June 30, 1951: “Strangers On a Train” Premieres

June 30, 1951: Strangers On a Train premieres, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, with a screenplay by noted mystery writer Raymond Chandler and screenwriter Czenzi Ormonde, and based on the previous year's novel by Patricia Highsmith.

Highsmith, a lesbian from Texas whom British novelist Graham Greene called "the poet of apprehension," also wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley and The Price of Salt, which is said to be the 1st novel with both a lesbian theme and a happy ending. (It became the movie Carol in 2015.)

Farley Granger -- no relation to the British actor Stewart Granger, who had to change his name when he came to America, because his real name was James Stewart, and Hollywood already had one of those -- plays Guy Haines, a tennis star. His wife, Miriam (Kasey Rogers, then credited as Laura Elliott), has been cheating on him, to the point where it's obvious that her pregnancy began while Guy was away at a tournament. He wants to divorce her, so he can marry Anne Morton (Ruth Roman), the daughter of a U.S. Senator (Leo G. Carroll).

Robert Walker plays Bruno Antony, a high-living young psychopath, eager to inherit the fortune of his father, who he says hates him, and vice versa. Bruno meets Guy on a train from Washington to New York. They get to talking, and Bruno suggests to Guy that they take care of each other's problem: Bruno would kill Miriam, and Guy would kill the elder Mr. Antony (Jonathan Hale). Each would have an alibi, since each would be in the other's city at the time of the murders; and each would seem to have no motive for the murders they actually committed, and so each would get away with it.

Guy humors Bruno by pretending to find his idea amusing but is so eager to get away from Bruno that he leaves behind his engraved cigarette lighter. As he gets off the train in his hometown of Metcalf, a man carrying a double bass fiddle in a case boards the train. This is Hitchcock's obligatory cameo appearance.

Miriam tells Guy she is no longer interested in a divorce, and threatens to claim that he is the father if he pursues it any further. That evening, Bruno follows Miriam to an amusement park in Metcalf, and strangles her while Guy is on the train back to Washington, D.C., leaving the lighter at the scene, incriminating Guy. When Guy arrives home, Bruno informs him Miriam is dead, and insists that he must now honor his half of their deal.

Guy goes to the Mortons' home, where Anne's father informs Guy that his wife has been murdered. Anne's sister, Barbara (Patricia Hitchcock, the director's only child, 22 years old at the time), says that the police will think that Guy is the murderer since he has a motive. The police question Guy but cannot confirm his alibi: a professor Guy met on the train was so drunk that he cannot remember their encounter. The police assign an escort to watch him.

Bruno follows Guy around Washington, introduces himself to Anne, and appears at a party at Senator Morton's house. To amuse another guest, Bruno playfully demonstrates how to strangle a woman. His gaze falls upon Barbara, whose appearance resembles Miriam's, triggering a flashback. Bruno compulsively squeezes the woman's neck, and other guests intervene to stop him from strangling her to death.

Barbara tells Anne that Bruno was looking at her while strangling the other woman, and Anne realizes Barbara's resemblance to Miriam. Her suspicions aroused, Anne confronts Guy, who tells her the truth about Bruno's scheme.

Bruno sends Guy a package containing a pistol, a house key, and a map showing the location of his father's bedroom. Guy creeps into Bruno's father's room to warn him of his son's murderous intentions but instead finds Bruno there waiting for him. Guy tells Bruno that he will not keep his part of the deal, and tries to persuade Bruno to seek psychiatric help, but Bruno threatens to punish him.

Anne visits Bruno's home, and tries to explain to his mother that her son is a murderer. Bruno overhears, and when his mother leaves, he mentions Guy's missing cigarette lighter to Anne, and claims that Guy asked him to search the murder site for it. Guy infers that Bruno intends to plant it at the scene of the murder and incriminate him. After winning a tennis match at Forest Hills, Guy evades the police escort, helped by Barbara, reaches Penn Station, boards a train back to Metcalf, and heads for the amusement park to stop Bruno.

When Bruno arrives, a carnival worker recognizes him from the night of the murder. He tells the police, who misunderstand, thinking he has recognized Guy. After Guy arrives, he and Bruno fight on the park's carousel. Believing that Guy is trying to escape, a police officer shoots at him but instead kills the carousel operator, causing the carousel to spin out of control.

A carnival worker crawls underneath it and applies the brakes too abruptly, causing the carousel to spin off its support, trapping Bruno underneath and mortally injuring him. The worker who called the police tells them that Bruno, not Guy, is the one he remembers seeing the night of the murder. As Bruno dies, he knows the police are there, and with his last words, he implicates guy. But his fingers unclench to reveal Guy's lighter in his hand. Realizing that Bruno is not the murderer, the police ask Guy to come to the station to tie up loose ends.

