A Dangerous Game: Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train

Before beginning production on Rope (1948), Alfred Hitchcock invited screenwriter Arthur Laurents to dinner with his wife Alma. The film’s star, Farley Granger, with whom Laurents was in a relationship, was also invited, and Laurents assumed that other members of the cast (John Dall, Jimmy Stewart, etc.) would also be in attendance. But when Granger and Laurents, who traveled in separate cars, arrived, Hitchcock had only set the table for four: a double date, if you will. “It was very...