Rope (1948)
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VHS Movie Reviews of Rope (1948)
Movie Review: The Story of the Perfect Murder Directed Perfectly
Summary: 5 Stars
This film was fantastic! I had seen it when I was much younger and remembered it being good, but having just re-watched it I was struck by how much it felt like a filmed play. The very long shots helped establish the real-time aspect of this thrilling story and Hitchcock's brilliant directing really shines. Great performances all around and with any Hitchcock picture, every moment feels like it was carefully thought out and executed for the greatest effect. Watching Jimmy Stewart (Rupert) piece together the evidence was as exciting as watching John Dall (Brandon) and Farley Granger (Phillip) try to keep it together. I've read that Hitchcock wasn't particularly fond of this film, and I'll grant that he certainly has created better films, but I'd take an evening of Rope over an evening of Final Destination 3 any day.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: Hitchcock Experimenting
Summary: 4 Stars
Following the success of the film "Gaslight", based on a play written by Englishman Patrick Hamilton, Alfred Hitchcock, who had no hand in the making of that film, scheduled a film adaptation of a 1929 play by the same author, "Rope". In each of the plays, suspense is the chief element. In "Rope" we watch a dinner party held in a New York apartment. Two university students, prompted by self-justifying bravado, murder a third. They hide his body in a large chest upon which they then set the food for the guests, all family and friends of the murdered student, to partake.
How to create an 80 minute film set entirely in one New York apartment was challenging. Hitchcock decided to film it in color (his first color film), to present the action in an apparently seamless series of 10 minute "takes", and to start the film with the murder (it had not been included in the play).
Seeing his film in this excellent DVD restoration, it is some of these filming decisions that I have found most interesting. The dialogue may be unnatural, and the cast members uneasy, but the man in charge of filming certainly knew how to build suspense. Especially effective is the ending, when the illuminated advertising signs and the noises from the streets below begin to infiltrate through the windows.
Included in the extras are comments from scriptwriters, a cast member, and Hitchcock's daughter.
Movie Review: The rope used to kill also unravels the killers' resolve
Summary: 5 Stars
This Hitchcock thriller is about two men who kill a third man, partly for the thrill but mostly because they believe themselves to be intellectual supermen with the right (if not the duty) to rid the world of their inferiors. [A reference to the real life case of Leopold and Loeb, see Wikipedia]. Then, as a cruel joke they throw a dinner party for the victim's unsuspecting friends and family -- serving the food right off the trunk where the victim's body is hidden!
Jimmy Stewart plays their former intellectual master who uncovers their sinister deed and challenges their egomaniacal theories (largely drived from his teachings). The three lead characters are homosexual, though the word is never mentioned and Jimmy Stewart doesn't play it up in his performance.
The camera work is quintessential Hitchcock, focusing sometimes on the main action and sometimes on the sidelines for added suspense. The entire movie is meant to be one continuous shot (like a play), but changing the film every ten minutes or so necessitated what cuts there are (usually signaled with a close-up of someone's back before resuming). The DVD has the added bonus of a modern behind-the-scenes documentary of the film's creation.
Movie Review: A Good Movie with Good DVD Extras
Summary: 5 Stars
I won't repeat all the summaries, just agree that its a film worth a look, an overlooked Hitchcock gem.
I did enjoy the extras on the DVD I watched, especially the "Making of ..." (titled something else). In particular, the planning that went into each 10 minute take (!) was necessarily extremely detailed.
For one thing, the Technicolor camera was the size of a set of bunk beds, elevated to about 6' off the stage, and dragging cables everywhere on the floor. The actors had to be careful to step over them without breaking their movement. Furniture, walls, etc., had to be slid in and out to make a path for the monster. Jimmy Stewart was asked about rehearsal, and grumbled, "The only thing that got rehearsed was the camera." Hitchcock proudly showed off his set that allowed all this, with many movie luminaries visiting during production.
WARNING - SEMI-SPOILER:The screenwriter made an interesting point about the murder shown in the opening scene. He thought it should have only been alluded to, leaving the audience not entirely sure if there was really a body in the chest, and raising the tension at the near opening of the chest. He thought this was Hitchcock's plan, but then decided Hitchcock had a failure of nerve. I tend to agree the original plan was better.