Rope (1948)

My Review

“Rope” is a suspense-filled story about a man at a dinner party who suspects that two people have murdered a mutual friend. Producer-director Alfred Hitchcock instills the movie with his usual drama and suspense, this one filmed in one location, the living room of a New York City apartment, and filmed in “real time.” (This is similar to Hitch’s “Lifeboat” of 1944.) The marvelous screenplay by Arthur Laurents and Hume Cronyn was adapted from the 1929 play of the same name by Patrick Hamilton.

The cast is headed by James Stewart, in this first of four films he made with Hitchcock. Some critics at the time considered Stewart miscast as the suspicious college professor, but we feel Stewart handled the role in his usual professional manner. Co-stars include Farley Granger, John Dall, Joan Chandler, Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier, Douglas Dick, Edith Evanson, and Dick Hogan. “Rope,” the first of Hitchcock’s movies filmed in Technicolor, was a success at the box office for Transatlantic Pictures and Warner Bros. Pictures.