Everyone has somebody that they want to put out of the way. Oh now surely, Madam, you're not going to tell me that there hasn't been a time that you didn't want to dispose of someone. Your husband, for instance?

Strangers on a Train is my new favorite by the Master of Suspense. It is the second of two films he did with Farley Granger. It is one of his best. The music is Robert Walker plays Bruno Anthony a man hungry for Murder. Walker is one of the best and creepiest Hitchcock villains after Perkins of course.  Walker is creepy during the tennis match when everyone turns their heads to watch the ball and his head is still. Also when he is stocking and killing Mariam.Here is the glasses scene on the left. And above that is the opening scene. Below it some man carries a cello case onto a train. Here is the script from the killing.

We see Bruno's gloved hands dart quickly to Miriam's throat.
 The lighter falls down out of picture, and as Bruno's hands
 grip her throat, his head moves slightly to blot out Miriam's
 face. His head moves a bit farther until Miriam's face is
 nearly uncovered at the other side of the screen, and we see
 her glasses fall off.
 
 CLOSE SHOT
 
 Miriam's glasses hit the ground. The shadows of their
 struggling figures over the shot.
 
 CLOSE UP
 The screen is filled with one of the lenses of the glasses.
 They are of the diminishing type. Against the moonlit sky
 we see reflected, the elongated struggling figures, as though
 we were shooting up at them. Suddenly one of the figures
 falls forward.
 
 CLOSE UP
 
 Miriam's head drops into the picture by the glasses.
 
 Bruno's hand comes into the picture and picks up the glasses.
 One of the lenses has been broken by Miriam's fall.

After all, murder is - or should be - an art. Not one of the 'seven lively', perhaps, but an art nevertheless. And, as such, the privilege of committing it should be reserved for those few who are really superior individuals.

A few days ago I watched The Hitchcock film Rope which was the first of three films he did with James Stewart. It involves Farley Granger and John Dall as collage students who murder a fellow student and hide the body in their home. They then throw a party inviting his dad, aunt, wife to be, former teacher and a friend. The film is said to be inspired by the murder of 14 year old boy by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Granger over acts to much. You can tell that Stewart knows something is wrong when Granger starts freaking out about how he did not strangle a chicken. Hitchcock shot for periods lasting up to ten minutes and shot the film in just one room.Not many have done this which is one of the things that makes it good.