Strangers on a Train
by Patricia Highsmithliterary work· published 1950
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The world of Patricia Highsmith has always been filled with ordinary people, all of whom are capable of very ordinary crimes. This theme was present from the beginning, when her debut, Strangers on a Train, galvanized the reading public. Here we encounter Guy Haines and Charles Anthony Bruno, passengers on the same train. But while Guy is a successful architect in the midst of a divorce, Bruno turns out to be a sadistic psychopath who manipulates Guy into swapping murders with him. "Some people are better off dead," Bruno remarks, "like your wife and my father, for instance." As Bruno carries out his twisted plan, Guy is trapped in Highsmith's perilous world, where, under the right circumstances, anybody is capable of murder.
Adaptations (2)
Strangers on a Train has been adapted into 2 films, from 1951 to 1970. The most recent is Once You Kiss a Stranger (1970).
Strangers on a Train1951 · film · 101 min · dir. Alfred Hitchcock · IMDb ↗A charming psychopath tries to coerce a tennis star into his theory that two strangers can commit the perfect crime by exchanging murders—each killing the other’s most-hated person.
Once You Kiss a Stranger1970 · film · 106 min · dir. Robert Sparr · IMDb ↗IMDb5.4A woman seduces a professional golfer, then offers to kill his opponent if the golfer will kill her psychiatrist, who wants her committed.
