Strangers on a Train- The Surgeon General Warns That Smoking May Be Hazardous To Your Health

Can I bum a smoke? Care for a light? Would you like a cigarette? These may be the most dangerous questions in cinematic history. Hundreds have died (fictionally) from smoking related causes, not from cancer like actual people die from but from the conversations which begin with the socializing aspects of smoking. Case exemplar: Strangers on a Train.

When Bruno meets Guy, he is quick to offer a cigarette and Guy replies by pulling out his lighter. And Bruno uses the lettering on the lighter to steer the conversation towards murder. Bruno flicks a light before strangling Miriam. And the key piece of evidence that Guy can't let Bruno plant, leading to the death of no less than two more people (including Bruno): that same monogrammed lighter.

Of course deadly smoking is not limited to Strangers on a Train, it was a staple of film noir. When the fem fatal entered the private dick's office, she would always have a cigarette at the end of a long holder. Why? What made smoking so key to these films?

Well, for one thing, "Hey, buddy, got a light?" is a great way to start a conversation with a total stranger. There really is nothing like it since smoking has fallen out of style. Lighting a smoke for a lady has given many a fictional man an excuse to chat her up and in a matter of seconds they are sharing something and sitting close together.

Then, there is the villainous appearance of smoking. A woman conjurers flames like a witch. A man blows smoke out of his mouth like a dragon. Even in the era when on-screen smokers included elegant ladies and dashing gentlemen, smoking had a slightly evil look.

It's also worth pointing out that the era of film noir was also when doctors started saying smoking might not be too good for you. It took a few decades before everyone came around, but even when this movie was made there was already a growing anti-smoking sentiment. And, there has always been a feeling that those smoke excessively do so out of some defect in their character.

Also, smoke looks awesome in black and white.

Getting back to Strangers on a Train, Detective Hennessey should be dismissed from the police force and brought up on charges. Hennessey's assignment is to follow Guy which he fails to do a critical juncture when Guy goes to Bruno's place. A serious mistake, but a result of Guy's minimal cunning.  (He left out the back window?! Who could have seen that coming?!) Far more troubling were Hennessey's actions at the amusement park. After spotting Guy, who is the chief suspect in a murder but whose guilt is far from certain, walking briskly away from him and onto a device which by its very nature will take him slowly in a circle, he says "Stop!" at a moderate volume and before waiting to see if Guy would stop or even if he heard him over the din of the park, he fires a terribly aimed shot into a dense crowd of civilians. His bullet kills an innocent bystander and results in the merry-go-round spinning violently out of control. This leads directly to at least one additional death, who knows how many injuries, and significant property damage. (Side note: That merry-go-round was not very well designed.) Outside of the deliberately criminal, this may be the worst decision in the long history of horrible cinematic police work.

[Editor's Note: No Spoiler Tags reminds you that conspiring with a stranger to commit a murder for one another is illegal and wiggity-wiggity-wiggity-wack.]