Friday, July 5, 2013

Rope (1948)

When I started the movie, I was quite surprised to see it was in color.  Guess I'm just used to Hitchcock films being black and white. Then I see that it stars James Stewart and I'm like blleeehhhhh.

The film opens with a man screaming.  It is then revealed that he is being strangled. Wait. Question mark. ???
How can someone scream while being strangled??

The man is David and he was murdered by Brandon, a delightful sociopath and his timid friend/possible lover Phillip.  Brandon states that he felt nothing while killing David, and afterwards felt exhilarated.  I think he wanted Phillip to feel the same way, except like most normal people, Phillip has a conscience.
Wait, did they stick him in a clothes trunk? Isn't his body going to stink up the party the fellows are hosting? Well, let's think about that.  Since he's inside in an air-conditioned apartment in nice weather, it'll take a few days for his body to decompose. It's not like he's outside in the hot sun.  So no, he won't smell for a while.

Unfortunately, some parties have a wet blanket. And here he comes: James Stewart!  Oh, the pauses between his words are so long, I want to sleep through all his little speeches.  He has no inflection in his voice, just monotone drivel.  He's their old professor, Rupert, and is all like blah blah blah Murder is a privilege for the superior beings.  Murder is an art. Hey, let's have strangulation days.  Then, he acts all horrified (act is a subjective term here) when Brandon acts upon the very thing he was preaching all throughout his classes. So he doesn't go by his own words? That would make him a liar.  Rupert might have been a more engaging character if he wasn't played by such a boring actor.  Also, if his words were harder to interpret instead of being so straightforward. I mean, everything he says makes perfect sense. I can't wait till he has to explain himself in front of a jury.  Brandon is going to blame his actions on listening to his professor's teachings and innocently acting upon them.

And the ending? Rupert shoots out the window to alert people to call police?  Why doesn't he call 911 like a normal person?  Oh, I suppose he wants the inferior people below him to call while he calmly sits there with the gun.  I hear gunshots outside all night long, how am I supposed to know the exact location of them? How would the police know so soon?  What a horrible way to end a movie.  I enjoyed watching it though, except for the addition of James Stewart.  And, all of the movie poster pictures I found either have him holding the rope or a gun.  They didn't even bother to put the real stars on the poster! I'm giving this movie a 6/10.

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