| “ | Each fellow does the other fellow's murder. Then there is nothing to connect them. The one who had the motive isn't there. Each fellow murders a total stranger. Like you do my murder and I do yours... For example, your wife, my father. Criss-cross. | „ |
| ~ Bruno laying out his plan. |
Charles Anthony Bruno, better known as "Bruno", is the main antagonist of Patricia Highsmith's 1950 novel Strangers on a Train, and Alfred Hitchcock's legendary 1951 film adaptation of the novel. He is the charming, psychopathic son of a wealthy businessman who tries to "swap murders" with the unwitting tennis player Guy Haines: Bruno plans to kill Haines' wife, and have Haines kill his hated father in return.
In the film, he is portrayed by the late Robert Walker.
Personality[]
Bruno is the spoiled, amoral scion of a wealthy, dysfunctional family; he despises his father, and manipulates his dotty mother into giving him whatever he wants. He has literally never done a day of work in his life, coasting by on his family's money, his mother's indulgence, and his effortless, gadfly charm. One of his many hobbies - which he spends all his limitless free time on - is reading true crime magazines and planning "perfect crimes".
Overview[]
Bruno's father grows tired of his son leeching off him and demands he get a job, threatening to disinherit him if he refuses. Bruno responds by devising a "perfect murder": He will "swap murders" with someone he has no connection to, who will kill his father in return for Bruno killing someone for them. Since he and the other person don't know their victims and have nothing to gain from killing them, no one will suspect them, and they will both get away with their crimes scot free.
He boards a train in search of a conspirator, and finds one in fellow passenger Guy Haines, a tennis pro whose complicated personal life Bruno has been following in the tabloids: Haines is trying to divorce his unfaithful wife Miriam so he can marry his girlfriend Anne Morton, but Miriam refuses to grant him a divorce. Bruno mentions his plan to Haines, who humors him by pretending to find it amusing; Bruno takes this as Haines agreeing to the plan. As Haines hurriedly leaves the train to get away from Bruno, he drops his monogrammed cigarette lighter, which Bruno pockets.
Bruno follows Miriam to a carnival, where he strangles her. That night, he breaks into Haines' house, tells him what he has done, and tells to do his part of their "deal" and kill Bruno's father. In Highsmith's novel, Haines actually goes through with the plan and kills Bruno's father. He and Bruno then form a friendship, of sorts, as they try to keep each other's secrets, but it ends when Bruno accidentally drowns. Haines is then arrested by a police detective who has been trailing them. In the movie Haines, horrified, refuses, but Bruno threatens to incriminate him unless he goes through with it.
Bruno crashes a party at Anne's father's house, where he introduces himself to Haines' friends and family as Haines' "old friend". Bruno entertains Haines' guests by talking about the "perfect murder", and pretends to choke one of the guests. When Anne's sister Barbara, who resembles Miriam, he fantasizes about the murder and begins to actually strangle the guest; when Haines pulls him off her, he passes out.
Bruno sends Haines a pistol, a house key and a map showing the location of his father's bedroom. Haines pretends to agree to Bruno's plan. He creeps into Bruno's father's room hoping to warn him of his son's murderous intentions, but instead he finds Bruno there waiting for him. He tells Haines he became suspicious when he suddenly agreed to honor their bargain and made sure his father was away. Haines tries to persuade Bruno to seek psychiatric help; Bruno threatens to punish Haines for betraying him and make Haines pay for the crime from which he is benefiting.
Anne visits Bruno's house and unsuccessfully tries to explain to his mother that her son is a murderer. Bruno appears and mentions Haines' missing cigarette lighter to Anne and claims that Haines asked him to search the murder site for it; Haines correctly surmises Bruno intends to incriminate him by planting it there. After winning a match at Forest Hills, Haines eludes the police and heads for the amusement park to prevent Bruno from planting the lighter.
Bruno is delayed when he accidentally drops Haines' lighter down a storm drain and must retrieve it. When Bruno arrives at the amusement park, a carnival worker recognizes him from the night of the murder; he informs the police, who mistakenly think he means Guy. After Guy arrives, he and Bruno fight on the park's carousel. Thinking Haines is trying to escape, a police officer shoots at him but instead kills the carousel operator, causing the carousel to spin out of control. A carnival worker crawls under the fast-moving carousel and applies the brakes but the mechanism fails, causing the carousel to crash; Bruno is trapped underneath it and fatally injured. As Bruno dies, his fingers open to reveal Guy's lighter in his hand, thus revealing his guilt.
Trivia[]
- In Highsmith's novel, Haines actually goes through with the murder of Bruno's father, and Bruno dies by accidental drowning. The film's screenwriter, the late Raymond Chandler, changed the ending to fit in with the cinematic moral standards of the time, which forbade protagonists from committing serious crimes and getting away with them.
- Many film critics have speculated that Bruno's obsession with Haines is at least somewhat sexual in nature.