Capsule Review: Rope (1948)

While mostly regarded as a technical exercise – Alfred Hitchcock shot the film in long takes, with edits covered to make it appear to be one long take – Rope still holds some thrills with its tale of casual murder by two upper class (possibly) homosexual intellectuals. It’s necessarily theatrical, but fascinating nonetheless with Jimmy Stewart giving a terrific performance as the boy’s suspicious professor. Based loosely on the real life Leopold and Loeb murders, Rope doesn’t really rank with Hitch’s best, but it has enough moments of genuine suspense to make a viewing worthwhile beyond witnessing a unique film experiment.