You're kind of missing the point, which is not your fault, since it seems as though you didn't see the movie that I'm talking about.
Woman on the Run was also a subtle thriller, and part of what made it subtle was the climax. Instead of going the usual cliched film noir route (chase scene or gunplay), the climax took place on a roller coaster ride, with the heroine unwittingly sharing the same ride with the villain and not knowing it. If you don't want to see the movie, for a point of reference, it's almost exactly like the roller coaster scene in Fatal Attraction, where the little girl that Alex Forrest takes to the theme park is sitting there enjoying the ride but completely oblivious that the woman she's sitting next to is dangerous. (It's so similar, that I'm fairly sure that Adrian Lyne also ripped off Woman on the Run for his movie.)
If Hitchcock had copied that theme park scene exactly to the letter, it would've perfectly matched the rest of Strangers on a Train, including the subtlety that you're talking about. But he couldn't have the climax play out on a roller coaster ride, because the plagiarism would've been blatant. So, he clumsily applied the same concept to a different ride to kind of cover his tracks, but it didn't work. It just came across as ridiculous and over the top.
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Stratego (30124)
3 years ago
No, I haven't seen that particular movie. I assumed your point was that Hitchcock went overboard trying to outdo the finale of a different movie.
My point is simply that, whether or not it was inspired by another movie, Hitchcock should've realized the ultimate finale was just too over-the-top for a movie like this. There are just too many crazy things happening at once.
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[deleted]
3 years ago
Maybe I'm not explaining myself well, because again, you're not seeming to understand what I'm saying.
Have you ever heard of the phrase, "unintentionally hilarious", especially when applied to a scene that clearly was intended to be serious but comes across as silly, overwrought, etc. because it misfired? The carousel scene is unintentionally over the top. In other words, Hitchcock had clearly meant that scene to be as "subtle" as the roller coaster scene in Woman on the Run. But it comes across as over the top to us, because he didn't realize that switching the ride out with a carousel didn't work.
If you're curious and have some time to watch the movie, here is Woman on the Run movie in full: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLtmR7BvIeY&t=1s.
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Stratego (30124)
3 years ago
No, I understood your explanation just fine, I just find it VERY hard to believe Hitchcock thought the carrousel finale was subtle. Replace the carrousel with a rollercoaster and there's still a ton of ridiculous stuff happening.
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[deleted]
3 years ago
I understand what you're saying. But Hitchcock was not a god. He had his blind spots.
Did you ever see Torn Curtain? In that movie, he spent several minutes showing a guy getting killed, and to a ridiculous extent as to be almost comical. According to Hitchcock, he was doing this in all seriousness (to show how hard it is to kill a human being), but it just came across as grotesque and overwrought.
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