Anniversary of the Strangers on a Train
On June 27, 1951, Alfred Hitchcock's film "Strangers on a Train" had a limited release, and on June 30, it was widely released in the United States and Canada. The genre of this movie is most often defined as a noir thriller.
The literary basis of the film's script was the eponymous debut novel by Patricia Highsmith. It is necessary to pay tribute to the directorial flair of Hitchcock, who literally immediately after the publication of the novel wanted to acquire the rights to its film adaptation. But, in order not to create a stir and inflate the price, he did it anonymously, through front persons. The deal cost him $ 7.5 thousand (the equivalent of the current $ 81.5 thousand). As a result, the rights to the film adaptation made up a completely insignificant part of the film's budget, which amounted to $ 1.6 million (or $ 17.4 million today).
However, Patricia Highsmith also benefited from this transaction. Thanks to the film adaptation of her novel, which did not gain much popularity among readers, she immediately became extremely popular. Her subsequent works were already much more popular than her debut novel. Moreover, both ordinary readers and filmmakers. To date, 16 film adaptations of the works of Patricia Highsmith are known. More often than others, novels about Mr. Ripley were filmed, and the most successful film adaptation, perhaps, was the film by René Clément "Plein soleil (Purple Noon, Lust for Evil, Blazing Sun)" (1959) with Alain Delon in the main role.
But this success came to the writer, who suffered from alcoholism and a bunch of related diseases, and also had an unsociable, if not to say, misanthropic character, much later. And before that, Hitchcock himself had to work hard on her book. First of all, he planned to thoroughly rework the plot of the book. At the same time, he understood that the little-known name of the screenwriter, indicated in the credits of the picture, is unlikely to attract the desired number of viewers. Therefore, he alternately offered the role of the screenwriter of his future film to a number of famous writers, but all for various reasons refused. Finally, the popular author of "cool mysteries" Raymond Chandler, who was awarded an Oscar nomination for the screenplay of the Billy Wilder film "Double Indemnity" 7 years earlier, "condescended" to the processing of the work of a little-known writer.
Certainly, the name of Raymond Chandler in the credits, as Hitchcock understood, would contribute to the box office success of the film. But a high-quality script was also needed. But Hitchcock was not sure that Chandler, by that time repeatedly seen in deep drunkenness, would be able to provide the scenario of the required quality. Therefore, he turned to his friend Ben Hecht, who at one time took an active part in the work on the script for "Gone with the Wind" (but due to his Jewish origin was not mentioned in the credits for this film). But Hecht was busy with another project at the time. Therefore, he instructed his "apprentice" Chenzi Ormonde to fulfill Hitchcock's request. Which he did. True, in the credits for the film, the name of Raymond Chandler was still the first, and only the second - Chenzi Ormonde.
The screenplay for "Strangers on a Train" was the last screenplay for a full-length feature film that Chandler worked on. Several years later, he passed away, deeply depressed due to the death of his beloved wife. The immediate cause of death was a mixture, whether accidental or deliberate, of a large dose of tranquilizers with an even higher dose of alcohol.
Alfred Hitchcock's film "Strangers on the Train" practically did not participate in any festivals. It was nominated for the Oscar in only one nomination - Best Cinematography, but it did not win that either. But the film received almost rave reviews from critics. American film critic guru Roger Ebert rated the film with a maximum of 4 stars and included it in his list of "Great Movies". In his review of the film, he called it "a first-rate thriller with odd little kinks now and then, ... and its appeal is probably the linking of an ingenious plot with insinuating creepiness".
Of the most authoritative professional film critics, perhaps only Bosley Crowther from The New York Times found something to find fault with. In his review, you can find a lot of reproaches against the film, such as the fact that "his basic premise of fear fired by menace is so ... so utterly unconvincing that the story just does not stand." Or: "it might be mentioned that there are a few inaccuracies in this film that may cause some knowing observers considerable skeptical pause - a purist might question how a tennis star could race around Washington half the night and then win three grueling sets of tennis in a Forest Hills tourney the next day." Well, and the like.
In the Soviet Union, Alfred Hitchcock's film "Strangers on the Train" was not shown. But Russian film critics praised the film very highly. For example, one of the most authoritative Russian film critics Sergei Kudryavtsev gave the film 9.5 out of 10 points and noted in his review that "Strangers on a Train" is "One of the classic, outstanding films by Alfred Hitchcock, which has had a considerable influence on filmmakers from different countries."
The modern moviegoer rated Alfred Hitchcock's film "Strangers on a Train" no less highly than audiences 70 years ago. 68% of IMDB and Kinopoisk users gave the film ratings from 8 to 10. Taking this into account and the above, the rating of Alfred Hitchcock's film "Strangers on a Train" by FilmGourmand was 7,881, making it 875th in the Golden Thousand.
