Rope begins with a murder. Two college friends, Rupert,
played by John Dall, and Brandon, played by Farley Granger, murder a third
friend with a length of rope just to see what it would be like. Then they stuff
the body in a trunk and use the trunk as a buffet table for a party whose
guests include the murder victim’s girl friend, parents, and their old
professor, played by Jimmy Stewart. The tension of the movie comes from the
question: will the body be discovered? Rupert is supremely confident that it
will not, while Brandon is a bundle
of nerves over the possibility that it will be.
Some of the guests wonder, where is the missing young man?
He was supposed to be here. The two murders, obviously based on Leopold and
Loeb, engage is some by play with their old professor about Nietzschian
philosophy, about the roles of super men and sub humans. The fact that this
film was made just a few years after World War II, and the Nazi rule of Europe,
provides this conversation with a certain resonance.
The last half hour of the film is some of the most
suspenseful every put on the screen. How much does Jimmy Steward know? How much
does he suspect? With the two college student murders get away with it? Or will
they be found out and made to pay the price for their crime.
Strangers on a Train
En route from Washington, D.C., champion tennis player
Guy Haines played by Farley Granger meets pushy playboy Bruno Anthony played
Robert Walker. Bruno would very much like to
do away with his spiteful father. Haines would like to marry a Senator’s
daughter, but unfortunately cannot get a divorce from his current wife, a real
piece of work who only wants to stay married to him to torment him. Bruno
proposes a plan. Each will murder the other’s victim, hence neither murder would
be connected to the one wanting to do it.
Though Haines refuses, Bruno is not put
off that easily. Bruno stalks Haines’ wife through a carnival, accosts her, and
then strangles her. When Haines finds out about this, he is naturally
horrified. As someone who would benefit from the death of his wife, he is the
number one suspect. And he feels no little guilt. He certainly wanted his wife
dead and is secretly happy that she is. But he would not do the deed himself.
Haines’ life gets even more complicated when Bruno shows up to insist that
Haines now fulfill his part by murdering his father, a deadly cat and mouse
game ensues.
There are some great set pieces in the
film. They include the murder sequence, seen as a reflection in the victim’s
fallen glasses. And there is the tennis match, when Haines must finish by a
certain time if he is to survive the deadly game he finds himself in.