Film Review: Rope (1948)

(source: tmdb.org)

In the long history of Hollywood, there were some rare instances when major studios indulged in producing films that could be described as experimental. The same can be said of the filmography of Alfred Hitchcock, whose 1948 psychological thriller Rope is considered the most experimental of all his films.

The film is based on the eponymous 1929 stage play by British author Patrick Hamilton, which was inspired by the infamous real-life case of Leopold and Loeb. The plot is set in a New York penthouse apartment and begins with a young man named David Kentley (played by Dick Hogan) being strangled to death by his two former prep school mates, Brandon Shaw (played by John Dall) and Philip Morgan (played by Farley Granger). The only motive for the crime is the killers’ desire to commit the perfect murder, and Brandon, who owns the apartment, further tests whether he would get away with it by throwing a party. The guests include David’s father Henry (played by Cedric Hardwicke), his aunt Anita Atwater (played by Constance Collier), David’s girlfriend Janet Walker (played by Joan Chandler), her former boyfriend Kenneth Lawrence (played by Douglas Dick), and their former prep school teacher Rupert Cadell (played by James Stewart), who now works as a publisher. Brandon and Philip have hidden David’s body in an antique wooden chest, which Brandon deliberately uses as a buffet table for his guests. This, and Brandon’s increasingly unsubtle hints about David’s absence and violent demise, make Philip increasingly rattled, which is noticed by Rupert, who begins to wonder whether there is some dark, unpleasant secret his pupils might hide.

Rope is known as Hitchcock’s first film in colour, but most cinephiles know it for another novelty. Hitchcock has, apart from a brief introductory scene, made the entire film in what appears to be one long, continuous shot. Hitchcock achieved this through clever editing, extremely long takes, and ingenious fixing of the camera on dark spots that could allow quick and smooth transitions, thus creating the illusion of a continuous take. This technique is not exactly uncommon and was, among other directors, used by Alexander Sokurov in Russian Ark and, more recently, by Sam Mendes in 1917. Hitchcock apparently got the idea for the film nearly a decade earlier in his native Britain, when he was watching a previous screen adaptation of Hamilton’s work in the form of an early television play aired on the BBC. Such early television plays were never recorded and were aired live instead, so, without editing, directors had to rely on various ingenious ways to keep the plot or a scene within the confines of a single long take. Hitchcock employs the same directing style here, and it looks interesting, but only at the beginning. Soon, the limitations of the concept become apparent, more notably with the entire plot being set in a single apartment during a very limited time. Rope looks not only very “gimmicky”, but Hitchcock’s attempts to maintain suspense only result in making the film look much longer than its unusually short 80 minutes.

Hitchcock somehow manages to fill the play with references that could delight cinephiles – like characters describing his previous film Notorious or mentioning actors that used to work or would later work for him. References that caught attention in more recent times are more implicit and deal with homosexuality, content that was impossible to even mention or depict openly in Classic Hollywood films. Leopold and Loeb, the real-life killers inspiring the main characters, were gay. So was the scriptwriter Arthur Laurents, who went on record describing Brandon and Philip as lovers. John Dall, the actor playing Brandon, was rumoured to be gay, while Farley Granger was later quite open about his bisexuality.

But all that content, implicit or not, won’t help Rope with viewers who don’t have much interest in Hollywood history. Hitchcock did direct the film with skill, but the background showing the New York City skyline looks artificial and reveals that the entire film was shot in a studio. The acting is, on the other hand, very good, especially in the case of Dall, who is great as a young psychopath, and Granger (who would later work with Hitchcock on Strangers on a Train) is very convincing as a nervous wreck. But James Stewart appears disappointing, mainly because of the script that forces his initially enigmatic and cynical character to turn into a sermon-giving moral crusader near the end. Stewart publicly expressed displeasure with the film, and so did Hitchcock, who would later describe it as a “failed experiment”. Yet, Rope shows that even a mediocre Hitchcock is at times better than the best works of many celebrated film-makers who came after him.

RATING: 6/10 (++)