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Rope is a 1948 American psychological crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the 1929 play of the same name by Patrick Hamilton. The film was adapted by Hume Cronyn with a screenplay by Arthur Laurents .
Apr 21, 2024 · Alfred Hitchcock’s suspenseful thriller Rope starring Jimmy Stewart is based on a murder committed by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.
- Alfred Hitchcock
- Author
- James Stewart
- College Killers: The True Story Behind Rope
- How Rope Revisits Leopold and Loeb
- The Sexual Dynamic
- Rope and The Pattern of Three
- Hitchcock’s Cameo
- Light and Shadow
- The Symbolism of The Rope
- Murder Is A Privilege For The Few
- What The Ending Reveals
Rope is an adaptation of a 1929 play by British playwright Patrick Hamilton. Both times, the story parallels the lives of Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. These wealthy college students murdered 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924. According to their interpretation of Nietzsche’s Übermensch (‘super man’) philosophy, their intellect entitled them to mu...
In Hitchcock’s film adaptation, Brandon and Philip stand in for the Leopold and Loeb characters. Brandon is the stronger partner. He exhibits traits of what we might now call antisocial personality disorder, and doesn’t regret the murder – although note he has Philip carry out the killing. The pair then play a sadistic game with David’s friends and...
There’s lots of hidden knowledge in Rope. Characters dance around the truth and in and out of the dark(more about that below). The film itself also masks the on-screen representation of homosexuality, which Out magazine describes as a gay code (see also Hitchcock’s adaptation of Rebecca). This reveals Brandon and Philip as lovers rather than flatma...
Brandon kills David then schemes to reunite his girlfriend Janet with her ex, Kenneth. This sets up a creepy love triangle between Janet, Kenneth and David’s dead body (lying just feet away). But Brandon is Janet’s ex, too. He even suggests Janet has strategically traded up boyfriends before hooking the wealthy David. Yet if his scheming here is a ...
Hitchcock appears in each of his movies as a fleeting extra. His presence is Rope is one more bit of buried knowledge in a film all about hidden truths. Hitch’s silhouette appears as a neon sign during the dinner party. It’s briefly visible between Kenneth and Janet (creating yet another triangle). But there’s a less obvious cameo. Mrs Atwater and ...
Rope’s famous cinematic technique appears to tell the entire story in a single uninterrupted shot. In fact, the camera pans in and out of dark surfaces to hide the transitions. However, there is one explicit cut. The film opens with a shot of a brightly lit street. It’s daytime, and people are going about their usual business. Then the camera pans ...
As you’d expect, rope is crucial to the film – but it appears in a number of ways. 1. Philip strangles David with a length of rope. 2. Brandon and Philip hide David’s body in a chest but initially leave the rope hanging out. 3. Brandon plays with the rope before dropping it in a kitchen drawer. He luxuriates in the murder weapon. 4. Rupert shocks t...
Brandon and Philip murder to prove a point. But are they solely to blame? David’s father is deeply insulted by the idea that some lives are worth less than others. When Rupert and Brandon lay out the theory during the party, Mr Kentley says: Keep in mind Rope was released shortly after WWII, when Hitler’s ideology caused the murder of millions of J...
The film ends with the return of the light. Rupert throws open the chest, letting in the light. The discovery also reveals his self-delusion, and the false idol that Brandon and Philip have created. He dismantles their flawed philosophy with a simple demonstration when he fires the gun. He tells them they’re not above society; now, society will ser...
Jan 16, 2023 · Such a complaint could never be leveled at Rope, which was produced by Alfred Hitchcock 37 [now 74] years ago. Rope was one of a kind. In 1946, Hitchcock and his old friend, Sidney L. Bernstein, a theater magnate, formed a producing company called Transatlantic Pictures Corp.
- George E. Turner
Jul 10, 2005 · Rope was Hitchcock's declaration of independence from overbearing producers like David O. Selznick. In this film, he used dialogue, action cues, and other devices to point to himself as the supreme power figure in this cinematic creation.3 The nature and timing of the cameos underscore Hitchcock's primacy on the set and in the story.
Sep 13, 2020 · Rope is a completely different cinematic experience than anything we usually see on the big screen. Hitchcock successfully blended the one-set, one-scene long play with his signature style of suspense-over-surprise in this unusually constricted setting.
Two young men kill prep-school friend, just for the thrill of it, and challenge themselves by inviting friends and family to their apartment afterward—with the body hidden on the premises.
