RIP: Arthur Laurents, July 14, 1917 - May 5, 2011.
ROPE is another one of the Hitchcock movies that had been pulled from distribution along with REAR WINDOW, so I knew the legend of the film long before ever seeing it. After seeing the film on the big screen, it kind of slipped through the cracks for me - I didn’t own it on DVD until I decided to write this series. So, it was almost like seeing the movie for the first time - and it’s an amazing experiment that actually works.
Nutshell: Based on the Leopold & Loeb thrill kill (actually on a stage play by Patrick Hamilton based on that case) the story has two clever intellectual Gay college students, Philip (Farley Granger) and Brandon (John Dall) strangle their friend David with a piece of rope just to see what it would be like to kill someone, then stuff his body in a trunk they will use as a table... Because they have a dinner party at their apartment in a few minutes in honor of dead David - and they have invited his mother and father (Cedrick Hardwicke - the mother is home with a cold and phones throughout the film) and family friend Mrs. Atwater (Constance Collier), his fiancé Janet (Joan Chandler) and just for fun - the fiancé’s ex-boyfriend Kenneth (Douglas Dick). Oh, and their intellectual college professor Rupert Cadell (Jimmy Stewart) who they believe might be the only one who might figure out what they’ve done... and maybe even approve.
Once the party gets into full swing, everyone wonders where the guest of honor is - they try calling him, but this is a pre-cell phone and pre-answering machine world where sometimes you just can’t reach people. Eventually, the mother and father become worried. Throughout all of this, Brandon keeps supplying hints of what they have done, while Philip tries to change the subject or shut him up. Oh, and dinner is served on the trunk where the body is hidden! By the end of the party, everyone is very concerned about the victim, and they all leave... except for Professor Cadell who returns, confronts the two killers, and when they discover that he doesn’t approve of their little experiment in murder - they decide to use Cadell as the subject of a new experiment.
Experiment: Speaking of experiments... ROPE features an amazing experiment... that works. In REAR WINDOW Hitchcock experimented with the Kuleshov Effect - where audiences believe they have seen things that are *not* on the film through editing - the juxtaposition of images. Telling a story on film is all about the juxtaposition of images, and the ability to cut together different pieces of film to tell a story. Suspense relies on editing - whether you are cross-cutting between two trains on the same track hurtling towards each other or cutting between Vera Clouzot in DIABOLIQUE walking down that dark hallway towards the sound of her dead husband’s typewriter typing... and her POV as she gets closer and closer to her dead husband’s office. Without editing there is no suspense... or is there?
Hitchcock decided to try to create suspense through angle and image and movement *without any edits*. ROPE is shot in long, continuous takes. An entire reel of film is a single shot... and when they change reels, one of the characters passes in front of the camera at the end of one reel and the beginning of the next creating a “human wipe” so that it seems as if the shot continues without any edit at all. There *are* two times when there is no “human wipe” and we get a cut for effect - both times to Jimmy Stewart’s face as he begins to figure out what has happened. But it’s amazing to see how Hitchcock takes his best tool for creating suspense, throws it away, and finds new tools that work just as well. This is a major challenge that few filmmakers could pull off.
Logistically, shooting the film was a nightmare. The constantly moving camera required walls and furniture that could glide out of the way without a sound. Behind the camera there’s a huge crew moving things back and forth. Hitchcock told the story of one ruined take where after a particularly tricky camera move, a grip was left standing on the set in the middle of the scene! In addition to this, the story takes place in a penthouse apartment with a huge picture window overlooking New York. New York not only had to be created in miniature outside the window, but as the night goes on, the sun needs to slowly set and clouds need to roll past. Not only was there a huge crew moving things around behind the camera, there was a crew moving *clouds* around in front of the camera... more things to go wrong and ruin a take! And they did - a couple of days of filming were thrown out because the sunset was wrong.
But here’s where the experiment works brilliantly - because Hitchcock removed the tool of editing, he had to find other methods to generate suspense... and he did. One of the reasons why furnishings had to be removed silently in the middle of a shot is because Hitch uses camera movement, the angles, the composition of shots, panning and tilting the camera, and combinations of all of these to create suspense. Instead of cutting to a shot, the camera moves from one shot to another, and *more* emphasis is placed on the emotional effects on the audience of the movement, angle and composition. Each of these massive takes had to be precise to the centimeter in order to get the perfect shot within the take... and do this again and again and again. Imagine all of the carefully planned shots in a sequence, now have all of those shots be part on one long continuous take! It’s no wonder that they had to do each take again and again until all of the pieces came together!
Hitch Appearance: An hour into the film, there's a lighted red billboard for "Reduco" weight loss products featuring Hitchcock - this is the same product he seems to be endorsing in the newspaper advert in LIFEBOAT.
Great Scenes: Scenes? How can you have scenes in a script that takes place at a single location and is basically one long take? Well, scenes are a dramatic unit, and have nothing to do with the number of locations or shots or anything else. Though ROPE all takes place in the apartment, the story is divided into things that happen in that apartment - scenes.
The film opens with an overhead shot of the street below - a normal afternoon, kids playing, a mother pushing a stroller... then tilts up and pans to a penthouse window... in time for us to hear a scream. Inside Brandon and Philip are strangling David. When they’re sure that he is dead, they dump him in the trunk and then Brandon has a post-murder cigarette as they discuss how they feel.
The next scene goes to the dining room, where Brandon tries to pop the cork on a bottle of champagne... but can’t. Philip has to pop it (just as he had to actually strangle David) and admits that Brandon frightens him sometimes. They toast David... and talk about David. They discuss the party they are throwing for the dead guest of honor - Philip thinks it’s a bad idea, Brandon thinks it’s brilliant.
There’s some great subtle character work in having Brandon unable to pop the champagne cork and earlier unable to strangle David - we get to see that Philip is the character who can actually do things, while Brandon just thinks of things to do. Brandon believes he is the dominant one in the relationship, but he would be nowhere without Philip. Brandon is all talk... he has no occupation in the story, but Philip is a concert pianist. The relationship between the characters is shown by who can pop the champagne cork.
The next scene: Brandon decides to serve dinner off the trunk Dead David is in, and they move the plates and table cloth and candles from dining room to living room.
When their maid Mrs. Wilson (Edith Evanson) arrives, they have a discussion with her about serving off the trunk - and that’s a scene. Mrs. Wilson is like a mother to them, and I thought it was interesting how she refers to them as a couple in conversation. Later in the film she tells someone that “They both got up on the wrong side of the bed” today... yes, they are sleeping in the same bed in this 1948 film.
As each guest arrives for the party, there is a scene where the boys talk to them and David is discussed. The guests all come individually (except David’s Father and Mrs. Atwater) so each of these scenes is an individual conversation. And throughout the film, the story is broken up into scenes where certain things happen or are discussed or pairs of characters end up in a corner of the room having a couple of pages of private conversation. Janet pulls Brandon aside early on, wondering why he invited her ex-boyfriend Kenneth, who was also a friend of David’s before the engagement - awkward! That’s a scene. Later Kenneth and Janet have a conversation about David and about *their* past relationship, where they become friends again. That’s a scene.
Even though it is all one long take in one location, the story is still a collection of individual scenes. Scenes have nothing to do with sluglines... one scene may have a number of sluglines if it involves a single conversation or event that travels from one place to another... or one slugline may cover all of the scenes in a movie. I don’t have the script to ROPE but what I would have done in this case is use mini-slugs to break out each scene, or maybe even use sluglines for parts of the apartment in order to make it easier to discuss (and number for production). Each scene is a building block, building story and tension. But how do you build tension without the tool of editing?
Poking The Tiger:
Tension is a caged tiger looking for a way out... angry and ready to attack. To keep the tension alive you have to keep poking at that tiger to keep him angry. Last thing you want is a sleeping tiger... and a sleeping audience.
The tension (and suspense) in ROPE comes from that dead dinner guest in the trunk. Will the body be discovered? Somewhere early in his career, Hitchcock realized that suspense can work for both hero and villain. In SABOTAGE there are scenes where suspense is generated by our fear that Verlock, the villain, will be discovered by the police... Wait! Don’t we *want* the villain to be discovered by the police? Whether it’s because our brains are hard-wired to only want the *Hero* to discover and vanquish the Villain (rather than some random policeman) or when the Hero is not on screen we’re in the Villain’s skin or some fiendish desire to see the Villain suffer as he is almost caught; suspense can be built around the Villain’s problems as well as the Hero’s. In STRANGERS ON A TRAIN we worry that Bruno won’t be able to retrieve the cigarette lighter and won’t be able to frame Guy... even though Bruno is the villain! Most of the suspense in ROPE comes from our fear that someone will discover the dead body in the trunk.
We don’t want the audience to forget that body is in there - that will remove the suspense and tension - so we need to constantly remind the audience that Dead David is in that trunk, and constantly have him *almost* being discovered. We need to keep poking that caged tiger with pointed sticks to keep it growling! So let’s take a look at the way they keep poking that tiger to create tension and suspense.
Thought the main reason why the body is in the trunk during the party is that Brandon is playing a game against Cadell - and believes all of the other guests are complete idiots who will never figure it out, the other reason is that they have killed David in broad daylight and must wait until nightfall to get the body out of the apartment and into the trunk of their car. So the dead guy in the trunk makes sense - it’s not some artificial thing to create suspense. But the story is designed to create the most “pokes” possible with that pointed stick.
The party itself is a “poke” - Brandon’s idea of being more clever than anyone else, and part of the thrill in the thrill kill. But all of those people will be wondering where David is, and any of them may poke around and open that trunk and find the body.
Using the trunk as the buffet table is a poke. It makes the trunk into the center of the party - where everyone will congregate.
After Brandon and Philip have set out the plates on the trunk, Philip notices the murder rope hanging out from under the trunk lid. Brandon yanks out the rope (we can only imagine what this is doing to Dead David’s neck inside the trunk).
Brandon doesn’t hide the murder rope, he has it in his hands when their Maid arrives... and to add to this poke, he discusses putting the rope in the kitchen drawer with the Maid.
As each of the guests arrive, they ask about David - a poke - and Brandon keeps wondering aloud where David might be throughout the film.
When Kenneth asks, “Is David going to be here?” Brandon answers, “Of course” and glances at the trunk.
Before Cadell arrives, Brandon mentions to the others Cadell’s belief that murder may be a crime for most men, but it is a privilege for the few intelligent enough to get away with it... in a way, Brandon is a walking, talking, poke - because part of his little game is to see how many clues he can drop in front of the guests without them ever figuring it out. He gets his thrills by skating close to the edge again and again. Just as we don’t want a passive protagonist, we also don’t want a passive antagonist - and since the murder takes place in the first minute of the movie, the antagonist must do *something* to keep the conflict active. Brandon needs to prove he is superior to the guests by poking them with clues to what he and Philip have done again and again. Every time he drops some clue and they don’t even catch on that it’s a clue, his ego is stroked. He’s a genius, and all of the party guests are idiots. And is Cadell doesn’t catch on? Well, he’s more intelligent than his idol!
When David’s father and Mrs. Atwater arrive, she thinks Kenneth is David and yells, “David!” - which causes Philip to freak out and break a champagne glass in his hand... and one poke creates another as Philip must explain what happened to his hand in a way that doesn’t make anyone suspicious. Where Brandon keeps trying to see how far he can push things, Philip wants to cover it all up and make sure no one even *thinks* about the trunk. The dynamic between the two characters also creates a series of pokes, as Philip keeps trying to shut Brandon up - but can’t just come out and say why because there are party guests around them.
Mrs. Atwater reads Philip’s palm... and says his hands will bring him great fame. Calling attention to the very hands Philip used to strangle David with. Poke.
Throughout the party, again and again, people wonder where David is. It’s so unlike him to be late. Each of these is a poke.
When Cadell arrives - he’s let in off screen so he just seems to appear - Brandon gets a little nervous. When *Cadell* starts asking Brandon where David is, Brandon gets *really* nervous, and we can see Cadell noticing this. Poke.
Everyone wonders why they are serving dinner off the trunk, which requires them to come up with a reason - they have some first edition books for David’s father to look at, and thought it would be easier for him to examine them on the dining room table. But it also gets the guests examining the trunk and asking about it. It’s an antique, and (as Philip tries not to completely freak out) the guests lift the table cloth to look at the trunk. Poke.
Hey, and this brings up a story Brandon read in college... which David’s father has also read, and shares with the group. About a Bride who hides in a trunk, gets accidentally locked inside, and dies on her wedding day... discovered 50 years later when someone opens the trunk. This is a great poke, because it makes everyone want to open the trunk to make sure no one is inside!
Dinner is chicken, and Philip says he doesn’t eat chicken, which makes everyone ask why... and Brandon jumps in with the story about how, once when the couple was vacationing at Philip’s mother’s farm, Philip was *strangling* chickens - killing them for dinner - when one strangled chicken was not quite dead yet, got up and ran away, startling Philip. As Brandon tells the story, focusing on Philip’s strangling abilities, Philip freaks out and yells for him to stop. “I never strangled a chicken in my life!” Hey, if the whole chicken strangling story wasn’t enough of a poke, Philip’s reaction was. Now everyone is wondering why Philip is so freaked out over killing chickens for dinner on his mother’s farm. Isn’t that a fairly normal thing on a farm?
Brandon brings up Professor’s Cadell’s views on murder, and Cadell does a funny bit about how the frustrations of everyday life could all be solved by the simple art of murder - people talking in the theatre during the performance - quieted, the fellow on the red velvet rope in front of the trendy night spot who might not let you in - removed. There should be certain days where murder is permitted, just so that we could solve some of these problems. Cadell goes through a list of clever “Murder Holidays” ending on... “Strangulation Day”. Poke.
Cadell has Mrs. Atwater laughing, but Brandon takes it all very seriously and makes a little speech on how the superior should be able to kill the inferior... which prompts David’s Father to ask who decides who the superior are? Who the inferior are? And Brandon says that he and Philip are superior... and maybe Professor Cadell.
And this is when Professor Cadell begins noticing things - and wondering if Brandon is behind the reason David is not at the party. He begins asking questions. He asks the Maid why dinner was served off the trunk rather than the dining room table... and Philip watches the exchange from across the room and tries not to freak out. Now Cadell becomes the pointed stick - poking again and again. Getting closer and closer to the truth.
When Philip is playing the piano, Cadell asks him some probing questions... finally asking, “Where’s David?” “I don’t know.” “But Brandon knows.” And asking what is going on, and why Philip became so agitated during the chicken strangling story - Cadell knows that Philip *has* killed chickens for dinner at his mother’s farm, so why the reaction to the story? Philip becomes more and more evasive - and Cadell knows he’s on to something.
Brandon gives David’s Father several of the first edition books, and to make them easy to carry... ties them together with the murder rope. Philip sees the rope and freaks. Major poke.
As Cadell starts to put things together, Philip starts some serious drinking...
And there are phone calls throughout the film to David’s Mother (or from her) wondering about the whereabouts of David. Each one is a poke... and eventually David’s Mother suggests calling the police, which freaks out a drunken Philip.
No Edits, No Moving Camera!
There’s a great suspense scene that is not only all one shot (as is the whole movie) but completely *stationary*. In a film filled with moving camera - the camera stops as the Maid removes the food and plates and candles and table cloth from the trunk in a series of trips back and forth between the trunk and the kitchen - foreground and background. Each trip is part of a “ticking clock” bringing us closer and closer to a trunk that can be easily opened (nothing on the lid). But when she finishes clearing the top of the trunk, she begins bringing the rest of the books from the dining room table to the trunk in a series of trips, before she will open the trunk and put the books inside. Suspense builds and builds and builds until she has all of the books ready to put in the trunk and *starts to open the trunk*. At this point Professor Cadell offers to help her! And that’s when Brandon and Philip swoop down and push the trunk lid closed, telling the Maid she can put the books away tomorrow. But, tomorrow is her day off!
Now Brandon must explain (in front of everyone) why it makes more sense for the Maid to come in on her day off to put the books in the trunk than just do it now, while she has the books in her hand and the trunk in front of her.
Though this is a great poke, Brandon manages to come up with a reason that makes enough sense that all of the guests except Cadell believe it, and the audience can understand why how it could be believed. You don’t think the guests are all idiots, instead you think Brandon is so clever he just may get away with murder. You never want to have a character succeed by the stupidity of everyone else, you want them to succeed because they are amazingly intelligent and clever. Heroes who catch dumb villains are dumb heroes. And the party comes to an end, without David ever showing up. Brandon sees everyone to the door as Philip continues drinking... and even though Cadell has suspicions, he leaves as well. The couple has gotten away with murder! Now that it’s dark, they can move the body from the old trunk to the car trunk and bury David at Philip’s mother’s farm in Connecticut. But then the doorbell rings, and Act 3 begins...
The Chess Match:
Jimmy Stewart’s character Professor Cadell is a predecessor of Columbo - he’s sly and clever and puts things together. There’s a great completely visual bit in the film where Cadell goes from talking to Philip about strangling chickens on his mother’s farm, to the books bound with the rope murder weapon, to Philip’s expression... and figures it all out.
