Rope
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Movie Reviews of Rope
Movie Review: An Ode to "Rope" -- One of Hitchcock's Underrated Best
Summary: 5 Stars
Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope" (1948) is a claustrophobic masterpiece - a spiraling descent into the dark recesses of human nature. Hitchcock explores the rough edges of ego and impulse and how they can lead to horrible consequences.
It may be Hitchcock's greatest movie. Certainly it is his most tightly constricted piece - filled with long takes in near real-time. It's an amazing achievement of controlled tension.
The only exterior shot in the film comes during the opening credits. The camera rests on an apartment window with the curtains pulled shut. There is a muffled scream and then suddenly we're inside the apartment where David Kentley is being strangled to death by two of his friends.
The movie setting goes internal. It reflects the direction of the film because we're about to get inside the minds, motivations, and the personalities of the characters. We're trapped inside the apartment for good - just like poor, dead David who has been stuffed into a chest.
His murderers are two wealthy, intellectual young men named Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and Philip Morgan (Farley Granger). They have killed their friend for one reason - to experience the sensation of murder. They want to pull off the perfect crime - and revel in their superiority.
To make matters even more horrifying, Brandon and Philip are throwing a dinner party and inviting David's family, his girlfriend (Janet), the girlfriend's ex-boyfriend, and their former academy teacher Rupert (their mentor who has inspired their crime with his misinterpretations of Nietzchian philosophies of the Superman).
"Nobody commits a murder just for the experiment of murder," Brandon says as he pops a bottle of champagne. "Nobody except us."
But the celebration isn't what Brandon expects because the heavy weight of their crime begins to crush the more sensitive Philip. Brandon is the cold, charming snob - and a classic sociopath. Philip, however, slowly begins to unravel. He gashes his palm after crushing a wine glass in his hands when David's aunt mistakes another guest for David.
But even the cool and calm Brandon has moments of panic. When David's father asks where his son is, Brandon stammers: "I thought he was coming with you!"
Rupert (Jimmy Stewart) doesn't show up until 30 minutes into the film. And once he arrives the film becomes his. Stewart - one of the greatest actors in American history - is amazing in "Rope." Personally, he didn't like his performance, but the movie is in essence about the transformation of Rupert - his growth from a bitter cynic into a connected human being. And it works.
Here's a peek into Rupert. Introduced to Janet (Joan Chandler):
"Ah, Miss Walker," he says.
"How did you know?" she asks.
"Brandon has spoken of you."
"Did he do me justice?"
"Do you deserve justice?" he asks and then waltzes off with a smirk.
The commanding personality of Rupert begins to melt Brandon. He joins Philip as the weight of his crime is reflected back to him in the presence of his mentor.
Rupert - a naturally suspicious and cunningly observant man - gets his first thread to pull when Brandon - a game player - serves chicken for dinner. Philip no longer eats chicken after having to strangle one at Brandon's farm. When Brandon tells the story with an evil twinkle in his eye, Philip has an outburst of anger. The scene gives Rupert his first clue and his investigation begins.
He comes up with gems like this: "You're more than unusually allergic to the truth tonight Philip. That's the second time you haven't told it."
Ultimately the keen Rupert finally discovers the grim secret in the bottom of the trunk. It's a chilling scene. The movie ends with Rupert throwing open the apartment window and letting the outside cleanse the inside of the apartment with its noise and voices.
And Philip utters the last words of the movie: "They're coming." They don't make movies like "Rope" anymore. But they should.
For more literate blather visit the Dark Party Review ([...])
Movie Review: An excellent psychological thriller by Hitchcock
Summary: 5 Stars
This obscure movie has always been one of my favorite Hitchcock films. In my opinion, it marks the beginning of the golden era of largely flawless Hitchcock films that runs for 15 years through the release of "The Birds" in 1963.
The movie is based on a play by Patrick Hamilton, inspired by the Leopold-Loeb case. The film follows two young men, in one apartment, on one night, as they throw a dinner party for a bunch of people that were close friends of both themselves and a third young man they have just murdered for no reason other than to have experienced the act of doing so. For the added thrill, they throw the victim's body into a chest from which they serve their guests their buffet dinner.
