YMMV / Strangers on a Train

• Adaptation Displacement: The movie is a classic, while the novel is overshadowed both by the movie and Highsmith's later works, particularly the Ripliad.
• Award Snub: It received just one Academy Award nomination for Best Cinematography, which it lost.
• Funny Moments: While Bruno is stalking Miriam, a little kid walks up to him pointing a toy gun and says "Bang, bang!" Bruno just gives him a blank look for a moment. As the kid leaves, Bruno pops his balloon with his cigarette and the kid gives him this unbelieving look.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The ending, with Bruno dying after the merry-go-round crashes. Robert Walker died about a month after the film was released (from an accidental adverse reaction to prescription drugs).
• Ho Yay: Bruno's plan would have worked — had he not been so interested in Guy. This is doubly true in the book.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Bruno strangles Miriam, a woman that he never met before, and his motivation to do it plunges him even further down. He plots to mastermind the murder of his own father, just because he restricts his clearly unhinged freedom.
  • The policemen are depicted in the worst way possible, even compared to the rest of Alfred Hitchcock's filmography. While chasing after Guy, who is a prime suspect by that point, they choose to actually shoot him in the back, breaking all rules concerning law enforcement as: 1) he is not proven guilty yet and their position doesn't allow them to reach a verdict, 2) he is not armed and therefore it qualifies as cold-blooded murder of a possibly innocent man, and 3) he is in a crowded area which can and does lead to the death of another innocent man.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The whole premise of the film. Imagine being nearly framed for murder just because you struck up a conversation with a fellow train passenger. It makes you wonder just how many people you pass by every day could be complete maniacs without you even knowing.
  • Most of the long sequence where Bruno silently stalks Miriam and her companions around the park qualifies. However, special mention goes to the moment where she turns around as if she knows she's being watched, then turns back to find him standing right next to her.
    • What makes it especially scary is just how sudden it is. Miriam turns around, Bruno briefly illuminates the scene with Guy's cigarette lighter as he asks if she's Miriam, and she barely gets out a word confirming this when he starts strangling her. The scene is also frighteningly quiet, with only the carnival music playing in the background as Bruno chokes her to death — even worse, the music apparently becomes the soundtrack to murder in Bruno's mind, since it starts playing again in a later scene when he nearly strangles a different woman while giving a Death Glare to Babs, who happens to resemble Miriam.
  • After Guy's alibi falls through and he receives a police tail, he's walking with Detective Hennessey and making small-talk when, in the distance, he sees Bruno just standing there, watching him ominously. The psycho side of him is starting to come out again…
  • Then there's the scene at the party where Bruno nearly strangles a woman while staring at Babs. Had he not fainted shortly after, she probably would have died.
• Retroactive Recognition: Two future Bewitched cast members are here: Marion Lorne (Aunt Clara) as Mrs. Antony, and Laura Elliott/Kasey Rogers (Louise Tate) as Miriam Haines.
• Special Effects Failure: The merry-go-round scene, in which it spinning fast is achieved via Undercrank, has not aged well.

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