Strangers on a Train

Hitchcock's adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel is a classic example of his ingenuity. All the elements are here: the average person in an impossible situation, some amazing cinematic achievements and the gradual, ominous increase in tension.

Again, we have doubles, deceptions, flawed family relationships and a play with symmetry, darkness and light, as Hitchcock's love of bitter irony shades an adaptation (by Raymond Chandler and Czenzi Ormonde) of Patricia Highsmith's novel. A tennis champ and a charming if eccentric fan joke about ridding one another of unwanted intimates: a perfect (since seemingly unmotivated) crime, in theory... Hitchcock's abiding fascination with structural patterns - both narrative and visual - produces several unforgettable set-pieces.