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Rope (Warner Brothers: 1948) |
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Directed By:
Alfred Hitchcock
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Written By:
Arthur Laurents, Hume Cronyn (Adaptation)
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Based On:
Rope's End, a play by Patrick Hamilton
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Starring:
James Stewart, John Dall, Farler Granger
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Profanity: None |
Violence: Mild-to-Moderate |
Sex/Nudity: None
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Review:
Many people refer to this film as Hitchcock's "failed experiment." Even Hitchcock himself was reportedly unhappy with the final cut of the movie. The famed director had taken a daring move by attempting to film an entire movie to look like one long, continuous shot, with the intent of presenting the movie as if it was a stage play. Because the cameras of the time were unable to hold more than a ten-minute length of film, the movie had to be cleverly cut in a half-dozen spots; but this process usually involved zooming in and out of a character's back, resulting in a number of extremely blatant, ugly cuts that facilitated the movie's "failed experiment" status. Yet, despite the problematic directorial style of the picture, the movie does have a good script and a very interesting cast of characters. The story involves two young men who murder a peer just to see if they can pull it off. Their actions are inspired by a philosophical professor who speaks of murder as if it was an art form. The two killers hope that their cleverness will win the favor of the intelligent professor, whom they invite to a high-class party that they are planning to hold in their home. As the two young men test their ability to conceal their guilt from all of their party guests, they soon find that the professor is not as sympathetic as they would like him to be. Although Rope is often considered to be one of Hitchcock’s lesser films, I found it to be an extremely interesting movie, thanks largely to the incredible cast, with the amazing talent of James Stewart at the forefront.
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Score:
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