Creepy!

In the movie Strangers on a train, Guy is introduced to a creepy Bruno who seems to know everything about him. Bruno has this expert plan on how to murder two people. As the film carries on, Guy becomes more and more irritated by Bruno because Bruno killed Guy's wife and Guy will not kill Bruno's father.

I have honestly never seen one of Alfred Hitchcock's film before, sorry all you film nuts. So upon hearing Mr. Kloubachar and a few others in my 4th hour class talk about him and his masterpieces, I though picking a Hitchcock film was a necessity. I watched Strangers on a train(1951). Watching this film I couldn't get away from seeing Bruno Anthony, played by Robert Walker, following everyone around, it creeped me out.

So I did a little background research on him. After playing in a few movies his wife broke off with him and he really never recovered. He drank a lot and soon was arrested for hit-and-run charges and drinking charges. His ex-wife married producer David O. Selznick and Walker hit the ceiling. He was committed to a sanatorium and not released until 1949. I think this part of Bruno in the film is a great role for him, how sad that sounds. He is a psychopath in the film and in real life. I bet he didn't even have to act! However, despite the role of psychopath in movies, he played a verity of characters in comedies in the 1940s. I guess what I can learn about Walkers behavior on and off the screen is that even though he was messed up in the head, it can be a great role in film, and don't do drugs! Walker was on his way to stardom at the time he died of a dose of sodium amytal, which his doctor gave him because he was found in an extremely agitated state.

The other main character in Hitchcock's Strangers on a train is Guy Haines, a professional tennis player, acted by Farley Granger. Guy is an athlete annoyed by all the media and people bugging him about his personal life. The media says Guy had an affair with a woman and doesn't love his wife. She wants a divorce but when he goes to see her she had changed her mind.

Right out of high school Farley was recruited by producer Samuel Goldwyn. His first Hitchcock movie was in 1948 called Rope. Strangers on a train was one of Granger's first big hits and Hitchcock tried to "reveal the troubled nature that lay beneath the surface of a seemingly upright young man." I think this could teach us a lesson opposite to that of Robert Walker's. In this case Granger was a excellent actor and made a living off it. I think his childhood and the Great Depression made him the actor that he was.

I think we can learn from the creepiness of Robert Walker that some actors are just themselves in films and some aren't. In all, I thought that Strangers on a train was a decent movie and will probably check out some more Hitchcock movies.