Strangers on a Train: The Terminus Cut

[recordwrangler95]

Coming soon: the next in my Hitchcock Micro-Edit series, "Strangers on a Train: The Terminus Cut."

While there's two widely available cuts of SOAT, the early preview edition (erroneously called the "British cut") and the theatrical edition (the "Hollywood cut"), neither reflected Hitchcock's preferred choice for the ending, which would end with the line "a very clever fellow" instead of the Warner Bros-demanded coda with the supporting characters. I've used the theatrical cut as the basis to restore Hitch's preferred ending.

 

[Dwight Fry]

This is definitely one of my top 5 Hitchcock films, absolute masterpiece, but indeed ending it at "a very clever fellow" makes it even better. Hope the music allows for a properly flowing transition!

 

[recordwrangler95]

This is definitely one of my top 5 Hitchcock films, absolute masterpiece, but indeed ending it at "a very clever fellow" makes it even better. Hope the music allows for a properly flowing transition!

I think it works OK! This is the only Hitchcock I've edited so far that I actually enjoyed the first time I watched it. (I tend to prefer his British stuff and this one feels more in line with those.)

 

[Dwight Fry]

I think it works OK! This is the only Hitchcock I've edited so far that I actually enjoyed the first time I watched it. (I tend to prefer his British stuff and this one feels more in line with those.)

Interesting indeed, so no instant love for Psycho? I'd consider it one of the most instantly approachable and one most people would enjoy. It was the one that got me hooked on Hitchcock anyway. Vertigo I can understand being an acquired taste since it's kinda unusual, but Psycho is very audience-friendly. Incidentally my top 5 Hitchcock films, at least right now and in no particular order, are Psycho, Vertigo, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, and Notorious.

 

[recordwrangler95]

Interesting indeed, so no instant love for Psycho? I'd consider it one of the most instantly approachable and one most people would enjoy. It was the one that got me hooked on Hitchcock anyway. Vertigo I can understand being an acquired taste since it's kinda unusual, but Psycho is very audience-friendly. Incidentally my top 5 Hitchcock films, at least right now and in no particular order, are Psycho, Vertigo, Strangers on a Train, Rear Window, and Notorious.

Solid list! I gotta give Notorious another watch, I watched that back to back with Spellbound and a few others and they kind of run together for me.

I first saw Psycho in high school (many many [sigh] many years ago) and it didn't quite up to the hype for me at the time, knowing all the twists in advance. Psycho is (by Hitch's own admission) more-or-less a troll movie, with a big twist in the middle and another twist at the end to make people freak out and sort of just potboiler filler in-between. My admiration has gone up for its construction and rule-breaking and psychological bag of tricks in the intervening years but it's still not one I watch for fun a lot.

I think my current Top 5 is probably The Lady Vanishes*, The 39 Steps, The Lodger, Strangers on a Train and Rope (although I should re-watch Foreign Correspondent, I remember liking that one too).

*Green For Danger's an absolutely awesome movie written/directed by the writers of The Lady Vanishes, incidentally, if anybody's looking for a WWII Medical Drama/Murder Mystery.

 

[Dwight Fry]

Solid list! I gotta give Notorious another watch, I watched that back to back with Spellbound and a few others and they kind of run together for me.

I first saw Psycho in high school (many many [sigh] many years ago) and it didn't quite up to the hype for me at the time, knowing all the twists in advance. Psycho is (by Hitch's own admission) more-or-less a troll movie, with a big twist in the middle and another twist at the end to make people freak out and sort of just potboiler filler in-between. My admiration has gone up for its construction and rule-breaking and psychological bag of tricks in the intervening years but it's still not one I watch for fun a lot.

I think my current Top 5 is probably The Lady Vanishes*, The 39 Steps, The Lodger, Strangers on a Train and Rope (although I should re-watch Foreign Correspondent, I remember liking that one too).

*Green For Danger's an absolutely awesome movie written/directed by the writers of The Lady Vanishes, incidentally, if anybody's looking for a WWII Medical Drama/Murder Mystery.

Solid list as well! Interesting that you mention Foreign Correspondent as it's one I'm very fond of, yet never liked the epilogue. I understand why it was there, wartime moral boost and all, but it's way too on the nose and lacks any cinematic or narrative value. If I were to do an one-cut edit of a Hitchcock film in the style of the ones you've been doing, this would be the one.

Gotta check out Green for Danger, for some reason I hadn't crossed paths with it. I mean, it has Alastair Sim, so I already know I'll enjoy it!