Rope

This is a great horror movie.



Alfred Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, Farley Granger and John Dall.



This was originally a play entitled "Rope's End" which many people believe was based on the famous "Leopold and Loeb" Murders. The original play and Rope, were also believed to be the inspiration for the more recent "Murder by Numbers".



Hitchcock loved the idea of the play so much, that he endeavored to give the film a play-like feel. He accomplished this by running each shot continuously for up to 10 minutes. It was shot on a single set, aside from the opening shot. There are only 10 shots in the whole film.



Camera moves had to be planned in advance, and there was almost no editing. There were rollers on the set so the cameras could move silently. All of the shots from person to person are in real time. (And you thought "Atonement" was the first movie to have a long shot)

Putting all of the cool technical issues aside, this movie is great. The story is scary. The acting is phenomenal. Granger and Dall are disturbing. And the psychology is frightening.




Hitchcock uses a great tool in this film. During the flashback scene, he doesn't actually flashback. All he does is have the camera slowly walk through the scene, while leaving your imagination to fill in the blanks. And it does.


Go watch the movie.