. 
Guy smiles this off as nonsense. 
GUY You must be imagining things. 
BRUNO (hitting the bottom of the bottle for the last drop) And I hate him. With all the money he's got, He thinks I ought to catch the eight-five bus every morning, punch a timeclock and work my way up selling paint or something. Him -- with all his money! Now, what do you think of a character like that?

GUY (amused by Bruno) Well, what do you want to do? I think possibly...

BRUNO You mean before or after I kill him? Yes.

BRUNO I hate him, too.

BRUNO I tell you, I--I get so sore at him sometimes, I-I-I-I want to KILL him!

GUY (chuckling) Before, of course. I don't think you know what you want.

BRUNO (leaning forward eagerly) Well, I want to do something...and everything.

BRUNO I got a theory you're supposed to do everything before you die. Have you ever driven a car, blindfolded, at a hundred and fifty miles an hour?

GUY Not lately.

BRUNO I did. I flew in a jet plane too. (his hand traces a swift streak through the air, and he adds sound effects)

BRUNO: Zzzzzzzp! Man, that's a thrill! Almost blow the sawdust out of my head.

BRUNO And... 

BRUNO I'm going to make a reservation on the first rocket to the moon...

GUY (amused and curious) What are you trying to prove?

BRUNO I'm not like you, Guy. You're lucky. You're smart.

BRUNO Marrying the boss's daughter is a nice short cut to a career, isn't it?

GUY (quickly) Marrying the senator's daughter has nothing to do with it. Can't a fellow look past a tennis not without being a goldbricker?

BRUNO Take it easy, boy. I'm your friend, remember? I'd do anything for you. 
GUY (humoring Bruno) Sure, Bruno, sure.

GUY (CONT'D) (glancing at his watch) We'll be pulling in soon. I've got to change trains.

BRUNO What'd you say her name was -- your wife's?

GUY Miriam.

BRUNO That's it. Miriam Joyce Haines. Played around a lot, I suppose?

GUY Skip it, Bruno! It's kinda painful for a man to discover he's been a chump. Let's not talk about it any more. 
BRUNO (almost hopefully) Maybe she'll make more trouble for you.
GUY I don't think so. 
BRUNO You mean you got enough on her to get your divorce no matter what? 
GUY Let's change subject, Bruno, can't we?

BRUNO Okay, Guy.

BRUNO Want me to tell you one of my ideas for a perfect murder? murdering my father? 
GUY (indicating the detective novels) You've been reading too many of these.
BRUNO (going right on) You want to hear about the busted light socket in the bathroom,

BRUNO ...or the carbon monoxide in the garage?

GUY No. I may be old fashioned, but I thought murder was against the law.
BRUNO But not against the law of nature. My theory is that everybody is a potential murderer. Didn't you ever want to kill somebody? Say one of those useless fellows Miriam was running around with? 
GUY You can't go around killing people just because you think they're useless.

BRUNO Oh, what's a life or two, Guy? Some people are better off dead.

BRUNO Take your -- wife and my father, for instance.

BRUNO It reminds me of a wonderful idea I had once. I used to put myself to sleep at night -- figuring it out.

BRUNO Now, let's say you want to get rid of your wife.

GUY That's a morbid thought.  Why?

BRUNO Oh no-no-no-no-no. Just suppose...Let's say you had a very good reason...

GUY No, let's n...

BRUNO No no! Let's say. Let's say she refuses to give you a divorce -- (raises a finger and stops Guy's protest) Let's say. You'd be afraid to kill her because you'd get caught. And what would trip you up? Motive.

BRUNO Now here's the plan...

GUY I'm afraid I haven't time to listen.

BRUNO (ignoring the remark) It's so simple, too.

BRUNO A couple of fellows meet accidentally, like you and me. No connection between them at all. Never saw each other before. Each of them has somebody he'd like to get rid of, but he can't murder the person he wants to get rid of. He'll get caught.

BRUNO So they swap murders.

GUY Swap murders?

BRUNO Each fellow does the other fellow's murder. Then there is nothing to connect them. The one who had the motive isn't there. Each fellow murders a total stranger. Like you do my murder and I do yours.

GUY (with relief) We're coming into my station.

BRUNO For example, your wife, my father.

BRUNO Criss-cross. 
GUY (sharply) What?

BRUNO (with a smile) We do talk the same language -- don't we, Guy? 
GUY (preparing to leave) Sure, we talk the same language. Thanks for the lunch.

BRUNO (beaming) I'm glad you enjoyed it. I thought the lamb chops were a little overdone myself.
He holds out his hand. Guy is in a hurry but he shakes hands. 
GUY Nice meeting you, Bruno. 
BRUNO (detaining him at the door) You think my theory is okay, Guy? You like it?

GUY Sure, sure, Bruno. They're all okay.
(he salutes a quick goodbye and hurries away)

Left alone, Bruno picks up Guy's lighter from the table,

...starts to call Guy back to hand It to him.

Then he looks closer at the insignia of crossed tennis rackets.

BRUNO (smiling) Criss-cross.

Strangers on a Train

Words by Raymond Chandler and Czenzi Ormonde (after Patricia Highsmith)

Pictures by Robert Boyle and Alfred Hitchcock

Strangers on a Train is available on DVD from Warner Home Video.