Strangers on a Train
Motion Picture Export Association (MPEA) | Release Date: June 30, 1951 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
88
METASCORE
Universal acclaim based on 15 Critic Reviews
Positive:
14
Mixed:
1
Negative:
0
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
TimeStaff (Not Credited)
Director Hitchcock toys with this plot as lovingly as the crack-brained murderer, plays it for wry irony and unexpected humor as well as suspense. But he seems less interested in making his audiences believe in the story's outrageously rigged situations than in teasing, tricking and dazzling them with the masterful touch of a talented cinematic showoff. Read full review
100
TV Guide MagazineStaff (Not Credited)
Strangers on a Train ranks at the top of Hitchcock's most accomplished works, a masterpiece that is so carefully constructed and its characters so well developed that the viewer is quickly intimate and comfortable with the story long before Bruno turns killer. Read full review
100
The New YorkerPauline Kael
It's intensely enjoyable--in some ways the best of Hitchcock's American films.
100
The TelegraphMarc Lee
A black comedy, really, based on Patricia Highsmith's source novel - remains a cracking piece of entertainment. It is shot with all his usual invention and style, and a couple of scenes rank among the director's most visually memorable. Read full review
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Strangers on a Train is not a psychological study, however, but a first-rate thriller with odd little kinks now and then. It proceeds, as Hitchcock's films so often do, with a sense of private scores being settled just out of sight. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterStaff (Not Credited)
Curiously contrasted characters and locales play their parts in the Hitchcock strategy, making for an enormously entertaining show. Read full review
90
VarietyStaff (Not Credited)
Given a good basis for a thriller in the Patricia Highsmith novel [script adaption by Whitfield Cook] and a first-rate script, Hitchcock embroiders the plot into a gripping, palm-sweating piece of suspense. Read full review
90
Chicago ReaderDave Kehr
Perhaps Strangers on a Train still hasn't yielded all its secrets. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineEric Henderson
Strangers on a Train, though undoubtedly effective as a classic Hitchcock thriller, is also nothing more complicated than one elongated gay cruise joke-cum-horror story. Read full review
88
Slant MagazineChuck Bowen
Strangers on a Train is also simply a great thriller, yet another illustration of Hitchcock’s awe-inspiring ability to convey more with a single image than most directors can with minutes upon minutes of belabored set pieces. Read full review
80
Time OutStaff (Not Credited)
Significantly, Hitchcock didn't use much of Raymond Chandler's original script, because Chandler was too concerned with the characters' motivation. In place of that, Hitchcock erects a web of guilt around Granger, who 'agreed' to his wife's murder, a murder that suits him very well, and structures his film around a series of set pieces. Read full review
80
EmpireDavid Parkinson
Magnificent absurdist crime drama from the master of suspense. Read full review
80
The GuardianPhilip French
Strangers is full of marvellous set pieces and uses the architecture of Washington to dramatic effect. Read full review
80
We Got This CoveredJeremy Lebens
Alfred Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train is an expertly made thriller with fluid camera work, dark humor and enough cliff-hanging build up to keep you biting your nails until there's nothing left. Easily one of Hitch's most underrated films. Read full review
40
The New York TimesBosley Crowther
Mr. Hitchcock again is tossing a crazy murder story in the air and trying to con us into thinking that it will stand up without support. Read full review
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