Rope

Theatrical Release Poster

Farley Granger

Joan Chandler

Sir Cedric Hardwicke

Constance Collier

Douglas Dick

Edith Evanson

**Rope** is a 1948 American crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the 1929 play of the same name by Patrick Hamilton, adapted by Hume Cronyn and with a screenplay by Arthur Laurents.

## Plot

Two brilliant young aesthetes, Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan, strangle to death their former classmate from Harvard University, David Kentley, in their Manhattan penthouse apartment. They commit the crime as an intellectual exercise; they want to prove their superiority by committing the "perfect murder".

After hiding the body in a large antique wooden chest, Brandon and Phillip host a dinner party at the apartment, which has a panoramic view of Manhattan's skyline. The guests, who are unaware of what has happened, include the victim's father, Mr. Kentley, and aunt, Mrs. Atwater; his mother is not able to attend, because of a cold. Also there are his fiancée, Janet Walker, and her former lover, Kenneth Lawrence, who was once David's close friend.

Brandon uses the chest containing the body as a buffet table for the food, just before their housekeeper, Mrs. Wilson, arrives to help with the party. "Now the fun begins", Brandon says when the first guests arrive.

Brandon and Phillip's idea for the murder was inspired years earlier by conversations with their prep-school housemaster, publisher Rupert Cadell. While they were at school, Rupert had discussed with them, in an apparently approving way, the intellectual concepts of Nietzsche's Übermensch, and De Quincey's art of murder, as a means of showing one's superiority over others. He too is among the guests at the party, since Brandon in particular thinks that he would approve of their "work of art".

Brandon's subtle hints about David's absence indirectly lead to a discussion on the "art of murder". Brandon appears calm and in control, although when he first speaks to Rupert he is nervously excited and stammering. Phillip, on the other hand, is visibly upset and morose. He does not conceal it well and starts to drink too much. When David's aunt, Mrs. Atwater, who fancies herself a fortune-teller, tells him that his hands will bring him great fame, she is referring to his skill at the piano, but he appears to think this refers to the notoriety of being a strangler.

Much of the conversation, however, focuses on David and his strange absence, which worries the guests. A suspicious Rupert quizzes a fidgety Phillip about this and about some of the inconsistencies that have been raised in conversation. For example, Phillip vehemently denies ever strangling a chicken at the Shaws' farm, though Rupert has seen Phillip strangle several. Phillip later complains to Brandon about having had a "rotten evening", not because of David's murder, but because of Rupert's questioning.

As the evening goes on, David's father and fiancée begin to worry because he has neither arrived nor phoned. Brandon increases the tension by playing matchmaker between Janet and Kenneth. Mrs. Kentley calls, overwrought because she has not heard from David, and Mr. Kentley decides to leave. He takes with him some books Brandon has given him, tied together with the rope Brandon and Phillip used to strangle his son.

When Rupert goes to leave, Mrs. Wilson accidentally hands him David's monogrammed hat, further arousing his suspicion. Rupert returns to the apartment a short while after everyone else has departed, pretending that he has left his cigarette case behind. He asks for a drink and then stays to theorize about David's disappearance. He is encouraged by Brandon, who hopes Rupert will understand and even applaud them. A drunk Phillip is unable to take it any more; he throws a glass and says, "Cat and mouse, cat and mouse. But which is the cat and which is the mouse?"

Rupert lifts the lid of the chest and finds the body inside. He is horrified but also deeply ashamed, realizing that Brandon and Phillip used his own rhetoric to rationalize murder. Rupert disavows all his previous talk of superiority and inferiority, then seizes Brandon's gun and fires several shots out the window to attract attention. As police sirens approach, Rupert pulls up a chair next to the chest and the film's end credits appear on the screen.

## Cast

* James Stewart as Rupert Cadell
* John Dall as Brandon Shaw
* Farley Granger as Phillip Morgan
* Joan Chandler as Janet Walker
* Sir Cedric Hardwicke as Henry Kentley
* Constance Collier as Anita Atwater
* Douglas Dick as Kenneth Lawrence
* Edith Evanson as Mrs. Wilson
* Dick Hogan as David Kentley

## Trivia

* Alfred Hitchcock's first color film.
* The film was banned in some American cities because of the implied homosexuality of Phillip and Brandon.
* James Stewart was paid $300,000, a huge portion of the movie's $1.5 million budget.
* Alfred Hitchcock would later dismiss his experiment with ten-minute takes as being just a stunt.
* Since the filming takes were so long, everybody on the set tried their best to avoid any mistakes. At one point in the movie, the camera dolly ran over and broke a cameraman's foot, but to keep filming, he was gagged and dragged off.