The Big Whatsit

It’s been a while since I last dipped into the Alfred Hitchcock boxset, which means I’ve had to wait to sample a film that’s a rare first time viewing. Unforgiveable really, because like Shadow of a Doubt, this entry is straight from the top drawer, an intense character study that clocks in at a mere 80 minutes.

Rope (1948)

The movie opens with a scream, and the sight of David (Dick Hogan) being strangled with a rope. David’s killers bundle his corpse into a chest, and then discuss what they’ve just done. One of them, Brandon (John Dall), is quite pleased with himself, whilst his flatmate, Phillip (Farley Granger), expresses the fear of being caught. Brandon is very much the dominant character. Not only does he think they’ll get away with the crime, he’s also going to rub the dead man’s face in it by inviting a number of guests to a supper party that evening, all of whom have some association with him. Amongst the diners is their former schoolmaster, Rupert Cadell (James Stewart), who made a big impression on them by passing on the ‘Superman’ theories of Nietzsche. Believing himself to be superior to ordinary people by virtue of his intellect, Brandon reckons Rupert will appreciate their motives. Phillip has gone along with this up until the murder itself, but from then on he’s a mess, drinking heavily and dropping desperate hints to the suspicious Rupert. It’s clear they’ll get caught out eventually, but when? By whom?

Rope started life as a stage play, based on the 1942 real life murder case involving rich postgraduates, Lieb and Leopold. The theatrical root of the movie is copied quite faithfully. Though screenwriter Patrick Hamilton had some trouble adapting the text from its British source, little of this is apparent when the action moves to New York. It is, however, quite obviously written for the stage. Everything takes place in Brandon and Phillip’s flat and was filmed in long single takes, a staggering technical achievement that was only broken up due to the length of physical film available at the time. Because of this, cuts took place when the camera zoomed into a character’s back, only to pan out and resume quite fluidly once a fresh reel of film was installed.

Unusually for any film, its most dramatic moment - the murder - takes place at the very start. The plot thus develops into a suspenseful yarn about the killers waiting to be caught, and wait they do. Though anyone in their right mind would get as far away from the scene of the crime as possible, the young men lounge in their flat, and then have people over, eating off the very chest that has become a coffin for the slain David. Casually, the group talk about the missing fellow, Brandon at one point having the gall to expand on the theories as taught by Rupert. Only a few physical mannerisms betray the killers’ fraught states of mind. On the outside, Brandon seems all the more composed, but hints develop that he isn’t all that cool a customer, such as in his shaky hand movements as he lights a candle. Phillip is all but out of his mind, a coiled ball of tension as every comment passed his way is transformed into an implication of his crime.

As always in Hitchcock flicks, there are some moments of real suspense, such as the scene where the maid is clearing away the supper from the chest, and then prepares to put some books away in it. As she methodically prepares to open it, we hear the other characters talk off screen, until at the very last minute Brandon intervenes, stopping anyone from seeing what’s inside. Generally though, this is a drama driven by its characters, particularly in the unravelling Phillip, and Rupert’s assiduous studying of the pair. The latter realises something isn’t right almost from the start, and steadily has his mild concerns mushroom into genuine suspicion as Phillip gets edgier, and Brandon talks himself into a corner. The other characters all play their parts. Joan Chandler takes the part of Janet Walker, who has previously abandoned one of the other guests for David, and believes Brandon is playing a cruel trick on her by bringing her together with an ‘ex,’ whilst her current boyfriend is nowhere to be found. On especially good form is Constance Collier as the Bracknellish Mrs Atwater, who at one point extols the virtue of a Cary Grant-Ingrid Bergman movie she’s seen recently, ‘The Something of Something, or just Something,’ a delicious reference to Hitch’s own Notorious.

Rope is acted beautifully. Whilst Granger gets to lose his mind visibly, it’s Dall who puts in an underrated performance as Brandon, showing few signs that anything is wrong, but expressing the occasional quirk that reveals internally he’s just as damaged as his flatmate. Even better is Stewart, who plays the moral high ground, but expresses clear guilt at the fact it’s his teachings that have led to this moment. As Rupert digs closer to the truth, Stewart depicts him as an increasing bag of nerves, eyes rolling at the knowledge of what he’s going to discover in the chest.

A little picture, and by all accounts practically disowned by Hitchcock himself, Rope is nevertheless good value, a minor exercise in escalating suspense, and far more satisfying than many better known works. In depicting Brandon and Phillip as an openly gay couple living together (this is never expressed, but it’s obvious), it was certainly ahead of its time. On the DVD, Rope’s trailer opens with David talking to Janet in a park. The couple chat excitedly about their plans, and how they look forward to seeing each other at Brandon’s party that evening. It’s an eerily ghoulish scene, topped off with Stewart claiming ‘That’s the last time Janet would ever see David alive, and it’s the last time you’ll ever see him alive.’ Simply superb.