Film Screening & Discussion - "Rope"

With nerve wracking tension and superb technical achievement, Rope delivers an audacious crime thriller inspired by true events.

Get ready for a screening and discussion in the Scott Room of Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 psychological crime thriller Rope. Starring James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, and Edith Evanson, Rope was based on a 1929 play of the same name by English playwright Patrick Hamilton inspired by the infamous murder of Bobby Frank by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.

Two brilliant and ambitious young students Brandon Shaw (Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Granger) strangle to death their former classmate David Kentley as a thrill seeking intellectual exercise to see if they can commit the "perfect murder." Brandon and Phillip hide David's body in a large antique wooden chest and host a dinner party in their Manhattan apartment, inviting some of David's family and friends. Also invited is Rupert Cadell (Stewart), their prep-school housemaster who had spoken approvingly of the concept of Nietzsche's Superman and how conventional morality need not apply to superior beings. As the diner progresses, Phillip becomes increasingly agitated and Rupert increasingly suspicious of his former students as the conversation turns to the whereabouts of David.

Rope is notable as Hitchcock's first film in Technicolor and for its innovative and skillful use of long takes to give the illusion of just one continuous scene. The entirety of the film takes place in the Manhattan apartment. Though a commercial disappointment at the box office in 1948, Rope has since been hailed as an underrated and bold thriller within Hitchcock's work.

Please note, Rope is rated PG. While psychologically nerve wracking throughout, the only actually violent scene is the on-screen murder at the beginning.

This film is part of our celebration of Pride Month, showcasing queer stories and the LGBT actors and screenwriters, historical and contemporary, who contributed to American cinema.