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Director of Philanthropy Carter Hedberg recommends the film Strangers on a Train, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the book by Patricia Highsmith.
This thriller noir begins when amateur tennis star Guy Haines, played by Farley Granger, meets an engaging well-to-do psychopath, Bruno Anthony, cunningly portrayed by Robert Walker, on a train between New York and Washington. The strangers strike up a friendly conversation as they have drinks together during the short journey.
Bruno is familiar with Guy’s stardom and the stories of his cheating wife, and proposes a plan that he views as mutually beneficial. He suggests that he kills Guy’s wife, and the tennis star takes care of Bruno’s hated father—eliminating two troublesome people from their lives.
Guy smiles and humors Bruno, but when the train arrives at the final destination, he quickly exits and clumsily leaves behind his engraved cigarette lighter. Bruno keeps the lighter as insurance, and then goes on to fulfill his end of the bargain, which he assumed he had struck with Guy.
Read Carter's entire review here.
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