First-class Hitch

By Max Scheinin.

You never need an excuse to revisit Strangers on a Train -- it's a rivetingly suspenseful film that never runs out steam and livens up even the slowest of days -- but right about (lemme check my watch) -- yep, now -- you have one: The Talented Mr. Ripley, the best film of 1999, is currently in theaters. It's a first-class Hitchcock throwback, adapted from a novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith, who penned the source novel for Strangers, and if you watch the two back to back you'll see how taut and well-driven Ripley is, as well as the thematic elements it shares with Strangers.

Guy Haines (Farley Granger) is fed up with his wife and his life. He's in love with another woman but can't get a divorce and the woman he's married (he finds out all too late) is bitter and enraging.

Still, when he answers a mysterious stranger's question, "Are you Guy Haines?," he gets more then he bargained for. The fellow is Bruno Anthony (Robert Walker), a disturbed young man -- more disturbed then he can know -- who weasels himself into Guy's life merely by proposing that they trade murders. He reads the papers, you know, and is fully aware that Guy isn't as happy in his marriage as he could be. Bruno, on the other hand, despises his father. Why not he kill the wife and Guy, a tennis star, do away with his pop. After all, there's no reason either would be suspected. "Do you like my plan, Guy?".

"Oh, sure, it's great," replies Haines, blowing the man off as he believes he is merely jesting. But Bruno takes it seriously and bumps off the wife, an incident that leads to some nail-bitingly suspenseful interrogations, the kind of which you also see in Ripley.

"Now it your turn, Guy" prompts Bruno. It would be a crime to give away what twists the plot takes and how it ends. But I'll state that I am fairly certain you won't be able to guess the denouement. I can also say that the film will call back to you time and again. It doesn't wear off, and Guy's decision will ensure you come back to this one to be sure you didn't miss any small nuances the first time around. Strangers may not be as intensely personal and nihilistic as the man's greatest film, Vertigo, but it may just run second on my Hitch list. This one's a must-see.