While on a train, Granger encounters Robert Walker, a gregarious and effeminate man who, as it turns out, also has someone who stands in his way: his own father, wealthy but humorless businessman Jonathan Hale. Hale wants the dissipated Walker to work for a living. Walker would rather see Hale dead, which would free Walker to hang out with his amusing and addlepated mother, Marion Lorne, whom you might remember playing about the same character on "Bewitched."
Walker proposes to Granger that they exchange murders. Walker will kill Rogers, and Granger will kill Hale. Granger laughs off his eccentric acquaintance, but shortly thereafter, Walker fulfills his half of the "bargain," then demands that Granger murder his father.
Granger can't turn Walker over to the police, since Walker will take him down with him. Granger is already the chief suspect for Rogers' murder. To help convince Granger he must kill Hale, Walker begins to stalk Granger's social circle, endangering his plum position with Roman and Carroll, and threatens to plant evidence that would convict Granger.
The story is based on a novel by the then-obscure Patricia Highsmith. Famous detective novelist Raymond Chandler is given top screenwriter credit, but it appears that Czenzi Ormonde actually wrote most of the final script.
How others will see it. Like most Hitchcock movies, Strangers on a Train was a commercial success. But it was not recognized as a great movie at the time, probably because of its unimposing cast, which included Hitchcock's own daughter, Patricia, in a supporting role. (She redeems herself well, unlike Sofia Coppola in The Godfather Part III). The movie picked up just one Oscar nomination, for its cinematography.
Today, though, it ranks near the middle of the imdb.com Top 250, sixth place among Hitchcock films, trailing only the chestnuts Rear Window, Psycho, Vertigo, North by Northwest, and Rebecca. The highest rated demographic is from women over 45, who may take a maternal interest in the ridiculously handsome Granger.
For men, the appeal isn't Granger, or even the overly demure Roman, but Walker. He's quite a character, an engaging yet completely despicable sociopath who is fully convinced he is in the right. He is reminiscent of a more famous Patricia Highsmith character, Mr. Ripley, who was blatantly homosexual, as well as the ultimate anti-hero who gets out of trouble only to commit additional murders.
How I felt about it. Granger acts guilty because he is guilty. He is an accessory to murder, an extremely serious crime. Curiously enough, though, no one else believes he is guilty, except the nightshift policeman who is suspicious of everyone. Even Carroll, a Senator averse to scandal and presumably protective of his daughter, cannot conceive for a moment that Granger could be mixed up in a murder.
This is a matter of class, something that exists, or at least existed, in England but is supposed to have never existed in America. The class system suggests that Granger belongs to them and is incapable of violent pre-meditated murder.
Carroll's blue-blooded protective interest in Granger is among the many curious relationships in this film. Ruth Roman is repeatedly aghast at Granger's involvement with Walker's murder of Rogers. But the woman who really loves Granger appears to be his fiancée's younger sister, Patricia Hitchcock, who would walk through fire for him. We also wonder whether Walker has a homosexual attraction to Granger, and whether Granger loves anyone at all other than his future career prospects, which require Roman as a gateway.