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Clever film in which two college students play a game to try to pull off the perfect crime. Brandon Shaw (Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Granger), murder a former classmate, David Kentley (Dick Hogan), by strangulation in their apartment. They then hide the body in a large wooden chest that they use as a buffet for the food at a dinner party where Kentley's Father, aunt, former lover and other friends attend. Brandon's and Phillip's idea for the murder was inspired years earlier by conversations with their erstwhile prep-school housemaster, publisher Rupert Cadell (Stewart). While at school, Rupert had discussed with them, in an apparently approving way, the intellectual concepts of Nietzsche's Übermensch and the art of murder, a means of showing one's superiority over others. He too is among the guests at the party, since Brandon in particular feels that he would very likely approve of their "work of art". Brandon's subtle hints about David's absence lead to the subject of murder. Philip is nervous and drinks too much. David's aunt, Mrs. Atwater (Constance Collier) who fancies herself as a fortune teller, tells Philip that he will reach fame through his hands. Of course she is referring to his skills as a pianist, but he thinks that she is warning that he will be caught. As the conversation drifts in and out of "mind plots" in this very Alfred Hitchcock manner, a suspicious Rupert starts asking an increasingly nervous Phillip questions about David's unexplained absence. Emotions run high. David's father and fiancée are disturbed, wondering why he has neither arrived nor phoned. Brandon even goes so far as to increase the tension by playing matchmaker between Janet and Kenneth. Mr. Kentley decides to leave when his wife calls, overwrought because she has not heard a word from David herself. He takes with him some books Brandon has given him, tied together with the very rope Brandon and Phillip used to strangle his son, Brandon's icing on the cake. When he leaves, Rupert is handed the wrong hat. Instead of his, he winds up with David's hat (containing David's initials) by mistake. Recognizing this he returns a while later after everybody else leaves. He pretends that he has mistakenly left his cigarette case. Asking for a drink, he engages his two friends in a vonversation about murder. Phillip is so "out of it", he throws his glass across the room. Rupert, now suspecting the worse, lifts the lid on the chest and sees David's body. He is horrified, but also deeply ashamed, realizing that they used his own rhetoric to rationalize murder. Brandon produces a gun, but Rupert seizes it and fires several shots into the night. As the credits roll, you can hear the sounds of police sirens approaching.Read full review
Love Hitchcock's movies! He was such an innovative director, who paved the way for our directors today. Great movie, but Jimmy Stewart's character was a bit darker than his usual lot.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
An excellent cast of characters with Jimmy Stewart among others. I was hoping it would have lasted longer and given the story line it could have definitely went another 30 minutes. The back and forth between the protagonists and the professors character are excellent. For Hitchcock I was surprised it ended so soon. Still a great little Hitchcock gem. Watch it it’s a good one!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
The 1948 Hitchcock film, Rope, was a very interesting venture, and becomes even more so when it's noted to have been based on a 1924 real life incident. I also appreciated the movie's 2004 'update", Convictions, which contextualized the 1924 murder case with a circumstance that will definitely promote "food for thought" conversation for a modern mixed sex audience. I suggest trying the 1948 Jimmy Stewart one first, then moving on to the lesser known Convictions on the Tubi streaming site.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Rope is an excellent look at psychopathic personality types who seem to have it all together in their bantering around the lot. Yet for all the seeming civility there lurks an inhumaneness, a coldness to human cruelty and barbarity that defies logic and imagination. While there is very little of actual violence shown in the movie, the treatment of murder by a character absent of conscience and apparently fixated with pseudo intellectual aspects of venting his insane hatred of the human race is a telling one which needs some exploration in that many such personalities do abound with similar tendencies to over-intellectualize the lack of a human disposition to such matters as casual killing for the sake of a sick thrill. Jimmy Stewart cries out for some sanity in this respect and quite admirably so.Read full review