Written by Hume Cronyn And Arthur Laurents
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Brandon: "What are you doing?"
Rupert: "It's not what I'm going to do, Brandon. It's what society is going to do. I don't know what that will be but I can guess and I can help. You're going to die, Brandon. Both of you. You are going to die."
Continuing with the Pride Month related blogs and we have this classic from 1948, which might one of the earliest homoerotic thrillers from way back when and all in one setting too. Two rich boys, one murder, a party and the wrong guest invited. Yup, it doesn't get any thrilling than this one.
The rich boys in question being the rather sociopathic Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and his his musically talented but eternally stressed cohort, Philip Morgan (Farley Granger) open the movie by strangling to death their former classmate David Kentley (Dick Hogan). Then they hide his body in a chest and decide to throw a party as Brandon feeling the exhilaration of a kill wanted to push his luck that much further with Philip feeling the exact opposite.
Yes, while both men partook in a murder, the way in which both of them react to said murder was night and day. While Brandon felt nothing but joy and rationalise than any inferior human was worth killing, Philip spent the entire movie being a nervous wreck and making the pair of them look suspicious to all their guests.
Speaking of the guests, they all had their parts to play, especially given why Brandon specifically selected them for the strangest of parties. There was David's father, Henry (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) , his aunt Anita Atwater (Constance Collier), former friend Kenneth Lawrence (Douglas Dick) as well as David's lover, Janet Walker (Joan Chandler), who was an ex of both Kenneth and even Brandon.
Of course while these characters and housekeeper Mrs Wilson (Edith Evanson) were all fantastic characters and unwitting pawns for Brandon's vanity, there was one person he would've been better off not inviting. Even Philip knew it was a bad idea and Brandon ignored him.
The person being of course, former prep school house master Rupert Cadell (James Stewart) whose very presence elevated what was already a fantastic movie. Brandon made the mistake of believing that Rupert's own commentary for acceptable murder would work to his advantage, only for Rupert and an increasingly erratic Philip to be his very downfall.
The movie raises the questions of intellectual superiority with people like Henry actively showing their disdain for Brandon's callous attitude to human life while Rupert was forced to regret his own unintentional part in encouraging both Brandon and Philip's experiment. For men who used rope to end a life, the uncovery of it along with gun shots into the air ended theirs too in a poetic final scene.
- Anita could read palms but didn't detect that Philip had killed her nephew though. Philip also knows how to strangle a chicken.
- The homoeroticism with both Brandon and Philip was off the charts as they largely squabbled like an old married couple. Both John Dall and Farley Granger came out later as well. Dall was gay along with writer Laurents while Granger was bisexual.
- The inspiration for this movie did come from a real life murder than happened in 1924, though it's adapted from a play from 1929.
- Chronology: I'm assuming the year of it's release. The film was set in Manhattan. Both Brandon and Philip never made it to Connecticut.
Rope is an absolute triumph in every sense of the word. One of the most experimental movies from Alfred Hitchcock and totally absorbing from start to finish. The performances from John Dall, Farley Granger and James Stewart are immense to watch. Gripping stuff.
Rating: 9 out of 10
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