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Rope (1948)
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by Universal Studios
Sales Rank: 32942
Price: $14.98
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An experimental film masquerading as a standard Hollywood thriller. The plot of <I>Rope</I> is simple and based on a successful stage play: two young men (John Dall and Farley Granger) commit murder, more or less as an intellectual exercise. They hide the body in their large apartment, then throw a dinner party. Will the body be discovered? Director Alfred Hitchcock, fascinated by the possibilities of the long-take style, decided to shoot this story as though it were happening in one long, uninterrupted shot. Since the camera can only hold one 10-minute reel at a time, Hitchcock had to be creative when it came time to change reels, disguising the switches as the camera passed behind someone's back or moved behind a lamp. In later years Hitchcock wrote off the approach as misguided, and <I>Rope</I> may not be one of Hitchcock's top movies, but it's still a nail-biter. They don't call him the Master of Suspense for nothing. James Stewart, as a suspicious professor, marks his first starring role for Hitchcock, a collaboration that would lead to the masterpieces <I>Rear Window</I> and <I>Vertigo</I>. <I>--Robert Horton</I>
Viewer Reviews
Hitchcock's first color film was this stage adaptation pieced together from only about a dozen takes. It's similar to Dial M, but with a psychological slant that, along with the factual basis for the story, make it a hard picture to really enjoy. The cast is too credible to allow us much amusement from the sophisticated double entrendres of the central crime. Hitchcock's later mastery of black comedy may have been able to make something more palatable of the script. As it is, Dall and Granger create a kind of duet of arrogance and dread that's adeptly played, but unsettling to watch. (Cedric Hardwick's turn as the victim's compassionate father also make it difficult to take much enjoyment in the goings on.) And a miscast Jimmy Stewart makes a most unlikely dispassionate intellectual. (Hitchcock wanted Cary Grant - I think Olivier would have been perfect.) But, even if the picture doesn't work entirely it's still underrated, and at less than 90 minutes fascinating.
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Rope (1948)
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