10 Greatest Murder-Mystery Films That Fooled Us All

6. Strangers On A Train

What would you do if a total stranger approached you on a train and discussed "exchanging" murders? He knows you hate the marriage you are in and he knows you long for another woman; he also tells you he desires to see his father killed. It would be the perfect crime, he would say, if you took his murder and he took yours. There would be no identifiable motive tying you two to the crimes.

You're amused and thinking nothing more of that ridiculous conversation as he walks away until you find your wife dead that night, strangled. Now, what?

That's what Patricia Highsmith's novel, Strangers on a Train, tells the story of. Adapted to film by Hitchcock, we watch as the suspense builds and the characters spiral out of control. What fooled us was not only the story's set-up and conclusions, but also in the realization that there is evil lurking beneath ordinary men - and when you agree to something remember that some people take it seriously.

We, as the audience, are forced to watch as Guy Haines wrestles with the idea of holding up his end of the bargain, and when he doesn't it causes the suspense to nearly overwhelm us. In a finale climatic scene at the carousel, we discover that even while dying some men lie.