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The Big Problem with the Criss-Cross Scheme

posted 9 months ago by roger1 (2698)
4 replies | jump to latest

(aka ecarle.)

Many critics (including Pauline Kael) have praised Strangers on a Train for its "great" criss-cross murder scheme -- two strangers kill the other's "victim" so that nothing will trace back to the killer.

I think Kael wrote: "Its amazing that this scheme isn't used more often in real life."

Well, maybe yes, maybe no but...the whole PLOT of Strangers on a Train is what happens when (a) the murder actually takes place and (b) the "natural suspect" has no alibi.

Both parts of that equation are problematic. First of all, all signs point to Guy as the killer of his estranged, cheating, pregnant-by-another-man wife (especially when he wants to marry a Senator's daughter) so the police NATURALLY come to him.

But (b) is worse. Bruno's plan only works if Guy is seen by witnesses AWAY from the murder scene(this is how Ray Milland sets up HIS murder in Dial M for Murder -- he's at a stag party while his accomplice sets out to strangle his wife.)

Bruno didn't think through his plan.. He didn't make sure that Guy had an alibi and witnesses.

And I say: maybe Bruno NEVER INTENDED that.

Maybe Bruno -- deep down inside -- KNEW that if he killed Guy's victim, he WOULD implicate Guy...and force Guy to kill Bruno's father.

Its a "perfect crime" that goes wrong from the get-go. Criss-cross ain't so easy, after all.

[–] daveyh (601) 7 months ago

"Maybe Bruno -- deep down inside -- KNEW that if he killed Guy's victim, he WOULD implicate Guy...and force Guy to kill Bruno's father."

That was my thinking too - like a really elaborate blackmail plot

[–] Melton (2652) 4 months ago

Kael’s right, criss-cross murders is a genius idea. It’s a shame we don’t see it played out by two people who both agree to it.

I suspect the Hayes code required a morally decent protagonist, so the film becomes an innocent man being stalked by a psycho story instead.

It feels like a missed opportunity given the awesome power of its premise.

EDIT: Just read the synopsis of the novel it was based on, as I suspected it’s much darker and our ‘hero’ goes through with his murder.

[–] roger1 (2698) 4 months ago

EDIT: Just read the synopsis of the novel it was based on, as I suspected it’s much darker and our ‘hero’ goes through with his murder.

---

I have read that synopsis too(likely a different synopsis in a different place) and indeed, in 1951, the Hays Code forbade Hitchcock from filming that version,so we get the one we get..which doesn't so much betray the original book as tells a DIFFERENT...but equally suspenseful version of it, to wit: the "innocent man" is implicated in the murder because the mad man carries it out, and the mad man commits the murder when the innocent man has no real alibi(the drunk professor on the train is a great suspense plot mechnism -- he can't help Guy.)

Truth be told, I'm not sure I would personally enjoy watching a version where Guy DOES kill the father. The 70's were awash in downbeat endings where the hero lost(Chinatown maybe at the top) and modernly, we have all these shows where bad guys pretty much get away with a lot of death and destruction (one called The Americans was the worst offender to me -- they killed all sorts of innocent, nice people and got away with it. ) I guess I'm must old fashioned. I like the good guys to win.

Anyway, key to a "better" use of the Strangers on a Train criss-cross would be if the story was about two people evil from the get go(Guy evidently "turns" in the book) agreeing to that plot and making sure that each one has an alibi when the other commits the murder.

I think a Law and Order episode gave us that version -- TWO bad women used Strangers on a Train -- and the cops KNEW of the movie Strangers on a Train, and caught them.

And of course, there's the not-so-immortal "Throw Mama from the Train" which actually uses CLIPS from Strangers on a Train to illustrate Danny De Vito's Bruno implicating Billy Crystal's Guy(not the same names or characters.)

[–] MCguy (949) 4 months ago

Perhaps the criss-cross murder scheme has worked. If it worked, we wouldn't know, would we?