"Dreadful." "Ludicrous." "Idiotic."
That's how Patricia Highsmith described some movie versions of her books, which is surprising since, short of William Shakespeare or Jane Austen, few writers have been treated as well by filmmakers.
The American expatriate, who died in 1995 but would have been 100 this year, provided the source for at least two classics, Todd Haynes' "Carol" and Alfred Hitchcock's "Strangers on a Train," as well as beloved titles such as "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and France's "Purple Noon." (Like Jerry Lewis and Burger King, the French love Highsmith more than her fellow Americans do, with numerous adaptations that have starred Gert Fröbe, Isabelle Huppert and Gérard Depardieu.)
Highsmith endures because filmmakers keep reimagining her dastardly tales. "Strangers on a Train," published in 1950, spawned two other movies besides Hitchcock's great 1951 thriller. "Once You Kiss a Stranger," a (not great) 1969 version, mixes up the genders of the characters, and Danny DeVito's 1987 "Throw Momma From the Train" remixes it as a comedy.
David Fincher once planned a remake with Ben Affleck. Any number of TV shows, including "Law and Order," have borrowed from Highsmith's ingenious idea of two killers who create alibis by carrying out each other's murders.
If "Strangers on a Train" is the gift that keeps on giving to moviemakers, "The Talented Mr. Ripley" and its sequels are even more omnipresent. Its amoral hero, who worms into society by transforming himself into the person strangers want him to be, has been the subject of half a dozen movies, played by Matt Damon, John Malkovich, Alain Delon and Dennis Hopper. The template often appears in movies and TV shows about posers, with Showtime bringing him back in an upcoming "Ripley" series starring Andrew "Sexy Priest" Scott.
Highsmith's favorite ploy is for characters to act on longings that the rest of us don't dare to acknowledge. Repressed emotions are huge in her work — they're the whole point of "Carol," a chronicle of forbidden romance between a society matron and a shopgirl in the early 1950s — which is why adaptations almost always preserve the writer's time frames. Updating them wouldn't work.
Today, self-possessed Carol (Cate Blanchett) would just ask younger lover Therese (Rooney Mara) to go to a Lynx game with her. The not-bad 2016 "A Kind of Murder" remains in the "Mad Men" era because its unhappily married protagonist (Patrick Wilson) probably wouldn't need to ponder murdering the wife braying at him from their midcentury mod sofa.
"What's the difference between wishing somebody dead and actually doing something about it?" Wilson asks in "Murder," in which he's treated like a killer even though he isn't one. That's a question Highsmith asks in just about everything. ("Murder" is based on "The Blunderer," which, like "Strangers," features two men who have alibis but still may be killers.)
Highsmith is a great fit for the movies because she takes everyday dissatisfactions — jealousy of a neighbor, irritation with a partner, longing for a glamorous life — and amps them up with two of Hollywood's favorite things, sex and violence.
"We're all guilty of something," says one character in "Murder." That's why the pitch in "Strangers on a Train" is so effective. When Robert Walker proposes to Farley Granger that they murder each others' prospective victims, Granger thinks he's joking — right up until Walker actually does it, and Granger is stuck.
Highsmith had a low opinion of humanity, seeming to believe we're all one bad decision away from terrible behavior. She delights in showing us what we think we want in these seven terrific tales, then reminding us we should be careful what we wish for.
Strangers on a Train
We can't be imprisoned for thinking bad things, but thoughts become actions in Hitchcock's twisty, witty thriller. Walker didn't get to follow up his work — he died the year "Stranger" was released — but his is one of the most unnerving performances in movie history.
Carol
No one gets killed in this 2014 film, based on Highsmith's 1952 novel "The Price of Salt." But it says a lot about that era that the writer hid behind pseudonym Claire Morgan to write about lesbians (she was one herself) while sticking her real name on all those books about murder.
The Talented Mr. Ripley
Highsmith wasn't interested in the grubby aspects of crime — her characters tend to be bored, cruel and dripping with jewels — and this Italian-set 1999 thriller starring Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Jude Law and Blanchett is as luxe as they come.
Throw Momma From the Train
It may seem misogynistic — the murder-switching comedy sets up DeVito's mom as a braying harpie who's practically begging for a body bag — but DeVito has tricks up its sleeve. Essentially, this 1987 comedy hates everybody. Sorta like Highsmith.
Purple Noon
This 1960 film was inspired by "The Talented Mr. Ripley" but director René Clément is less interested in social-climbing, gay subtext or identity theft than in pushing Ripley's disturbing relationship with Marge (Marie Laforet, in the role Paltrow later played), whom he seduces after bumping off her lover.
The American Friend
Wim Wenders' ingenious, perverted 1977 melodrama finds Tom Ripley (Hopper) engaging in that Highsmith staple, the murder-for-hire (complete with trains!). Ripley manipulates an ailing "friend" (Bruno Ganz), convincing him he might as well make some money as a contract killer since he's going to die anyway. Stylish and unsettling, it's Highsmith at her most acidic.
The Two Faces of January
Like "Ripley," it's beautiful people on the Mediterranean, drinking wine, flirting and slitting each others' throats. In Hossein Amini's taut 2014 thriller, Kirsten Dunst, Oscar Isaac and Viggo Mortensen form a romantic triangle in which each side has reason to doubt and betray the other two.
Chris Hewitt • 612-673-4367
