Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rope” tells the story of two young men, Brandon (John Dall) and Phillip (Farley Granger) who as an intellectual exercise, murder their friend hoping to commit the perfect crime. Afterwards, they stuff him in a wooden chest, and throw a dinner party in the very room it resides. The party is attended by friends, including their murdered friend’s father, and an old teacher of theirs Rupert (James Stewart) who grow suspects something is wrong.
Dall and Granger make for a great pair on opposite ends of the spectrum. Dall relishes in the aftermath of the murder with a sickening glee. It’s clear that this won’t be a one-time deal for him and will be the start of a future in which he seeks out this feeling again and again. Granger on the other hand, is crazed with guilt. It eats at him, racking his body, and slipping into his speech. And then there’s Stewart, who seems cold and calculating, but as time wears on, his worry and deeply concealed emotions rise to the surface, and the humanity of him finally emerges.
Hitchcock experiments here with a technique we are well acquainted with, trying to capture the illusion of the film being one long take in real time. Hitchcock viewed this experiment as a failure, but it actually works very well, adding to the suspense by having the suspicions of Stewart play slowly, building up to a crashing crescendo.
“Rope” delves into the minds of killers, and the process behind their crimes. These two men need no other provocation than an intellectual exercise built on the assumption that they are superior beings and therefore have the right to commit this crime, since their friend is an inferior one. They don’t hate him, in fact they have always liked him, but they kill him anyway. It sticks with you. That these people would kill their friend, choosing him specifically; and why? Why him? Well, it’s expressly because they knew him. It made things easier for them because there was a victim ready-made. And that excited them.
Frightening and suspenseful, “Rope” is one of the best films from the master of suspense.