The dinner guests include David's father, who is making constant references to how he is worried about how his only child is missing when David doesn't turn up where he is supposed to, and how his wife, David's mother, is most consumed with worry. Janet, David's current girlfriend, is also invited, as is Janet's old boyfriend. These two interact very awkwardly, to the delight of their murderous hosts, until the end of the party. Janet explains to her old flame how she took up with David because of love, not because of his money, and when her old boyfriend sees that Janet genuinely cares for David, the two reach a truce. The point of all of this conversation at the party is to show that David - as is true with all human beings - isn't some inferior lab rat that the two murderers had the right to exterminate as a means of spending an otherwise boring afternoon. He is a human, as important as any other, who has people who care about him and will obviously mourn his death.
James Stewart is great as the murderers' former teacher, Rupert, who solves the mystery that the two killers have pretty much dared him to discover and solve. Hitchcock was always able to direct James Stewart to play just about any role he could dream up without letting Stewart's "every man" quality get in the way of the quality and believability of his performance. It is interesting to note that at the end of the film, from James Stewart's final speech to the two murderers, that we assume the pair will be tried for murder and executed. Some people don't know that although Leopold and Loeb - the inspiration for this film - were sentenced to life in prison for their crime, that Leopold was released on parole in 1958 after serving 33 years, and lived another 13 years in freedom before his death. Loeb was killed by another inmate in the 1930's, otherwise he would have likely been paroled eventually, too. Since Leopold and Loeb killed a child rather than another adult, we can't really be sure what would have become of Hitchcock's two murderers had this been a real life situation.
The one thing that did surprise me was on the commentary, when it was mentioned that the two murdering college students were homosexuals, and that Hitchcock pushed the envelope on inuendos on this subject just as far as he thought the censors would let him. Maybe I'm just dense, but I never got that vibe out of the movie at all, until I was told that it existed in the first place.
"Rope" is just a little over an hour long, and is performed entirely in one room of one apartment. It is a psychological thriller, not one of Hitchcock's action thrillers. It's definitely worthwhile for any Hitchcock fan, but it might disappoint someone who buys this without knowing the movie's format and is expecting something like "The Man Who Knew Too Much" or "North by Northwest". If you want to watch "Rope", but don't want to buy it on a DVD dedicated just to it, you might consider purchasing "Alfred Hitchcock - The Masterpiece Collection". That box set has a total of 14 of Hitchcock's better known films from the late 40's through the 70's, and "Rope" is one of the included films.
Movie Review: Retaliation is murder
Summary: 5 Stars
Hitchcock is settling accounts with the united States in 1948, with the social Darwinism that has always been rampant, and in some period triumphant, in the USA. Fundamentally it is the idea that only good human beings, honest human beings succeed in society because they are chosen by God, hence they are superior in ethical values. In this film, there is no mention of God, right through to the final three minutes, but one young man decides to get rid of another young man for reasons we do not know, but as the result of a reasoning that states that superior people have the right to kill inferior people. It is in fact the good old ideology that excuses the master of a slave when he kills his slave because the slave is an inferior being. In 1948 the slave-masters are the rich and that young rich man believes he can kill another he considers inferior, except that he does it out of some challenge to provoke his own society. The killed young man is a member of that top society. And the killer and his associate, his accomplice throw a party just after killing the other and hiding him in a chest that is going to be used as the table for the buffet. Hitchcock finds it extremely funny to play on words and to create situations that become qui pro quos for us. But He also brings in an old teacher of these young men who had philosophically taught them that the superior people have the right to dominate, in a way or another, the inferior people in our society. Bringing this man in this party was the supreme achievement, and the supreme danger, for the killer because he is known as a dubitative and curious and scrutinizing and inquisitive mind that can read between lines and find out the truth even where it is not present. He is a conjuror of the truth. He is helped in doing that, in that mission of his by the maid who gives him the hat of the dead boy when he is on the point of going instead of his own. Then he will come back and confront the two killers and find out what they have done and manage to bring the police for the punishment of these two indecent beings. But that's when Hitchcock twists the whole story into the harshest accusation he could invent with this simple question: "Do you think you were God, to decide who was superior and who was inferior?" The twist is within a good protestant approach: if one really knows who is inferior, they would in that reasoning have the right- to kill the inferior ones. The Catholic approach of the problem that says that no one has the right to take a life because that life was given by God and God is the only one who can take it away or back is not even hinted at, which justifies then the conclusion from that teacher that society was going to make these killers pay for their crime in some kind of balanced declaration that implies one eye for one eye and one hand for one hand and one tooth for one tooth. Retaliation. With the distance of time that old film becomes a tremendous denunciation of killing other human beings, be it for some passion in the heart or mind of the murderer or be it for some retaliation from the society against that murderer: if one crime is unjustified, the retaliation to that crime is just as much unjustified. Both have to be equal for the second to be the retaliation of the first, hence both are murders. The Britisher was speaking there in Hitchcock, since Great Britain was going to be the first country in Europe to ban the death penalty in 1965. But that tradition of being ahead of others is an old habit in England who banned cruel punishments in its Bill of Rights in 1689.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
Movie Review: Nice *Restoration* Of This Thriller!
