Once You Meet a Stranger

Last updated
Once You Meet a Stranger
Once You Meet a Stranger.jpg
Genre Thriller
Based on
Teleplay by
Story byWhitfield Cook
Directed byTommy Lee Wallace
Starring
Music byPeter Manning Robinson
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producerMichael Filerman
ProducerPhil Parslow
Cinematography Steven Poster
EditorPaul Dixon
Running time96 minutes
Production companies
Original release
Network CBS
ReleaseSeptember 25, 1996 (1996-09-25)

Once You Meet a Stranger is a 1996 American thriller television film directed by Tommy Lee Wallace. It is a remake of Alfred Hitchcock's 1951 film Strangers on a Train , based on the 1950 novel by Patricia Highsmith. In the remake, the genders of the principal characters have been switched from male to female. [1] It stars Jacqueline Bisset and Theresa Russell, and premiered on CBS on September 25, 1996. [2]

Contents

Plot

A fading actress, Sheila, finds consolation in a stranger, Margo, during her train journey. Sheila tells Margo of her desire to divorce her husband, and in turn Margo shares her hatred for her domineering mother. They jokingly suggest performing a murder on each other's behalf. But all too soon the joke becomes reality.

Cast

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alfred Hitchcock</span> English film director (1899–1980)

Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock was an English film director. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the history of cinema. In a career spanning six decades, he directed over 50 feature films, many of which are still widely watched and studied today. Known as the "Master of Suspense", Hitchcock became as well known as any of his actors thanks to his many interviews, his cameo appearances in most of his films, and his hosting and producing the television anthology Alfred Hitchcock Presents (1955–65). His films garnered 46 Academy Award nominations, including six wins, although he never won the award for Best Director, despite five nominations.

<i>Psycho</i> (1960 film) Film by Alfred Hitchcock

Psycho is a 1960 American horror film produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock. The screenplay, written by Joseph Stefano, was based on the 1959 novel of the same name by Robert Bloch. The film stars Anthony Perkins, Janet Leigh, Vera Miles, John Gavin, and Martin Balsam. The plot centers on an encounter between on-the-run embezzler Marion Crane (Leigh) and shy motel proprietor Norman Bates (Perkins) and its aftermath, in which a private investigator (Balsam), Marion's lover Sam Loomis (Gavin), and her sister Lila (Miles) investigate her disappearance.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patricia Highsmith</span> American novelist and short story writer (1921–1995)

Patricia Highsmith was an American novelist and short story writer widely known for her psychological thrillers, including her series of five novels featuring the character Tom Ripley. She wrote 22 novels and numerous short stories throughout her career spanning nearly five decades, and her work has led to more than two dozen film adaptations. Her writing derived influence from existentialist literature, and questioned notions of identity and popular morality. She was dubbed "the poet of apprehension" by novelist Graham Greene.

<i>Vertigo</i> (film) 1958 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Vertigo is a 1958 American psychological thriller film directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. The story was based on the 1954 novel D'entre les morts by Boileau-Narcejac, with a screenplay by Alec Coppel and Samuel A. Taylor. The film stars James Stewart as a former San Francisco police detective who has retired after an incident in the line of duty caused him to develop an extreme fear of heights accompanied by vertigo. He is hired as a private investigator to report on the strange behavior of an acquaintance's wife.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacqueline Bisset</span> British actress

Winifred Jacqueline Fraser BissetLdH is a British actress. She began her film career in 1965 and first came to prominence in 1968 with roles in The Detective, Bullitt, and The Sweet Ride, for which she received a Golden Globe nomination as Most Promising Newcomer. In the 1970s, she starred in Airport (1970), The Mephisto Waltz (1971), Day for Night (1973), which won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Le Magnifique (1973), Murder on the Orient Express (1974), St. Ives (1976), The Deep (1977), The Greek Tycoon (1978) and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978), which earned her a Golden Globe nomination as Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pat Hitchcock</span> English actress and producer (1928–2021)

Patricia Alma Hitchcock O'Connell was an English-American actress and producer. She was the only child of English director Alfred Hitchcock and film editor Alma Reville, and had small roles in several of her father's films, with her most substantial appearance being in Strangers on a Train (1951).

<i>Strangers on a Train</i> (film) 1951 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Strangers on a Train is a 1951 American psychological thriller film noir produced and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, and based on the 1950 novel Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith. It was shot in late 1950, and released by Warner Bros. on June 30, 1951, starring Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, and Robert Walker.

<i>Day for Night</i> (film) 1973 film by François Truffaut

Day for Night is a 1973 romantic comedy-drama film co-written and directed by François Truffaut. The metafictional and self-reflexive film chronicles the troubled production of a melodrama, and the various personal and professional challenges of the cast and crew. It stars Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Dani, Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Truffaut himself.

