Rope

by guest writer,

Rope (1948) is one of Alfred Hitchcock’s most enduring masterpieces. What are people capable of doing when they feel superior to others? Rope offers the answer down the line in one of the director’s experiments – because Hitchcock wanted a movie without cuts and that meant using one piece of film recording the action in real time. Shot entirely in the studio, the film resembles a stage play (just like Dial M for Murder, 1954): Hitchcock wanted to trap the viewers in the room and make them go through the same  intense emotions as the characters on the screen. It worked.

Brandon (John Dall) and Phillip (Farley Granger) are setting up a plan on how to achieve the perfect murder. Rupert Cadell (James Stewart) is Brandon’s and Philip’s witty college professor who starts to observe the two with a question mark during the party they host, as they are trying to justify their reason that revolves around an elitist idea and to demonstrate that they can get away with it. Clues are to be found everywhere, but will the guilty ones show signs of weakness?

photo: magazine advertorial for Rope (1948) / credit: Universal Studios