'Rope' review- the best, most stylish, suspenseful, and darkly entertaining dinner party of all time

The premise is in itself outrageous, if not slightly implausible: two young men, Brandon (John Dall) and Philip (Farley Granger), murder David, a weak school colleague of theirs, simply for the intellectual thrill of it as Nietzsche's superhumans incarnate, to prove their superiority by committing 'the perfect crime'.  What ensues in Alfred Hitchcock's 1948  thriller, is infinitely intriguing as Brandon and Philip then hold a dinner party. Amongst its invited guests are David's parents and fiancee.

 Genius that he is, Hitchcock decides to stay true to Rope's roots, being originally a play. He wickedly confines all of the action and suspense in Brandon and Philip's claustrophobic apartment. His use of real time and (what brilliantly mimics) a single continuous shot, means that the audience are just like a silent sixth guest, watching in mortification as daring hints are dropped by the sociopathic Brandon and the conversation veers towards the macabre.

There's no soundtrack, no relief from the quip after quip, revelation after revelation that are the film's intense dialogue. There's the harsh clatter of plates interspersed with Philip's repetition of the same, wistful, inchoate rift on the piano that make Rope more of an interrogation than an evening of amusement. The outside scenes from the urban skyline remain silent and static, and the lights eerie and penetrating, so that the film truly is an examination of its characters' psyches, with the more lighthearted personalities being contrasted against the heavy intellectualism of those such as Philip.

Besides being the murder weapon, rope also becomes an idiomatic metaphor in the film in the sense of 'roping someone in'. In a way, Hitchcock's film sort of centres on beliefs as well as loyalty; you certainly come away with an opinion. It's heavy and philosophical, with James Stewart delivering a particularly profound speech on rights and wrongs at the very end of the film. But it's also sparkling and sharp with plenty of laughs. A highly recommended watch.


With thanks to emerysnyder.blogspot for the image.