Which 1951 film noir stars Robert Walker as Bruno Antony, who proposes a murder swap?

Which 1951 film noir stars Robert Walker as Bruno Antony, who proposes a murder swap? The answer is Strangers on a Train.

Alfred Hitchcock directed this psychological thriller, adapted from Patricia Highsmith’s 1950 novel. Walker’s Bruno meets amateur tennis player Guy Haines, played by Farley Granger, on a train and suggests that each man kill the other’s troublesome relative. Bruno murders Guy’s wife, then pressures Guy to fulfill the supposed bargain.

The film is remembered for its visual set pieces, especially Bruno’s murder at an amusement park and the climactic runaway carousel. Hitchcock also uses recurring doubles and reflections to suggest the characters’ intertwined fates. Robert Burks’s black-and-white cinematography earned the film its sole Academy Award nomination.

A common mix-up is treating the film as a conventional detective mystery. Its suspense comes less from discovering the killer than from watching an apparently innocent man become trapped by Bruno’s bizarre scheme. The film was released by Warner Bros. on June 30, 1951, and entered the National Film Registry in 2021.