Strangers on a Train

Strangers on a Train is a film released in 1951 by Warner Bros. The film was directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The film starred Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Robert Walker, Leo G. Carroll, Kasey Rogers and Patricia Hitchcock. The movie was based on the novel by Patricia Highsmith, who also wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley. Detective novelist Raymond Chandler wrote an early draft of the screenplay.

The motif of the double

Like Shadow of a Doubt, Strangers on a Train is one of many Hitchcock films to explore the doppelgänger theme. The film employs a number of puns and visual metaphors to suggest the motif of double-crossing and crossing one's double.

Related Topics:
Shadow of a Doubt - Doppelgänger

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A few examples:

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• Bruno orders two double drinks on the train in the beginning of the film.
• Guy's lighter, which plays an important role in the film, features two crossed tennis rackets.
• A murder committed early in the film is seen doubly reflected in both lenses of the victim's glasses.
• Hitchcock's cameo comes early in the film, as he carries a double-bass -- the physical double for the rotund director.

"Isn't it a fascinating design?" Hitchcock is reputed to have said; "You could study it forever."

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