2017 Blind Spot Series: Rope

I've often used the Blind Spot Challenge, as laid down by Ryan at The Matinee, to explore genre classics that may not necessarily be well known in the mainstream. This month I'm watching a more traditionally recognized classic.

Why did I pick it? It's a Hitchcock movie. There really needs to be no other reason, but I'll say a little bit more. Since becoming a cinephile, I haven't gone full bore into the legendary director's work, but I've seen a handful of his films. This particular movie has come up in the comments section several times over the last year or so. It was usually a suggestion by one of you wonderful readers as the next step in my Hitchcockian education. Since I'm not quite as hard-headed as Mrs. Dell would have you believe, I listened, and here we are.

The film starts with a scream we hear from outside. Soon enough we find ourselves in the swanky apartment of two rather well-to-do young gentlemen, Brandon (John Dall) and Phillip (Farley Granger). They are in the midst of strangling another man whom we soon find out is David (Dick Hogan). After they are sure the man is dead, they stuff him in a chest that sits in their living room. Phillip immediately gets nervous about what they've done while Brandon is just the opposite. Making Phillip even more nervous is the fact that they will soon be receiving guests for a dinner they are having that evening. Brandon is rather smug about all this. Turns out, the two killed David just to see if they could get away with it. While Phillip is quaking in his boots, Brandon is looking at the evening ahead as a game. Simultaneously upping the ante and ensuring no one will try to open the chest, he decides use it to serve from, putting the food and candles on top. People start arriving and away we go.

Before watching it, I was led to believe this was a murder mystery of the highest order. In other words, I came into it fairly blind. There is a mystery, just not the way I was expecting. I thought I was going to see a dead serious whodunit with a labyrinthine and constantly unfolding plot. Instead, I got a cat-and-mouse where the cat doesn't even know he's playing for much of the film. Or, as the movie itself asks, is he really the cat or the mouse? And it's far from dead serious. This is a dark comedy, something I've not seen from Hitchcock. This is not a complaint, just a note about how I had adjust my expectations within the first ten minutes of the film's runtime.

I know that Hitch is considered the master of suspense, and this film has it in spades because it follows his most famous explanation of the difference between suspense and surprise. He famously said:

We are now having a very innocent little chat. Let's suppose that there is a bomb underneath this table between us. Nothing happens, and then all of a sudden, "Boom!" There is an explosion. The public is surprised, but prior to this surprise, it has seen an absolutely ordinary scene, of no special consequence. Now, let us take a suspense situation. The bomb is underneath the table and the public knows it, probably because they have seen the anarchist place it there. The public is aware the bomb is going to explode at one o'clock and there is a clock in the decor. The public can see that it is a quarter to one. In these conditions, the same innocuous conversation becomes fascinating because the public is participating in the scene. The audience is longing to warn the characters on the screen: "You shouldn't be talking about such trivial matters. There is a bomb beneath you and it is about to explode!"*

This sums up the strength of Rope. Hitchcock gives us the surprise to start the film, but then fills the rest with suspense.We know that David is in the chest. We want to tell everyone at the party about it. The director had made us participants in the game, only we're muted by our position behind the fourth wall.

The suspense is maintained by nothing but dialogue. Here, is where the film earns its stripes as a dark comedy. The catalyst for this is Brandon, effortlessly played as an entitled jackass by John Dall. He makes tons of references to David, both veiled and overt, shares in-jokes with Brandon (that Brandon doesn't think are funny), and perhaps most dastardly, spends much of his time trying to get David's fiancee Janet (Joan Chandler) back together with her ex-boyfriend Kenneth (Douglas Dick). His having a ball doing it. His morbid sense of humor makes us have some rather uneasy chuckles with him. Indeed, he treats the entire situation like a game, or as he also calls it, a work of art.

Brandon's work of art would not be complete without the participation of Rupert (James Stewart), a publisher and former instructor of Brandon's and Phillip's. They admire him a great deal and value his intellectual musings. Those musings gave them the idea to commit this murder. Fooling him and having him leave their home none the wiser despite dropping hints about it all night would be defeating the greatest possible opponent. We instantly want to root for this opponent. Part of that is because Rupert is played by Jimmy Stewart, the ultimate aw shucks, golly gee guy. Interestingly enough, those same good guy qualities are what makes Vertigo so disturbing. The other part of why we root for him so easily goes back to the participation Hitchcock elicits from us. If we could, we would reach through the screen, grab him by the shoulders, and shake him while loudly imploring him to open the damn chest. We can't. We're stuck pulling for him to figure it out.

There was something else I noticed about the film, that I wasn't going to mention. It felt pretty obvious to me, but at the same time I thought I might be reading too much into it. Then, there it was on the film's Wikipedia page. While I'm writing reviews, I often use Wikipedia to double check the names of cast members and/or remind myself of plot points I want to discuss. No, I don't take notes while watching movies and it's an easy way to do so without having someone else's opinion influence mine. Anyhoo, one of the sections on the page is titled "Homosexual subtext." Yup, this film has it. Every Hitchcock movie that I've seen has something to do with some sexual deviancy. I'm not saying homosexuality is a deviancy, but it certainly was seen that way when the film was released in 1948. Of course, nothing direct is ever done or said to let us know what's going on, but Brandon and Phillip certainly feel like a couple. Hitchcock certainly has fun playing around with the notion of two men who could possibly be lovers. He doesn't appear to making any statement about one way or the other, simply floating the idea. I'm not alone in my perception. As it turns out, a number of American towns banned the film upon release for that reason, along with the plot's close resemblance to the real life murder committed by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.

The tension in the film increases as it goes. It helps that we're never quite sure how things will play out. We get absorbed in the game Brandon and (reluctantly) Phillip are playing. As a result, we hang on their words, particularly Brandon's, and are wishing that someone picks up on them. The ending is perfect, though a bit muted by today's standards. Best of all, the movie only runs a scant 80 minutes. When it ends, we don't feel as if we've been rushed along, but taken on a journey at the perfect speed. By the way, on the technical side, the movie shot to appear as if it were a single take in real time and the scenery never shifts from the apartment. This, too, helps us involve ourselves in the proceedings. We feel as though we are in the room with them. Our sense of being there and sharp dialogue with a macabre sense of humor makes Rope a film I thoroughly enjoyed. I just enjoyed it for reasons different than I expected.


*Quote taken from goodreads.com

Check out these other Hitchcock related posts:

Favorite Movie Scenes Blogathon

Thursday Movie Picks: Alfred Hitchcock Movies

Hitchcock (Movie Review)

Psycho (Movie Review)