207. Rope (1948)

Directed By Alfred Hitchcock

Synopsis

Perfect Murder My Ass.

Review

Hitchcock is a nifty director, and he decides here to air his genius by filming a film in full reels, meaning it takes about 10 minutes between each cut, so there are only about 9 cuts in the whole film. Some editor was out of a job for this film.

Now think about it, this is 1948 and Hitchcock never one to do the easy thing chose to film it in colour, meaning that he was using cameras that looked like tanks and that you couldn't really move about, so you kind of have to move the set around it! But if the film was only about these technicalities it would be quite bad, but it isn't it has a great plot and some great acting in it.

The plot could be boiled down to the simple message of "Nietzsche is dangerous thinkin'" and a couple of boys attempt to commit the perfect murder only to be foiled by that pesky Jimmy Stewart, and they would have gotten away with it too. What is lovely here are the touches of the grotesque and the macabre that Hitchcock enjoyed adding and the very light subtext of homosexuality, the two boys live together after all and none of them has any other relationships or interest in them. And it is freaking ghoulish. A great film in all respects and one you must see.

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

One example is how Hitchcock makes plain the sexual nature of their relationship, as well as each character’s role, at the very start of the movie with the first lines of dialogue spoken. Directly after the murder, while both men are standing, Brandon wants to get moving to arrange the party — but Phillip, shocked and drained by what they have just done, asks if they can’t "just stay like this for a while." Brandon agrees, then lights a cigarette. This mirroring of post-sexual dialog is immediately identifiable, and also indicates that Phillip’s role in the relationship is that of the female submissive archetype, while Brandon’s is that of the dominant male.

Scene where Stewart figures it all out: