Rope (1948)

I just watched this so here's a review.

Rope is an interesting film to say the least. It stars James Stewart and some other people who are less important. The movie is quite odd in that it's just one scene long. The entire movie is shot in real-time and the camera never cuts away or changes or anything. The film gives the impresion that it's just one long take. This isn't exactly true as reels only held ten minutes of film back then, but you'd never know that watching this.

Of course, even with such an innovative use of pacing, a film with a bad plot can't be saved by uniqueness alone. This film has a great plot. It basically starts with a murder, a "perfect" murder, where the body is hidden in the house and then the victim's family and others are invited for a dinner party at that very house. The victim doesn't show up and people get worried. While a movie in real-time could theoretically get slow at times, this does not. The tension builds nicely as the movie progresses and people get more and more worried about the victim's absence and come closer and closer to accidentally finding him.

As for the acting, this has James Stewart. As is typical, he is great here. Stewart is not the murderer but he is still a rather important character in this film. Stewart plays his part perfectly. There are actually two murderers and both actors do a great job. One is very confident while the other is nervous and drunk. Their acting doesn't feel forced, but rather very natural. The other characters are mostly minor but do a good enough job.

This film addresses some of the philosophy of Nietzsche and his idea of a superman. I suppose that makes this a better film since it has some substance to it.

Overall, this is pretty good. The acting, plot, and philosophy are all good. This isn't the greatest movie ever, but it's still quite good. The uniqueness of it is kind of cool and that deserves a couple of bonus points just for that. This isn't Hitchcock's best film (although that's hardly an insult - he has so many great films) but it's better than his average film.

87/100
B+

UP NEXT: Who knows. If it isn't before Monday it'll probably be The Birth of a Nation but if it's before Monday it'll probably be Rear Window.

I also know this one. I agree with your voting on this one. It's awefully entertaining and as you wrote catbox, the plot and philosophy behind it, are quite unique.
Two thumbs up for this one.

I just watched this.

When I first read what this movie was about I didn't know if I'd like it. Catbox does a nice review, so I won't bore anyone with the same thing. It turned out to be a great plot and, as usual, great acting by Jimmy Stewart.

2 things I'd like to add: Great monologue by Jimmy Stewart at the end Bonus points for that. Also, was it meant to imply that the two murderers were lovers?

92/100

They were indeed lovers. Obviously you couldn't show gay people in 1948 so they had to imply it. It's based on the real-life story of murderers Leopold and Leob (then again, the writer denies this).

You can read about those two here