Some time later, another stranger on a train attempts to strike up conversation with Guy in the same way as Bruno did. Guy and Anne abruptly hurry away from him.

People familiar with both versions of Strangers On a Train have said that the movie had more of a gay subtext than the book did, an unusual thing for the Hays Code era, which Hitchcock sometimes managed to tease. Granger was bisexual in real life, and had previously appeared in Rope, another Hitchcock film with a gay subtext.

But in the book, the "hero" goes through with his half of the murder bargain. In the film, played by Farley Granger, he is willing to do anything to avoid it, and, as a result, puts himself in further jeopardy.

Robert Walker, cast against type as the film's villain, was, unknown to an adoring public, a raging alcoholic, and died just 2 months later from a combination of booze and a sedative. He was only 32. His son, also named Robert Walker, also became an actor, best known for playing the troublesome teenage title character in the Star Trek episode "Charlie X." Having since seen both, I can now say that not only did the son look like the father, but copied his acting style. He died in 2019.

John Brown (Professor Collins) died in 1957, Jonathan Hale (Mr. Antony) in 1966, Marion Lorne (Mrs. Antony) in 1968, Leo G. Carroll in 1972, Howard St. John (Police Captain Turley) in 1974, Alfred Hitchcock in 1980, Norma Varden (the choked by surviving Mrs. Cunningham) in 1989, Robert Gist (Detective Hennessey) in 1998, Ruth Roman in 1999, Kasey Rogers/Laura Elliott in 2006, Farley Granger in 2011, and Patricia Hitchcock in 2021.

In 1987, Danny DeVito directed his first film, Throw Momma From the Train. It is a tribute to Strangers On a Train, and includes a clip from it: DeVito's character, dominated by his mother as much as Bruno was by his father, takes a writing class taught by a frustrated novelist played by Billy Crystal. Crystal laments that his ex-wife stole his idea for a novel, and says, not fully seriously, that he wants to kill her. DeVito suggests the murder swap, but Crystal rejects it.

The twist is that DeVito thinks he's killed the ex-wife, but really hasn't, and tells Crystal he's now got to kill the mother. At first, he resists, then pretends to go along with it, then finally snaps, and tries it. But this shocks DeVito back into realizing how much he loves his mother, and he stops Crystal, saving her. She kicks Crystal off the train.

As it turns out, both Crystal and his ex-wife survived. She marries the man who rescued her, freeing Crystal of alimony payments. What had happened to Crystal becomes his next book. After a year, DeVito comes to see him, tells him his mother has since died of natural causes, and that he's written a book, too -- but it's a children's pop-up book based on their friendship, so it's not competition, and the movie ends with them still friends.

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June 30, 1951 was a Saturday. Jazz bass guitarist Stanley Clarke was born. And these baseball games were played:

* The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox, 3-1 at Yankee Stadium. Chuck Stobbs outpitched Bob Kuzava. Ted Williams went 1-for-5. Joe DiMaggio, in his last season, when 1-for-4. Yogi Berra went 2-for-4 with a solo home run. Mickey Mantle, in his 1st season, appeared as a pinch-hitter, and didn't reach base.

* The New York Giants lost to the Boston Braves, 19-7 at Braves Field in Boston. The Giants led, 7-4 at the 7th inning stretch, but Sal Maglie ran out of gas. The Braves scored 8 runs in the 7th inning and 7 in the 8th. Earl Torgeson went 2-for-5 with 2 home runs and 7 RBIs. Roy Hartsfield, eventually to be the 1st manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, went 4-for-6 with 1 RBI. Rookie Willie Mays went 0-for-4.

* The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 14-8 at Ebbets Field. Johnny Schmitz only lasted 3 innings for the Dodgers, but Carl Erskine went the rest of the way for the win. Duke Snider went 2-for-5 with a home run and 3 RBIs. Carl Furillo went 3-for-5 with a home run and 2 RBIs. Jackie Robinson went 0-for-2 with a walk.

* The Cleveland Indians beat the Detroit Tigers, 3-1 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium. Early Wynn outpitched Fred Hutchinson. Luke Easter and Al Rosen hit home runs. 

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Chicago White Sox, 4-3 at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 8-4 at Sportsman's Park in St. Louis. Stan Musial went 1-for-3 with 2 walks. Ralph Kiner went 0-for-2 with 2 walks.

* The Philadelphia Athletics and the Washington Senators were rained out at Shibe Park in Philadelphia. The game was made up as part of a doubleheader on September 5. The A's swept, 4-1 and 9-7.

* And the Chicago Cubs and the Cincinnati Reds were rained out at Crosley Field in Cincinnati. The game was made up on September 7, and ended up being a doubleheader's worth of play: The Reds won, 7-6 in 18 innings. Each team scored 3 runs in the 15th. In the 18th, Homer "Dixie" Howell hit a sacrifice fly to score Hank Edwards.