Wanna hear one of my ideas for a perfect murder?
A few weeks back I read Patricia Highsmith's 1950 novel Strangers on a Train in anticipation of re-watching Hitchcock's film version, which came out the following year. Both have the same basic premise -- two men meet on a train and one flippantly suggests that they swap murders, but only one of them intends to follow through on "their" plan. The key difference between them is in Highsmith's novel the other man is ultimately driven to carry out the second murder, making it more of a psychological suspense story. It wouldn't do for a Hitchcock hero to actually be guilty of murder, though, which is why Farley Granger's Guy Haines is squeaky clean through and through. His profession has also been changed from architect to amateur tennis player, and his fiancée Ann (Ruth Roman) is the daughter of a prominent senator (Leo G. Carroll), whose other daughter Barbara is played by Patricia Hitchcock (in her second of three supporting roles in her father's films).
The one character who moved from the novel to the film virtually unchanged is ingratiating sociopath Bruno Anthony, masterfully played by Robert Walker, another Hitchcock villain with an unhealthy relationship with his mother (Marion Lorne). Watching him, one can see how he thinks he's doing Guy a favor by strangling his wayward spouse (Laura Elliott), who refuses to grant him a divorce. Of course, once Guy makes it plain that he won't be murdering Bruno's father in exchange, Bruno sets out to frame him for his wife's murder. After all, Guy's the one with the motive, right?