Several of Patricia Highsmith’s psychological thriller novels have been adapted to the screen (The Talented Mr. Ripley, Deep Water, The Blunderer), and one of the best is actually her first: Strangers on a Train, adapted by Alfred Hitchcock in 1951. The titular strangers, tennis star Guy (Farley Granger) and smooth-talking Bruno (Robert Walker), meet on – get this – a train, and a plot to exchange murders develops, with each man taking out someone for the other so the motive isn’t immediately clear. Perhaps it’s not the worst idea if you’re trying to cover your tracks, but murder is never that simple. – Kat McNevins