Summary: 5 Stars
ROPE had me riveted to my seat, right up to the end. The story was based on a play, which was in turn based on the real life crime of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, about two intellectual and upper class young men who decide to murder one of their peers because they feel superior to the common man and believe they are above ordinary laws. So smug are the men -- especially the more dominant one -- that they leave the dead body in a chest and throw a dinner party with a guest list that includes the victim's father, aunt, fiancé, and ex-best friend.
The tension mounts as one of the murderers continues to drop hints of foul play, while the other one starts to crack under the pressure.
Actors John Dall "Brandon Shaw" and Farley Granger "Phillip Morgan," deliver great performances but at first glance it would seem as though they can't act. However, viewers must remind themselves that these are actors portraying people who are "acting" badly in front of others because they're hiding something. The audience will see slivers of instances where Dall and Granger are alone together and they go back into the natural state of their respective character.
Another interesting note is the filming technique that the brilliant director, Alfred Hitchcock, decided to use. ROPE is filmed entirely as one continuous take, but in about 10-minute segments because they had to change to the next film reel, and so there are no edits or cuts, aside from the 10-minute mark where the camera will zoom in and out. The camera literally becomes an unblinking eye that moves and focuses, sometimes away from the action, on items of interest. This might be a little uncomfortable for some viewers, even though they might not even realize that's what it is, but it creates this feeling, as viewers, that we are staring; we become voyeurs in this macabre and sadistic game and can't turn away.
As far as the two main characters being gay, well that's only subtly implied. Remember that this was filmed in the 40s and homosexuality was a no-no, but viewers will infer that these two are a couple by how they interact with one another.
The restoration is great with the picture being very clear, no dust or scratches or artifacts, and the color palette isn't garish. This was Hitchcock's first color film and in the special featurette, screen writer Arthur Laurents, who wrote the screenplay for ROPE, says that the film had to be re-shot at the time because the color was overly saturated.
===== SPECIAL FEATURES =====
* 32:20-MINUTE FEATURETTE -- "ROPE UNLEASHED" *
This featurette filmed in 2000 features Hume Cronyn (adaptation), Arthur Laurents (screenplay), Farley Granger (lead actor "Phillip Morgan"), and Pat Hitchcock (daughter of director) discussing "ROPE," the challenges with filming, and the story behind the movie and play. Very insightful with behind-the-scenes photographs.
* TRAILER *
* PRODUCTION PHOTOGRAPHS *
* PRODUCTION NOTES *
Even though ROPE was not a box office hit for Hitchcock, I think it's an overlooked gem and highly recommend it.
Movie Review: The More You Watch, the Tighter the Suspense Grows
Summary: 5 Stars
Brandon (John Dall) and Phillip (Farley Granger) feel they are superior to their friends in every way. As such, they think they can plan the perfect murder and get away with it. Their victim is David Kentley (Dick Hogan). And to prove just how superior they are, they invite his family and friends over for a dinner party with his still cooling body in a trunk in the room.
Among the guests is their old school advisor Rupert (James Stewart), the only person Brandon thinks can figure out what they've done. Will they get away with murder? If not, which will give them away first, Brandon's arrogance or Phillip's guilty conscience?
This is a very intriguing psychological thriller. Based on a play, the movie was filmed on one rather limited set and was filmed in as few takes as possible. While those transitions (to reload film) are obvious, the constant rolling of the camera adds to the suspense. There are some strange camera angles at times, but they build the suspense as well. The limited set is an added bonus as it focuses our attention to build the suspense.
The acting is absolutely wonderful. While it does suffer at times from the overacting prevalent at the time (at least by today's standards), it captures the characters and their emotions perfectly. This is especially true of John Dall and Fraley Granger who bring such nuance to their characters we always know their thoughts. Their two characters are rich enough for some pretty in depth character studies.
To be honest, I found how much I enjoyed this movie a little disturbing. It will entertain you and make you think for some time afterward. So if you have missed this gem, watch it today.