<i>Number Seventeen</i> 1932 film by Alfred Hitchcock

Number Seventeen is a 1932 British comedy thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring John Stuart, Anne Grey and Leon M. Lion. The film, which is based on the 1925 burlesque stage play Number Seventeen written by Joseph Jefferson Farjeon, concerns a group of criminals who commit a jewel robbery and hide their loot in an old house over a railway leading to the English Channel. The film's title is derived from the house's street number.

<i>Throw Momma from the Train</i> 1987 American comedy film

Throw Momma from the Train is a 1987 American crime comedy film starring and directed by Danny DeVito in his theatrical directorial debut. It co-stars Billy Crystal, Anne Ramsey, Rob Reiner, Branford Marsalis, Kim Greist and Kate Mulgrew.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Seltzer</span> American screenwriter

David Seltzer is an American screenwriter, producer and director, perhaps best known for writing the screenplays for The Omen (1976) and Bird on a Wire (1990). As writer-director, Seltzer's credits include the 1986 teen tragi-comedy Lucas starring Corey Haim, Charlie Sheen and Winona Ryder, the 1988 comedy Punchline starring Sally Field and Tom Hanks, and 1992's Shining Through starring Melanie Griffith and Michael Douglas.

<i>The 39 Steps</i> (1959 film) 1959 British thriller by Ralph Thomas

The 39 Steps is a 1959 British thriller film directed by Ralph Thomas and starring Kenneth More and Taina Elg. Produced by Betty Box, it is a remake of the 1935 Alfred Hitchcock film, loosely based on the 1915 novel The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan.

<i>Strangers on a Train</i> (novel) 1950 psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith

Strangers on a Train (1950) is a psychological thriller novel by Patricia Highsmith about two men whose lives become entangled after one of them proposes they "trade" murders.

<i>The Greek Tycoon</i> 1978 film by J. Lee Thompson

The Greek Tycoon is a 1978 American biographical romantic drama film, of the roman à clef type, directed by J. Lee Thompson. The screenplay by Morton S. Fine is based on a story by Fine, Nico Mastorakis, and Win Wells, who loosely based it on Aristotle Onassis and his relationship with Jacqueline Kennedy. Mastorakis denied this, instead stating "We're not doing a film about Aristotle Onassis. It's a personification of all Greek Tycoons." The film stars Anthony Quinn in the title role and Jacqueline Bisset as the character based on Kennedy. Quinn also appeared in Thompson's 1979 film The Passage. Various plot lines track the Kennedy assassination and Onassis relationships but the ordering of the timeline being vastly different. Onassis' son did die in a plane crash, one of his ex-wives committed suicide and the marriage was short lived due to a sudden illness. Names were similar but not identical.

<i>The Lady Vanishes</i> (1979 film) 1979 film by Anthony Page

The Lady Vanishes is a 1979 British mystery comedy film directed by Anthony Page and written by George Axelrod, based on the screenplay of 1938's The Lady Vanishes by Sidney Gilliat and Frank Launder, in turn based on Ethel Lina White's 1936 novel The Wheel Spins. The film stars Elliott Gould, Cybill Shepherd, Angela Lansbury, Herbert Lom, and Arthur Lowe and Ian Carmichael.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alma Kruger</span> American actress

Alma Kruger was an American actress.

<i>The Spiral Staircase</i> (1975 film) 1975 British film

The Spiral Staircase is a 1975 British horror mystery thriller film directed by Peter Collinson and starring Jacqueline Bisset and Christopher Plummer. It is a remake of the 1946 film of the same name, which was adapted from Ethel Lina White's 1933 British novel Some Must Watch.

<i>Sex & Mrs. X</i> American TV series or program

Sex & Mrs. X is a 2000 Lifetime television film. It was directed by Arthur Allan Seidelman and based on an article published by Amanda Vaill in Allure. It stars Jacqueline Bisset and Linda Hamilton and premiered on 10 April 2000.

<i>Once You Kiss a Stranger</i> 1969 film by Robert Sparr

Once You Kiss a Stranger is a 1969 American thriller film directed by Robert Sparr and written by Norman Katkov and Frank Tarloff. The film stars Paul Burke, Carol Lynley, Martha Hyer, Peter Lind Hayes, Philip Carey, Stephen McNally and Whit Bissell. The film is a loose remake of Strangers on a Train and was released by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts on November 12, 1969.

References

  1. "Once You Meet a Stranger". Hallmark Channel (UK) . Archived from the original on August 23, 2010. Retrieved October 15, 2010.
  2. Scott, Tony (September 13, 1996). "Review: 'Once You Meet a Stranger'". Variety .