Strangers On A Train: Do You Think That Carousel Operator...

Definitely a sour ending to what was a good movie up till then. Not only does the operator presumably die, but the fact that the police are so preoccupied with Guy and Bruno that they pay no attention to the hordes of crying, injured children in the background is disturbing. And Hitchcock lifted that carousel climax from another novel, The Moving Toyshop, one of a series of bloody-but-funny mystery novels by a largely overlooked mystery author, Edmund Crispin, who apparently got no credit for it. I think the climax of Stage Fright was taken from another Crispin novel. Too bad Hitchcock never adapted any of Crispin's novels legitimately; most of them would have made a funny, suspenseful movie.

The carousel operater’s name was John Hinckley, Sr. He did have a family. He had a four year old son named John, Jr. Junior was haunted his whole young life by his father’s demise. Junior loved movies. He fell in love with a child star named Jodie Foster. His obsession craved attention. To impress Jodie he attempted to kill President Ronald Reagan. Jodie was not impressed. Hitchcock had died a year earlier. He could never have known about the fire he had kindled. Sad.

You have to tune to different news channels to get coverage. His death doesn't fit certain agenda.

A brief shot of a dying Bruno under the carousel turned up a year later in another major film.

Walker's next picture was MY SON JOHN, (directed by two-time Oscar winner Leo McCarey) playing an intellectual Communist on the outs with all-American parents Helen Hayes and Dean Jagger.

Before the film was completed, Walker died suddenly from an allergic reaction to medication in treatment for his alcoholism at age 32.

To salvage the picture, McCarey re-wrote the climax to show Walker's character dying in a car crash on the steps of the Capitol.

Hitch lent his fellow filmmaker a brief snippet from STRANGERS showing the character recanting his Commie beliefs with his dying breath.