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Author: Raymond Chandler and Whitfield Cook

Director: Alfred Hitchcock

I’d forgotten how funny this movie is! What a delight! It’s the kind of movie that gets better with each viewing. There’s so much depth and complexity within the characters that every time you watch it, you see things you missed before. I don’t know why scripts this good aren’t written any more. It’s sad, for nearly every line of dialogue has several shades of meaning. The plot, if you aren’t familiar with it, is simple: two guys meet on a train and agree to “swap” murders (they’d each do the other’s murder). Since they are strangers, there’s nothing to connect them. Of course, this is Hitchcock, so nothing’s as simple as you might expect. This movie has some of the most dramatic, classic scenes ever put on film. Absolutely amazing. It’s a bit slower than more action-filled Hitchcock movies — this one’s all psychology. Hitch’s daughter, Pat, is hilarious as one of the Senator’s daughters.

Author: Michael Crichton

Director: Michael Crichton

I was a little disappointed by this movie. It wasn’t as good as the book, and there were strange differences (like transporting a baboon instead of a tiger in one scene, Sean Connery’s girlfriend pretending to be a prostitute [in the book there a real prostitute was used], and apprehending Connery as he gets off the train [in the book he’s not caught until two years later]) that were never explained. These minor alterations bothered me a lot, as the author of the book wrote and directed the movie, and the novel’s based on fact, so I expected an accurate transition. Still, it’s not a bad movie. Very well done in places, though a bit obvious in others (Donald Sutherland is strangely flat in his performance). If you haven’t read the book you’ll find it fascinating. The biggest flaw was the lack of scope: the story has a bit of the epic about it, as this historical event was similar to the sinking of the Titanic in that it shocked the newly industrialized world that modern technology wasn’t impenetrable. Unfortunately, Crichton doesn’t shoot this as an epic — instead he goes for an action drama, spending too much time on Connery’s precarious run across the top of a moving train. Since that’s a stunt we’ve seen hundreds of times in movies and on TV, it just wasn’t memorable or exciting. I would have focused a bit more time on the trial and the aftermath, which puts the whole crime in scope (and gives Connery opportunity to deliver some of Pierce’s hilarious one-liners). The DVD edition has comentary by director Crichton.