| “ | Your wife. My father. Criss-cross. | „ |
| ~ Bruno trying to convince Guy to "swap murders". |
Charles Bruno Antony (who goes by his middle name) is the main antagonist of the late Patricia Highsmith's 1950 novel Strangers on a Train, and the late Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 film adaptation. He is a wealthy psychopath who comes up with the idea of "swapping murders" with Guy Haines: Bruno will kill Haines' wife, and in return Haines will kill Bruno's father.
In the film, Bruno 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".
Biography[]
Bruno is a psychopath who leads a playboy lifestyle financed by his wealthy parents; he considers himself too good to work for a living. When his father threatens to disinherit him unless he gets a job, Bruno tries to wheedle money out of his befuddled mother, but she too tells him to start making his own way. Bruno decides to kill his father in order to inherit his fortune, but realizes that he would be the prime suspect.
Bruno then gets an idea, inspired by the comic books and crime novels he reads, to approach a stranger who also wants to get rid of someone, and "swap murders" with them; Bruno will kill the person the stranger hates, while the stranger will murder Bruno's father. Each will murder a total stranger, with no apparent motive, so neither will be suspected.
On a train, Bruno recognizes tennis pro Guy Haines, who is in the middle of a messy and very public divorce from his wife Miriam, who is pregnant with another man's child. Bruno introduces himself and immediately pitches his idea for the "perfect murder", suggesting that he kill Miriam, while Haines kills Bruno's father. Haines humors Bruno by pretending to find his idea interesting, but is so eager to get away from him that he leaves behind his engraved cigarette lighter, which Bruno keeps.
Haines meets with Miriam, who informs him that she no longer wants to end their marriage. When she threatens to claim that the baby is his to thwart any divorce, they argue loudly. Later, Bruno follows Miriam to an amusement park and strangles her to death while Haines is traveling on a train back to Washington. When Haines arrives home, he finds Bruno waiting for him. Bruno informs the horrified Haines that Miriam is dead, and insists that he honor their "deal" by killing Bruno's father.
Haines goes to see his girlfriend Anne Morton, whose father tells Haines that Miriam has been murdered, unaware that he already knows. Anne's sister Barbara says that the police will think that Haines killed her, since he has a motive. The police question Haines, but are unable to confirm his alibi: a professor he met on the train was so drunk that he cannot remember their encounter. The police assign an around-the-clock escort to watch Haines.
To pressure Haines, Bruno follows him around Washington, introduces himself to Anne, and appears at a party at her father's house. To amuse another guest, Bruno demonstrates how to strangle someone by playfully putting his hands around her neck. His gaze falls upon Barbara, whose glasses and physical appearance resemble Miriam's. This triggers a flashback and other guests intervene to stop Bruno from strangling the woman to death. Barbara tells Anne that Bruno was looking at her while strangling the other woman and Anne realizes her resemblance to Miriam. Her suspicions aroused, Anne confronts Haines, who tells her the truth about Bruno's scheme.
Bruno sends Haines a Luger P08 pistol, a house key, and a map showing the location of his father's bedroom. Haines creeps into Bruno's father's room to warn him of his son's murderous intentions, but instead he finds the suspicious Bruno there waiting for him. Haines tries to persuade Bruno to seek psychiatric help, but Bruno threatens to make Haines pay for the crime from which he is benefiting.
Anne visits Bruno's home and unsuccessfully tries to explain to Bruno's mother that her son is a murderer. Bruno mentions Haines' missing cigarette lighter to Anne and claims that Haines asked him to search the crime scene for it. Correctly surmising that Bruno intends to incriminate him with it, Haines eludes the police after winning a match and heads for the amusement park to stop Bruno.
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 Haines. After Haines arrives, he and Bruno fight on the park's carousel. Believing Haines is trying to escape, a police officer shoots at him, but accidentally kills the carousel operator, causing the ride to spin out of control. A carnival worker crawls underneath the carousel and applies the brakes, but then it violently rotates off its axis, falling on Bruno and mortally injuring him. The worker who previously recognized Bruno now tells the police chief that he has never seen Haines before. As Bruno dies, his fingers open to reveal Guy Haines' lighter in his hand, thus revealing his guilt.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The film makes a major departure from Highsmith's novel, in which Haines actually kills Bruno's father. Bruno's death is different in the book, as well, as Bruno falls off a sailboat and drowns.
- Both the novel and film portray the relationship between Bruno and Haines as having a homosexual subtext; both portray the two men as being obsessed with each other, and several critics have theorized that they are attracted to each other in a way that they don't understand, and express it through hostility.