Day 165: Strangers in a Train (August, 21)

When I started to watch Strangers in a Train, I didn't expect at all to be so amazed. At the beginning, It was a classic Hitchcock, meaning that I could identify the usual elements presented by the filmmaker. However, on the second part, two scenes were so stunning that I had to remember to close my mouth several times. 

The tennis match scene is the best depicting the sport I've ever seen in a film. Wimbledon is a dear movie to me, but despite all the technology available on 2004, they could not present all the never wrecking elements of a tennis match in the same simple way of a real match. Hitchcock not only did that as he inserted the sport as a element of suspense in the story. It was beautiful and, as I've said, absolutely never wrecking.

And there's the famous merry go round scene. That he could film it on his time is a big achievement. Even the over dramatic aspects of that time couldn't decrease the suspense and anxiety of this scene. 

I'll have to think more carefully about all the homosexual subtext in Hitchcock's more controversial characters. He couldn't present it explicitly at the time, because of the censorship, but nowadays his references are clear in his movies. 

It is the second movie with Farley Granger this week (the first was Rope).In Hitchcock's hands, the actor plays a somewhat dubious characters, with sly manners. We can relate to him, but just to some degree, not entirely. He's always in the between,it this makes any sense. And, after all, it is an interesting development for a character - we never know where he really stands. 

Outstanding feature, a intriguing story... Hitchcock never ceases to amaze, even in his earlier movies.  And Strangers in a Train was one of the biggest surprises that I had on this dare until now. 

Hitchcock had a way to say things in an amazing manner...

Strngers in the Train. Directed by Alfred Htichcock. With: Farley Granger, Robert
Walker, Ruth Roman. Writers: Raymond Chandler, Czenzi Ormonde, from the
novel by Patricia Haysmith. USA, 1951, 101 min., Mono, Black and White (DVD).