Cast: Farley Granger, Robert Walker, Ruth Roman, Leo
G. Carroll, Patricia Hitchcock
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Amateur tennis
star Guy Haines unwittingly enters into a bargain with lunatic Bruno
Antony after a chance meeting on a train. The deal is that in order
to avoid the motive aspect of a murder, they would swap murders and
kill the most hated person in each others' lives. Guy wants to marry
the daughter of a popular senator and pursue a life in politics on
his own, but his filandering wife smells a gravy train by staying
married to Guy and refuses to divorce. Bruno offs her and wants his
domineering father killed, but Guy refuses to hold up his part of the
bargain since he had took Bruno as joking. Now the cops are tailing
him as the prime suspect, and Bruno threatens to frame him if Guy
does not murder his father.
Brilliantly
shot by the Master, Alfred Hitchcock. This film is a near masterpiece
of construction, with taut direction and terrific performances
throughout. There are memorable moments galore, from the shadows in
the Tunnel of Love to the reflections of a murder in the glasses of
Bruno's victim. Only a few awkward scenes at the end of the film mar
this film from perfection. Hitchcock at his very best and a must view
for the performance of Robert Walker as Bruno.
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