Just like Columbo turning around and saying, “Just one more thing...” Cadell is at the door, claiming that he forgot his cigarette case. Can he come in and look for it? Philip is sure Cadell has figured it all out. Before Brandon lets him in, he grabs a gun and hides it in his coat pocket. Now we have a great game of cat and mouse (but who is the cat and who is the mouse) between Brandon and Cadell while Philip looks on in horror between drinks. Both tigers get to poke each other for a while... and the gun in Brandon’s pocket becomes a great suspense “focus object” - when Cadell gets in a particularly good poke, Brandon puts his hand in his pocket. Will he draw the gun and kill Cadell?
As the “chess match” goes on, Brandon *insists* that Cadell look in the trunk...
And this is where I always get the development note that asks if Brandon is an idiot - why would he *want* Cadell to look in the trunk? In just about every script I’ve had filmed which has a suspense scene like this, and a bunch of scripts that went through development and never got made, they always think the killer would have to be stupid to let the cops look in the trunk (or some variation of this scenario). But what are the alternatives? “Get a warrant!” just screams that you have something to hide... and you don’t want the police to *suspect* you. You want to act *innocent* rather than guilty. If you *insist* they search the house, the police will figure you don’t have anything hidden in there. If you *refuse* to let them search the house, they know you have something to hide. So the clever suspect has to “poke themselves” and *insist* that the police search their house - open the door wide (when the evidence that will convict them is in the next room) and invite the police in. They must act innocent, even though they are guilty. They must act as if they have nothing to hide, even though there’s a dead body just a few inches away. To the non-clever development people, that seems stupid - but it’s really just being a couple of moves ahead of the opponent. Ah, if there was only a “murder holiday” for dumb development folks! Eventually we would have a world where only the *superior* development folks have survived and all script notes would be great script notes...
Eventually in ROPE’s act 3, as Cadell exposes the couple as killers, he realizes he is stuck in a room... in a single shot... with two killers, one who has a gun. He goes from hero to potential victim... and now must find a way out.
Farley Granger:
I want to call attention to Farley Granger’s acting in this film. He plays the lead in Hitchcock’s STRANGERS ON A TRAIN as well, but here he gives an amazing performance as a man imploding from the weight of guilt and fear. Watch him in the background of shots as he crumbles or tries to stay calm while anything that can go wrong does. Granger, who died a month ago, was an underused actor - and this film is a real tour de force for him. While John Dall gets the charming and in-control role, Granger manages to show a complete range of emotions and often in layers - on the surface he’s calm, underneath he’s in an absolute panic, and underneath that he’s angry... and maybe violent. Just like with the champagne cork, though it’s Dall’s character who grabs the gun... it’s Granger’s character who ends up using it. For some reason most people don’t think of Hitchcock as an actor’s director - but some actors have done their best work in Hitchcock films. Suspense films are naturally dramatic, and a good actor can shine in a film like ROPE or PSYCHO.
Sound Track: Poulenc’s “Perpetual Movement #1” - and since the Philip character is an up and coming concert pianist, he is the source of most of the music. Much like REAR WINDOW’s use of music in front of the camera - the composer in that film trying to write a song - in ROPE most of the music comes from Philip playing the piano at the party.
ROPE is not only an interesting experiment, it’s an experiment that works. The single shot and moving camera trap us in the situation - we can never leave the tension by cutting to some other location or even just to some other character. Though removing the tool of editing for suspense, Hitchcock turns the liability into an asset because we can not look away from what he shows us - there is no escape from this shot! There are a few times in the film where the moving camera wobbles a little - I’m sure off camera a huge crew of guys was moving furniture and walls silently, but at the expense of a smooth camera movie.
I have decided to look at these wobbles as the predecessor and maybe inspiration for Paul Greengass’s directing style - or maybe it was done on purpose to give us the feeling of someone walking? I excuse the wobbles because this film was made long before the invention of the SteadyCam, and when movie cameras were huge heavy monstrosities that were difficult to move under the best circumstances.
I think it’s interesting, now that we have lightweight cameras and SteadyCam, that no one has really tried to replicate this experiment. There are films like RUSSIAN ARK that are all one shot, but the shot is bland and basically static (even though it moves) - the angle, movement and composition were not used to tell the story and build emotions as they were in ROPE. We now have the technology... but have we lost the talent?
- Bill
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