Review of Rope (1948) by Sean D — 10 Oct 2012

What Rope proves about Alfred Hitchcock, probably more than any of his other films prior to his classics like Vertigo and Psycho, is that he was truly a filmmaker ahead of his time. This taut, claustrophobic thriller may be one of his more underappreciated films, falling between his time working under Selznick, and his boon from the mid-50's onward.

Rope focuses on two college friends and a murder they commit right before they host a dinner party for friends of the murdered young man. The film takes place solely in their apartment and sees their dinner guests, consisting of the murdered man's girlfriend, father, aunt, former best friend, and their old boarding schoolmaster (Jimmy Stewart), drift in and out of the apartment. Hitchcock weaves together approximately 95% of the film's action in one seamless take, focussing on the movement in the room, for example, while the audience overhears a conversation. For 1948, this technique is certainly avant-garde and a clear preview to the likes of Robert Altman and David Mamet.

Hitchcock had already proved his ability to create a great thriller with films like The 39 Steps, The Lady Vanishes, Rebecca, Spellbound, and Notorious. But it is his artistic freedom with this picture and using the tension of the setting that really makes Rope a standout. He masterfully alludes the homosexual bond between the murders with great relish. The highlight of this allusion being right at the beginning after the murder is committed and the dialogue afterwards sounding like post-coital awkwardness (After Brandon turns the lights on, his partner-in-crime says "No, leave them off"). Being the late-1940s, it is shocking that such overt expressions of homosexuality got by unchecked. Thankfully, it did. And the film is better because of it as it adds sexual tension to the already claustrophobic and nerve-wracking situation presented.

Based on a play, Hitch does the right thing in making the setting very much like a theatrical production and it adds to the tenseness. The audience is aware that the body is right there in the chest the entire time. With the guests all sitting around it talking philosophically about death, murder, and superiority within the human race, it adds a darkly comic element to the film. But when the maid starts clearing off the table, your heart starts racing as you think that the maid will stumble upon it blowing the whole macabre display wide open. Yet, it is the professor (a great Jimmy Stewart) who starts piecing things together and questioning the purpose of the dinner party.

The professor, unwittingly, had an influence on the boys to commit the murder. Part of his theory is that creatures, including man, are justified in killing each other to weed out the weak, a sort of social-Darwinist view on murder. When he finds out that his theories have been put into practice, he comes to grips with the effect of his ideas if they are put into practice.

Rope, then, is more than just a thriller. It is, in fact, a deep and layered film that only someone like Hitchcock could pull off in the 1940s. He cobbles together a tense, taut, and philosophic movie that also entertains and keeps the audience captivated. It's further of what everyone already knew about Hitchcock: he truly is the master of suspense.