one of alfred hitchcock three great film and along with psycho and the 39 step and stranger on a train be as brilliantly out of control a a merry go round in metcalf and and almost a deadly . it the kind of film you have so much fun watch and you can not even feel properly guilty about it until you have time to catch your breath . top amateur tennis contender guy haines ( farley granger ) meet a singularly weird and louche stranger name bruno anthony ( robert walker ) on a train . thanks to the gossip page and bruno know all about guy problem with his no good wife miriam and and rather gaily suggests they do each other a favor represent bruno will kill miriam and guy will kill bruno father and who want to put bruno in an institution . guy laugh it off and but bruno ain not kid and a guy find out to his peril . it a great premise for a murder story and and hitchcock give stranger on a train a run for all it worth and with the help of walker in perhaps the great performance in any hitchcock film and include anthony perkins in psycho . while perkins make his mark play tetchily against the grain and walker a anthony be one perfectly at home either butter up old lady at a swank dinner party or strangle a young woman at an amusement park . what drive bruno . many commentator suggest his apparent homosexuality find a match in pretty guy . yes and bruno light up the old gay dar and but guy seem happy enough on love rebound with socialite anne morton ( ruth roman ) . bruno interest for guy could just a easily be envy and for someone make a mark in the world while he live at home and let mommy file his nail . oh and i certainly admire people who do thing and bruno purr and look like a cat eye a mouse . you know and it must be pretty exciting to be so important . later on and bruno call himself a bum and accurate enough except for our root interest in him and even a he wreck guy life with his homicidal meddling . it the ultimate perverse underdog tale . there a sense of integrity about bruno and in his dogged dedication and which command our respect and which hitchcock play to so brilliantly . when bruno float away from the scene of his big crime and be i the only sick person in this world who actually happy for him . i think not and yet hitchcock keep the story on a right enough path for u to realize how low we have fall . we do not want bruno to win and exactly and but we enjoy his élan a he try . everything else be so perfect and or at least close enough and to make every shot memorable . hitchcock always manage at least 2 3 good setpiece sequence per movie while here you get a score of them at the amusement park alone . ( 20 big show the neon side at the entrance say and and they aren not kid . ) script and camera work and a gripping tennis match and ruth roman jaw drop figure and it all too much greatness for one film to contain . even granger do his callow youth thing here with more risible plausibility than gregory peck ever manage . you can call this a clinic in movie making and but clinic sound too dull . stranger on a train be good nasty fun and all the way through and leave you with a nifty stinger at the tail a you realize you be root for the wrong stranger all along . heck and i will take that ride over again in a second .