Noir-vember: Strangers On A Train (1951)

It's a classic conceit, but only because this Alfred Hitchcock movie did it so well. Two strangers end up in conversation on a train (hence the title) and one puts forward his idea for a perfect murder: two people who aren't really connected commit a murder on behalf of the other party. So begins this enjoyable thriller, based on a tale by Patricia Highsmith and worked into screenplay by a few different people, including Raymond Chandler.

Farley Granger plays Guy Haines, a minor British celeb on the tennis circuit, and Robert Walker is Bruno Antony, the stranger who starts talking about a plan that he actually wants to put into action. Guy is having a hard time trying to arrange a divorce from his wife, Miriam, which would free him up to marry the lovely daughter of a US Senator, while Bruno seems to have spent many years carrying around a hatred of his father. Time passes, and it's not long until Bruno has done what he sees as his part in a confirmed deal. Guy is shocked, and also afraid. He doesn't know how to best explain the situation to the authorities, especially while Bruno has his personalised cigarette lighter in his possession, ready to plant at the murder site to incriminate him much more than the circumstantial evidence.

Although the central idea was very familiar to me, and will be very familiar to anyone who has even the most cursory knowledge of the film, or the many films/TV show episodes it has influenced, I had no idea that things would cut to the chase so quickly. Bruno is a psychopath, which becomes clear after those initial scenes, and that makes it very easy to believe that he starts off this chain of events after the most non-committal conversation with Guy.

As expertly constructed as you would expect from Hitchcock, this arguably sits alongside his lighter offerings. While there is danger for our guilty-looking hero, it always feels as if Guy will find some way out of his predicament. It helps that he eventually confides in his understanding partner, Anne (Ruth Roman), and that he has the truth on his side, even if it won't really seem like the truth when he tries to explain it to the authorities. His actions may seem a bit silly at times, but it's hard to think of other ways in which he could have sought to clear his name and get everything resolved satisfactorily.

Granger is decent in his role, required to look nervous and sweaty for most of his time onscreen, and Walker is very entertaining as someone who quickly casts off any semblance of normalcy once a sliver of his dangerous madness is shown. Roman is lovely, just the kind of person you would want on your side if trying to clear your name and maintain a smooth course on a journey of true love, Leo G. Carroll is as good as ever as her father, the Senator, and Patricia Hitchcock (daughter of the man in the director's chair) has fun in her role, the younger sister of Roman's character, prone to saying whatever she thinks, without considering whether or not it is something others may want to hear.

I can't say that this would rank up there with the very best of the Hitchcock movies I have seen, and I have seen a great many of his works, but it's absolutely worth seeing, and makes up for a lack of major set-pieces throughout with a finale that features the police firing a gun far too carelessly at a funfair, a carousel on superspeed, and a villain who remains unrepentant even as some major evidence comes into plain sight.

8/10

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Mubi Monday: Rope (1948)

Alfred Hitchcock once said something about how an explosion will give audiences a fright but showing a ticking bomb under the chair of some unsuspecting potential victim would have them on edge right up until the explosion. I'm paraphrasing but I remember the essence of his message. He liked to scare people, but he equally enjoyed making them tense.

Rope starts with a murder, committed by Phillip (Farley Granger) and Brandon (John Dall). The body is hidden in a chest and, for the rest of the movie, there it stays while the two murderers host a small dinner party, all the while hoping that nobody suspects that they're sharing a room with a hidden corpse. The one person who may suspect is Rupert Cadell (James Stewart), an old schoolteacher they believe would actually enjoy their whole plan. Of course, they cannot tell him what they have done. The only thing they can do is enjoy watching Cadell mull over how strange the evening is.

As famous for the way it was shot as for the content, Rope is a film unfairly viewed by some (including Hitchcock himself, and I should mention that it was he who directed it) as nothing more than a gimmicky experiment. There's no denying that the lengthy takes, the logistics of how every shot was set out, and the manipulation of the main environment (including a wonderful display showing the city skyline turning from day to night), is technically impressive, but that's only part of the reason to enjoy the film. The script, by Arthur Laurents (from a play by Patrick Hamilton), is a lot of fun, allowing viewers to watch two nasty individuals grow increasingly edgy as their own arrogance starts to bite them on the backside.

Granger is the more agitated of the pair, tense from the very beginning and only getting worse when alcohol is added to the mix. Dall gets to have more fun, unflappable throughout, even as it looks more and more unlikely that their "perfect crime" will be discovered. Stewart, despite the fact that he didn't think himself suited to this role, is his usual good self, a smart and sophisticated man who is equally happy chatting to the other guests as he is joking with the maid (Edith Evanson). Joan Chandler and Douglas Dick are both enjoyable enough as the other, younger, guests,  and both Cedrick Hardwicke and Constance Collier are very good as the two older attendees, with Collier a particular delight.

Although it would be easy to confuse Rope with the attitudes of the two main characters - smug, self-absorbed, interested in creating something audacious and impressive just for the same of being able to say it was done - I think it holds up as a fine piece of thrilling cinema. Few other films spend the entire runtime showing you that ticking bomb under the chair. This one does, and to great effect. The ticking bomb just happens to be in the shape of a stashed corpse.

8/10

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Amuck! (1972)

AKA Alla ricerca del piacere AKA (the more appropriate) Hot Bed Of Sex.

Written and directed by Silvio Amadio, Amuck! is known by a few other names, but Hot Bed Of Sex is one of the most appropriate, considering how entertainingly titillating the whole thing is.

The strange plot sees the gorgeous Greta Franklin (played by the gorgeous Barbara Bouchet) going to work as a secretary for writer Richard Stuart (Farley Granger). The writer lives with his wife, Eleanora (Rosalba Neri), in sun-drenched Italy, but Greta isn't there to enjoy the weather, oh no. Greta wants to find out what happened to her good friend (and ex-lover), Sally. She suspects foul play and as the writer and his wife start to draw Greta into their sex games that suspicion starts to grow and grow. Did the writer kill Sally, or was it his wife? Perhaps it was the local fisherman, Rocco (Petar Martinovitch).

Amuck! is stylish and fairly well put together, considering that it already has a big enough selling point in the form of Barbara Bouchet. That it also uses Bouchet in some very erotic sequences throughout the movie should be more than enough to keep fans of this kind of film happy. Thankfully, the icing on the cake is the murder mystery plot - enjoyable stuff that tries to keep twisting and turning and keeps the heroine engaged in mindgames with most of the people around her.

Farley Granger is just fine, and the lucky bugger gets to act naughty with Bouchet. Rosalba Neri is also fine, and also lucky enough to get naughty with Bouchet. Patrizia Viotti has a lot less screentime, but guess what - she ALSO gets her naughty with Bouchet (under a waterfall, no less, in one particularly memorable scene). The eagle-eyed amongst you may already have spotted a pattern.

Silvio Amadio does a decent job here, but let's be honest, nobody is ever going to be quoting any classic lines from the script because there are none and this is unlikely to be on any favourite movie lists. However, it does what it does well and I think I may have already mentioned what a bonus the presence of Barbara Bouchet is.

7/10

Until the movie gets a decent re-release the only decent (using the word loosely) disc is this one -  http://www.amazon.com/Amuck-Alla-Ricerca-Del-Piacere/dp/B000QH6Z6A/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1360644087&sr=1-1&keywords=amuck