Strangers On a Train

Strangers On a Train, motion picture about two men who hatch a murder plot after meeting on a train, based on a novel by Patricia Highsmith. Released in 1951, the film was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Bruno Antony (played by Robert Walker) befriends tennis star Guy Haines (Farley Granger) on a train, and suggests that if the tennis star will murder Antony’s father so that he can get his inheritance, Antony will kill Haines’s wife, who has refused to divorce him. Haines dismisses the idea as crazy, and the two part ways. Later, Antony asks Haines again and again, and finally he forces the issue by killing Haines’s wife. When Haines refuses to fulfill his part of the bargain, Antony tries to frame him for murdering his wife. This movie inspired the dark comedy Throw Momma From the Train (1987).

Director

• Alfred Hitchcock

Cast

• Farley Granger (Guy Haines)
• Ruth Roman (Anne Morton)
• Robert Walker (Bruno Antony)
• Leo G. Carroll (Senator Morton)
• Patricia Hitchcock (Barbara Morton)
• Laura Elliot (Miriam)
• Marion Lorne (Mrs. Antony)
• Jonathan Hale (Mr. Antony)
• Howard St. John (Captain Turley)
• John Brown (Professor Collins)
• Norma Varden (Mrs. Cunningham)
• Robert Gist (Hennessey)
• John Doucette (Hammond)
• Howard Washington (Waiter)
• Dick Wessel (Baggage man)
• Edward Clark (Mr. Hargreaves)
• Al Hill ('Ring the Gong' concessionaire)
• Leonard Carey (Butler)
• Edna Holland (Mrs. Joyce)
• Dick Ryan (Minister)
• Tommy Farrell (Miriam's boy friend)
• Rolland Morris (Miriam's boy friend)
• Louis Lettieri (Boy)
• Murray Alper (Boatman)
• John Butler (Blind man)
• Roy Engel (Police officer)
• Joel Allen (Police officer)
• Edward Hearn (Sergeant Campbell)
• Mary Alan Hokanson (Secretary)
• Janet Stewart (Girl)
• Shirley Tegge (Girl)
• Georges Renavent (M. Darville)
• Odette Myrtil (Mme. Darville)
• Charles Meredith (Judge Dolan)
• Minna Phillips (Dowager)
• Monya Andre (Dowager)
• Laura Treadwell (Mrs. Anderson)
• J. Louis Johnson (Butler)
• Sam Flint (Man)
• Ralph Moody (Man)
• Joe Warfield (Seedy man)
• Harry Hines (Man under merry-go-round)
• Alfred Hitchcock (Man boarding train with bass fiddle)

Trivia

• Mystery novelist Raymond Chandler contributed to the screenplay.

Quote

• Bruno Antony (chatting about murder at a cocktail party): “Everyone has somebody that they want to put out of the way. Oh now, surely Madam, you're not going to tell me that there hasn't been a time that you didn't want to dispose of someone. Your husband, for instance.”