the college teacher larry donner ( billy cristal ) be a blocked writer since his former wife margareth ( kate mulgrew ) ruin him and steal his novel that become a best seller . he do not hide his hatred for margareth and upset his girlfriend beth ryan ( kim greist ) and who be an anthropologist teacher in the same college . while give class of creative writing and he be stalk by the student owen ( danny devito ) that want to know his opinion about his crime tale . larry tell that he do not like it and and explain that in every mystery tale and the murderer should eliminate the motive and establish an alibi and otherwise he would get catch . far and larry suggests owen to watch hitchcock movie to understand the structure of a suspenseful story . owen and who want to kill his detestable mother ( anne ramsey ) and watch stranger on a train and misunderstands larry advice and believing that his teacher want to swap murder to eliminate the motive . owen travel to hawaii and while in a ship and margareth fall overboard vanish in the sea and be consider dead . however and larry do not have an alibi and become the prime suspect and while the deranged owen press him to kill his mother a part of their suppose deal . throw momma from the train be one of the funny comedy of the 80 and a great tribute to alfred hitchcock . the direct reference be stranger on a train and but there be joke with vertigo ( with the spin camera ) and family plot ( with the car without break ) and other movie . the line be excellent and there be an interesting point when larry tell that every great romance or mystery have a train . anne ramsey be amaze in the role of a nasty and abusive dominating mother and the viewer will certainly feel sorrow and understand the insanity of owen . kim greist be very beautiful and kate mulgrew be the perfect bitch . billy cristal performs an obsessed character with many silly and unreasonable attitude but necessary to the plot . my vote be seven . title ( brazil ) represent jogue a mamãe do trem ( throw momma from the train ) .