Review of Rope (1948) by Joe C — 04 Jan 2015

One of Hitchcock's earlier films is one of his most sinister, and a definitive view of what was to come. Two young men kill a former classmate, merely because they can, and then proceed to host a dinner party with the body still in the apartment, as a way of challenging their perfect murder.

Filmed in Technicolor (!) and with clever camera trickery to make the film look like one continuous shot, Rope is ripe with capriciousness, debonair characters, and one thing that the antagonists overlook.

It's not often 80 minutes if sufficient enough to effectively pull off a thriller, but damned if Hitchcock doesn't pull off rising action, climax and falling action effectively, and even have time at the end for an epic monologue from Jimmy Stewart.

Everything about it feels precise, honed and resolute in a way modern films just aren't.