Review of Rope (1948) by Kenneth B — 13 Oct 2012

"Nothing ever held you like Alfred Hitchcock's Rope." There has rarely been a more apt tagline for a film. The film was shot in ten takes ranging from roughly four and a half minutes to around ten minutes, concealing each cut in various ways, to give the impression of one long continuous take.

Hitchcock is one of the few directors who could overtly experiment in such a way and create an accomplished piece of work such as this. It's not just a curiosity, it's a very good thriller. Part of the reason for this is that the dialogue is tremendous throughout.

It's inherently important for films which have confined sets to read as well as they play. Unsurprisingly Rope is based on a play but it doesn't fall into the pitfalls that come with stage adaptations.

It doesnt feel overly stagey, clearly enough was done to set the film apart from the play, I know nothing of the play so I am speculating. There is a great segment that sums up my point about humour, it refers to Hitchcock's Notorious, which I also watched today coincidentally.

The characters are discussing various actors and one mentions Cary Grant, they then refer to a film of his as "Something. You know with Ingrid Bergman?". Then to prognosticate over the title "it's call 'the something of something'", and so on before agree that it is just "plain 'something'".

It's an entertaining piece of self-referencing. Another bit that sums up my point about the humour is the line "I really don't appreciate this morbid humour", which is met by James Stewart with a typically dry delivery; "But the humour was unintentional".

In the case of Rope the humour is definitely intentional, watch out for Hitchcock's Reduco-Obesity Slayer cameo, appearing as a neon light in the distance, around the 50 minute mark. Another reference, this time to his 'cameo' in Lifeboat, which was also set to a confined setting.

Stewart is as compelling as ever, he was a great dramatic actor but he had a tremendous comic presence too and both are in evidence here. Rope deserves to be held in similar regard as Hitchcock's best films.