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Rope (1948)Alfred Hitchcock

Cast

Dick Hogan ... David Kentley

John Dall ... Brandon

Farley Granger ... Phillip

Edith Evanson ... Mrs. Wilson

Douglas Dick ... Kenneth

Joan Chandler ... Janet

Cedric Hardwicke ... Mr. Kentley

Constance Collier ... Mrs. Atwater

James Stewart ... Rupert Cadell

Figure 1. Film Poster

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A suspense filled thriller done in a very different yet effective style, The Rope shows you a murder and instead of the viewer

watching the detective, waiting for the culprit to be discovered, the audience is left waiting for the detective to get to the

information they’re already aware of. Based on a play of the same name, the Rope is a suspense filled thriller about two killers

who murder to prove superiority, with very long takes the viewers are left in a pressure cooker waiting for the discovery to be

made.

Gimmick or not, the fact that the Rope is made with very little editing makes it stand out from its predecessors, the film is filmed

in one setting and every important story element happens in one house, the director could have easily taken the characters out to

the car park, or moved someone to another setting, but the minimalistic take on the film made it so that the build up to the end

would be that much intense,

A murder begins the film and though brief, it was the foundation of the story, everything about this story works because it’s been

planned to the tiniest of details, but for a film meticulously planned there are parts where Hitchcock makes transition to another

cut becomes very evident, there might have been a reason for this because as Pamela Hutchison says on her article “     Hitchcock's 

famous reliance on storyboarding and scripting ”      (Hutchinson, 2012), so it’d be very odd the very evident cuts had no mean, it

could be down to the fact that the film reel couldn’t take much more footage, but as far as story went this felt natural, because

you were never taken away from the scene.

The choice of words the characters say in film seems to always hint at something, even after the murder is committed they talk

as if they’re hinting at a murder. One thing that Hitchcock didn’t really deliver on was the backstory, the audience go in to the filmwithout knowing anything, Hitchcock gives you nothing yet, there are hints at history between the characters, this is very

restrictive because without digging deeper or listening to little specific details you wouldn’t know much about the characters, it is

hinted that the two murders are homosexual and the former teacher of the two men had, had an affair with either one of them,

you don’t get this understanding after watching the film once, and it’s no wonder as the time the film was made being homosexual

was considered a taboo so Rope becomes “     immediately explicit without actually committing any offenses the Production Code 

 people could object to ”     (Canby, 1984), it might have been a mistake to hide this information from the story presented but as it

didn’t really change too much about the characters maybe it wasn’t too bad.

Figure 2. David's end

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The ending of the film was fitting to how the film was set out from the beginning it almost felt perfect, because the whole film was

leading to the moment of the discovery of the body, when Rupert finally reveals it and then proceeds to the window, which has

been shut tightly closed for 80 hours, then shoots the gun, it’s like a “     symbolic catharsis ”      (Schneider, 2006) the tension is finally

released and the characters now await their punishment, the symbolism of the shoot alone was enough to make the ending that

much dramatic as there’s sense of relief as the whole ordeal is finally over.

For a film to be as good as Rope was and be film in one location, the dialogue between the characters have to carry the story, this

was an interesting take because it was like watching a theatre play, but from the best view imaginable, everything was happening

in real time but instead of being in one restricted position the story is shown inside the scene, and shows all the main parts of

story, Rope is an intense thriller, which manages to hold suspense even when the viewer knows more than the detective.

Figure 3. Symbolic Catharsis

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Illustrations

Figure 1: http://hdreactor.org/568300-verevka-rope-1948-blu-ray-disc-1080p.html 

Figure 2: http://i1084.photobucket.com/albums/j408/cinemarginal/Rope02.jpg 

Figure 3: http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/wiki/Hitchcock_Gallery:_image_342 

Bibliography

Hutchinson, P. (2012) Hitchcock's famous reliance on storyboarding and scripting. In: guardian [online]

http://m.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2012/jul/27/my-favourite-hitchcock-rope (Accessed on 20/01/2013)

Canby, V. (1984) immediately explicit without actually committing any offenses the Production Code people could object to. In:

nytimes [online] http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/03/movies/hitchcock-s-rope-a-stunt-to-behold.html?pagewanted=all 

(Accessed on 20/01/2013)

Schneider, D. (2006) symbolic catharsis. In: cosmoetica [online] http://www.cosmoetica.com/B496-DES426.htm  (Accessed on

20/01/2013)