loading...
Rope
1948
Based on the famous Leopold and Loeb murder case (from which two other films, COMPULSION and SWOON, were also derived), ROPE both challenges and terrifies the audience. Alfred Hitchcock disdained the whodunit crime story, which he felt lacked emotional force, and ROPE shows the director's preference for letting the audience .. Read more
| Starring | James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Cedric Hardwicke |
|---|---|
| Director | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Genres | Thriller |
loading...
Rope
Based on the famous Leopold and Loeb murder case (from which two other films, COMPULSION and SWOON, were also derived), ROPE both challenges and terrifies the audience. Alfred Hitchcock disdained the whodunit crime story, which he felt lacked emotional force, and ROPE shows the director's preference for letting the audience know more than the characters onscreen. The film opens as two young men (Farley Granger and John Dall) strangle a friend just to prove they're intellectually capable of committing the perfect crime. To add to the amusement, they hide the body in a trunk that will serve as the dinner table for a party honoring the deceased. The film hones in on an hour and a half of the party, with the constantly moving camera capturing the changing emotional atmosphere as the guests grow increasingly concerned about the fate of the missing boy. ROPE is a directorial tour de force, blending complex camera movement with intricate staging to present the entire story in near-real time in one location. Notably, the adaptation of the play by Patrick Hamilton was written by perennial Hitchcock actor Hume Cronyn.
| Starring | James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier, Reese Witherspoon, Douglas Dick, Edith Evanson |
|---|---|
| Director | Alfred Hitchcock |
| Studio | UNIVERSAL PICTURES UK |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 17 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Collections | 100 Top Thrillers |
| Genres | Thriller |
| Language | English |
| Released | DVD: 21 Apr 2003 Production year: 1948 |
| Format | DVD |
-
Critics' reviews (4)
View all -
Alfred Hitchcock here places a pair of homosexual student murderers (Farley Granger and John Dall) in a fashionable New York apartment, where they give a party for academic James Stewart and relatives of the young victim, whose body is present in a trunk from which they serve the drinks. Curiously devoid of suspense, the film is more of an intriguing cerebral exercise, famous as an experiment in the technique of the continuous take than a characteristic Hitchcockian entertainment or character study. Based on the real-life Leopold and Loeb case, it remains historically interesting, but both subject (see Richard Fleischer's 1959 film Compulsion) and technique have moved on, and Rope, today, disappoints.
-
An effective piece of Grand Guignol on the stage, this seemed rather tasteless when set in a New York skyscraper, especially when the leading role of the investigator was miscast and Hitch had saddled himself with the ten-minute take, a short-lived techni
-
Most helpful member's review
View all -
8 out of 10 people found this review helpful
Only Hitchcock.....
Not only is the film shot in real time and on one set, but it is also uses only one camera shot without cuts! This means one take for the entire film, and yet Hitchcock still crafts an excellent film around this technical trick. Highly recommended to anyone interested in people as well as anyone intersted in film technique, this film really makes a change from todays rapid fire cutting.
-
Most recent members' review
View all -
3 out of 3 people found this review helpful
Disappointing version of an English play
This play was far in advance of its time, covering homosexuality which was taboo in those days. The fact that the American censors had got their hands on it took away much of the atmosphere of a Patrick Hamilton plotline.
The film just did not have the right feel about it when you consider the seriousness of the the crime. -
News and features
View all
The Trouble with Haneke
- 09 Nov 2009
Talking about Psycho, which celebrates its 50 anniversary next year, Alfred Hitchcock remarked how he was engaged in “the game with the audience”: “I was directing the viewers. You might say I was playing them, like an organ.” A funny kind of game, you might think. Perhaps it’s a stretch to link the Austrian filmmaker Michael Haneke to Hitchcock. He’s a virtuoso, no doubt, but he’s an art-house fixture, and not just because his movies are subtitled.... Read more
-
More like this
View all
Related user collection
Best FREAKIN films EVR!!! (115)
60.4% from 79 members
Buy from the LOVEFiLM shop
-
-
-
Rope
Based on the famous Leopold and Loeb murder case (from which two other films, COMPULSION and SWOON, were also derived), ROPE both challenges and terrifies the audience. Alfred Hitchcock disdained the whodunit crime story, which he felt lacked emotional force, and ROPE shows the director's ...
-