Rope (1948)

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Patrick Hamilton (play)
Hume Cronyn (adaptation)

Release Date:

28 August 1948 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

The guest who's dead on time

Plot:

Two young men strangle their "inferior" classmate, hide his body in their apartment, and invite his friends and family to a dinner party as a means to challenge the "perfection" of their crime.

Plot Keywords:

Party | Chest | Friend | Murder | Intellectual

Awards:

2 nominations

Cast

James Stewart	...	Rupert Cadell
John Dall	...	Brandon Shaw
Farley Granger	...	Phillip Morgan
Cedric Hardwicke	...	Mr. Kentley (as Sir Cedric Hardwicke)
Constance Collier	...	Mrs. Atwater
Douglas Dick	...	Kenneth Lawrence
Edith Evanson	...	Mrs. Wilson
Dick Hogan	...	David Kentley
Joan Chandler	...	Janet Walker

Also Known As:

Alfred Hitchcock's Rope (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

80 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (RCA Sound System)

Certification:

USA:Approved (PCA #13027) | USA:PG (TV rating) | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:T | Iceland:L | Brazil:14 | South Korea:18 (2003) | New Zealand:PG | Portugal:(Banned) (original rating) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Canada:14A (video rating) | Canada:AA (original rating) | Finland:K-16 | Germany:16 | Norway:16 | Sweden:11 (re-release) | Sweden:15 (original rating) | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Warner Brothers Burbank Studios - 4000 Warner Boulevard, Burbank, California, USA

Company:

Transatlantic Pictures

Trivia:

The play, originally entitled "Rope" when it premiered in London, was re-titled "Rope's End" when it went to Broadway. The Broadway play "Rope's End" opened on Sept. 19, 1929 at the Theatre Masque (now called the John Golden Theatre) and ran for 100 performances.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Phillip and Brandon put David in the chest, the rope is clearly around David's neck and completely inside the box. But in a few minutes Phillip finds the rope hanging, very far, outside the box.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Brandon: Open it.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hitchcocked! (2006) (TV)

Soundtrack:

I'm Looking Over a Four-Leaf Clover

A Good Hitchcock Film From The 1940s

These "stage plays" made into movies usually bore me to death but this one was a notch above the tedious and too-talky Alfred Hitchcock films of the 1940s.

John Dall, who went on to "cult status" fame with "Gun Crazy" (a.k.a. "Deadly Is The Female) two years later, was the most interesting character in this film. He played "Brandon Shaw." His partner-in-crime, "Philip Morgan," played by Farley Granger, was the annoyingly-wimpy guy who cracked under the pressure. The biggest name actor in the movie is James Stewart but these other two guys are the main stars.

As people know, this is about two smug, college males who think they have pulled off the perfect crime because of their supposedly superior intellect and elitist attitude. It's based on a true-life event, famously labeled "The Leopold and Loeb Case." No sense going into more details since other reviewers have done that, and done it well.

Suffice to say, this is well-acted, has a good amount of black humor with the dialog and has people that are easy to root against. Two things that are different from normal film fare of the day: it's in "real time" and it's in color. Some criticize the famous director for using the real-time method, but I give him credit for trying something new and bold. That "gimmick" certainly has worked in the successful TV series, "24."

"Rope" is definitely worth a look if you've never seen it, just to see what happens to these arrogant punks. I found subsequent viewings less appealing as more and more of the characters in here (i.e. the old lady who preaches astrology, the annoying young woman, etc.) became unappealing. Stll, I think this is Sir Alfred's best work of the 1940s.