Notable cast/crew: John Dall as Brandon. Farley Granger as Phillip. He would also star in Strangers on a Train. Cedric Hardwicke as Mr Kentley. He was previously in Suspicion. Constance Collier as Mrs Atwater. She co-wrote the play, Down Hill, that Hitchcock turned into Downhill. James Stewart as Rupert Cadell. This is the first of four films he would make with Hitchcock. Adaptation by Hume Cronyn.
Running time: 81 minutesDirector: Alfred Hitchcock
 |
| Diagram for a play on murder |
Phillip is unnerved by the rope they used which is dangling from the chest. He wants to dispose of it, but Brandon makes a display of playing with it before placing it in a kitchen drawer. Phillip wants for things to be over, but as guests arrive Brandon continues to drop hints of what they've done. He enjoys making the others uncomfortable to illustrate his contempt for inferiors.
Brandon was a disciple of their housemaster, Rupert Cadell, who used to expound on his Nietzschean ideas about some men being superior and unbound by ordinary morals including being able to kill whomever they chose whenever they chose.
Rupert enjoys gently teasing others, bordering on rudeness. He begins to discuss the benefits of murder with Brandon joining in. This upsets Mr Kentley who finds the idea of superior men free to dispose with others as they please repugnant. While Rupert seems playful and not quiet serious despite his protests to the contrary, Brandon is quite serious and quarrels with Mr Kentley.
Rupert notices subtle hints that something is amiss: Brandon's excited state, Phillip's nervousness, eating off the chest instead of the dining room table, David's absence. While the others are concerned that David hasn't shown up, Rupert has concerns because of Brandon's quarrel with Mr Kentley over murder. He begins to question Phillip about what's wrong and where David is. When Brandon uses the rope to tie up some books for Mr Kentley, Rupert has nearly all the pieces to the puzzle.
As the party breaks up, the maid gives Rupert the wrong hat. The initials inside are "D K". Rupert appears dazed as he leaves. Once everyone else has left, Rupert returns to look for a cigarette case he "lost". Phillip nearly comes undone when Rupert calls, but Brandon is resolute and invites him up. Rupert continues to probe them for the truth. Brandon verbally jousts with Rupert, each trying to see what the other knows.
Brandon has been holding a gun in his pocket which Rupert asks him about. Brandon laughs it off and tosses the gun on the piano. When Rupert produces the rope and says he knows exactly what happens, Phillip panics and grabs the gun. He and Rupert struggle for it with the gun firing into the floor. Now holding the gun, Rupert opens the chest and confirms his fears. Brandon tries to justify himself by reminding Rupert of his own words. He has lived what Rupert only talked about. Confronted with the ugliness of his own words, Rupert is horrified at how far Brandon has carried it. He sees the ugliness and arrogance of the belief in superior men. After chastising them and telling them they are going to die at society's hands, he opens the window and fires more shots. He stands guard as the sirens approach.
MacGuffin: The body and the rope
Hitchcock cameo: Red neon sign shows his famous silhouette caricature (possibly also walking down the street at the start of the movie)
Hitchcock themes:
- Murder
- Likable villain
Verdict: This is one of my favorite movies. There is so much going on that repeat viewings are really rewarded. There are narrative layers with a running subtext. There is the technical aspect of staging a play in real-time on a movable set with long takes. The acting is superb, and even though Jimmy Stewart is miscast, his part still works. Every character serves a purpose so there are no wasted scenes. It also fulfills the three classical unities: unity of action, unity of place, and unity of time. This was Hitchcock's first color film.
The movie is adapted from a play of the same name (also known as Rope's End) which was inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case. The set was designed with movable walls so that the camera could follow people from room to room. This was all done by stagehands as filming took place. The idea was to shoot the movie as if it occurred in real-time with continuous long takes. Hitchcock shot for periods lasting up to ten minutes (the length of a film camera magazine). Every other segment ended with a zoom in on something (a dark jacket, a table top). The next segment would start on the same image then pull back, hiding the cut from magazine to magazine. The other cuts are not hidden because when shown in theaters, every 20 minutes a projectionist would have to change the reel (two magazines of film make one reel of film on the projector in the movie theater). Therefore Hitchcock had no need to hide the cut to a new setup. The ten segments are:
The cyclorama in the background is impressive. It was the largest backing ever used on a sound stage, and it included models of the Empire State and the Chrysler buildings. Chimneys smoke, lights come on in buildings, neon signs light up, and the sunset slowly unfolds as the movie progresses. Within the course of the film the clouds (made of spun glass) change position and shape eight times.
The film runs 81 minutes and takes place in real-time. The period of time that it covers is slightly longer, about 100 minutes. This occurs because the action is sped up: the formal dinner lasts only 20 minutes, the sun sets too quickly, and so on. The effect of this has been studied and found to show that most people think they have watched a longer movie than they did.
This is Hitchcock's second creative cameo which reused an idea from Lifeboat. Using the fictitious weight loss company "Reduco", a red neon sign in the far background shows Hitchcock's profile with "Reduco" below it, as the guests are escorted to the door.
The screenwriter, Arthur Laurents, claimed that originally Hitchcock assured him the movie wouldn't show the opening murder itself. He thought it heightened the mystery by creating doubt as to whether the two leading characters actually committed murder and whether the trunk had a corpse inside. Hitchcock showed the murder which instead heightened the suspense of whether they would be caught or found out.
The unspoken subject of the movie is homosexuality. Due to the censors at the time, it couldn't be discussed in a movie. In fact, off camera, Rope was discussed as being about "it". It led to a negative reaction, with some theaters refusing to show it. Dall and Granger were actually homosexual in real life, as was screenwriter Arthur Laurents. Because it is never openly mentioned, it is sometimes missed altogether. The first time I watched Rope, my brother watched it with me, and about halfway through he asked me if the characters were supposed to be gay. I knew nothing about the intended subtext, and when we were watching the making of feature, he was proven correct.
This leads to the miscasting of Jimmy Stewart. This was the only movie he made with Hitchcock that he did not like. Stewart himself he felt he was badly miscast as Rupert. In the original play, Rupert allegedly had an affair with one of the two murderers while they were students. Jimmy Stewart was much too well known for playing clean-cut characters, and it ruined the dynamic they were going for. However, he is still excellent being charming at the beginning of the film and then selling the turn to mortification at what his disciple has done. Cary Grant was the first choice to play Rupert, and Montgomery Clift was originally to play Brandon. Both turned down the roles for fear it would have fueled the rumors they were gay.
This film is unique so far as I know in that the trailer shows a prequel scene not in the film. It is the only scene where David speaks, and it leads up to the party where he is killed. Dick Hogan played David, and his death scene was Hogan's last appearance in a movie. He retired from the business after Rope.
Eleven years after being mentioned in Rope as making an excellent villain, James Mason was cast by Hitchcock as one in North by Northwest.
Rope was unavailable for decades. Its rights, along with the rights to Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Trouble With Harry, and Vertigo, were bought back by Hitchcock and left as part of his legacy to his daughter, Patricia. They were known as the "Five Lost Hitchcocks" among film buffs (despite there being other British films that were also lost), but they were re-released in theaters around 1984 after a 30-year absence.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
The movie is adapted from a play of the same name (also known as Rope's End) which was inspired by the Leopold and Loeb case. The set was designed with movable walls so that the camera could follow people from room to room. This was all done by stagehands as filming took place. The idea was to shoot the movie as if it occurred in real-time with continuous long takes. Hitchcock shot for periods lasting up to ten minutes (the length of a film camera magazine). Every other segment ended with a zoom in on something (a dark jacket, a table top). The next segment would start on the same image then pull back, hiding the cut from magazine to magazine. The other cuts are not hidden because when shown in theaters, every 20 minutes a projectionist would have to change the reel (two magazines of film make one reel of film on the projector in the movie theater). Therefore Hitchcock had no need to hide the cut to a new setup. The ten segments are:
- Strangulation through to Blackout on Brandon's back (09:34 duration)
- (Black screen) pan off Brandon's back through to Kenneth: "What do you mean?" (07:51 duration)
- (Unmasked cut) men crossing to Janet through to Blackout on Kenneth's back (07:18 duration)
- (Black screen) pan off Kenneth's back through to Phillip: "That's a lie." (07:08 duration)
- (Unmasked cut) closeup on Rupert through to Blackout on Brandon's back (09:57 duration)
- (Black screen) pan off Brandon's back through to Three shot (07:33 duration)
- (Unmasked cut) Mrs. Wilson: "Excuse me, sir." through to Blackout on Brandon (07:46 duration)
- (Black screen) pan off Brandon through to Brandon's hand in gun pocket (10:06 duration)
- (Unmasked cut) closeup on Rupert through to Blackout on lid of chest (04:37 duration)
- (Black screen) pan up from lid of chest through to End of film (05:38 duration)
The cyclorama in the background is impressive. It was the largest backing ever used on a sound stage, and it included models of the Empire State and the Chrysler buildings. Chimneys smoke, lights come on in buildings, neon signs light up, and the sunset slowly unfolds as the movie progresses. Within the course of the film the clouds (made of spun glass) change position and shape eight times.
The film runs 81 minutes and takes place in real-time. The period of time that it covers is slightly longer, about 100 minutes. This occurs because the action is sped up: the formal dinner lasts only 20 minutes, the sun sets too quickly, and so on. The effect of this has been studied and found to show that most people think they have watched a longer movie than they did.
This is Hitchcock's second creative cameo which reused an idea from Lifeboat. Using the fictitious weight loss company "Reduco", a red neon sign in the far background shows Hitchcock's profile with "Reduco" below it, as the guests are escorted to the door.
The unspoken subject of the movie is homosexuality. Due to the censors at the time, it couldn't be discussed in a movie. In fact, off camera, Rope was discussed as being about "it". It led to a negative reaction, with some theaters refusing to show it. Dall and Granger were actually homosexual in real life, as was screenwriter Arthur Laurents. Because it is never openly mentioned, it is sometimes missed altogether. The first time I watched Rope, my brother watched it with me, and about halfway through he asked me if the characters were supposed to be gay. I knew nothing about the intended subtext, and when we were watching the making of feature, he was proven correct.
This leads to the miscasting of Jimmy Stewart. This was the only movie he made with Hitchcock that he did not like. Stewart himself he felt he was badly miscast as Rupert. In the original play, Rupert allegedly had an affair with one of the two murderers while they were students. Jimmy Stewart was much too well known for playing clean-cut characters, and it ruined the dynamic they were going for. However, he is still excellent being charming at the beginning of the film and then selling the turn to mortification at what his disciple has done. Cary Grant was the first choice to play Rupert, and Montgomery Clift was originally to play Brandon. Both turned down the roles for fear it would have fueled the rumors they were gay.
Eleven years after being mentioned in Rope as making an excellent villain, James Mason was cast by Hitchcock as one in North by Northwest.
Rope was unavailable for decades. Its rights, along with the rights to Rear Window, The Man Who Knew Too Much, The Trouble With Harry, and Vertigo, were bought back by Hitchcock and left as part of his legacy to his daughter, Patricia. They were known as the "Five Lost Hitchcocks" among film buffs (despite there being other British films that were also lost), but they were re-released in theaters around 1984 after a 30-year absence.
Out of five bananas, I give it:
No comments:
Post a Comment