How Hitchcock's 'Rope' Inspires Low-Budget Filmmakers.

Seinfeld meets American Psycho in Hitchcock’s 1948 dinner party thriller.

Last week, while scrolling through lists of one-location films, I came across Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film, Rope. Adapted from a play, it's about a wealthy couple who murders their college friend right before throwing a dinner party for the victim’s friends and family. It sounded dark, bizarre, and somewhat like Karyn Kusama’s The Invitation, so I gave it a whirl.

Behind The Scenes

The reason this film is relevant to us low budget filmmakers is that, besides one shot of a New York City street, the film takes place entirely in one room in the couples’ apartment. Rope also has a runtime of just 80 minutes, and it’s an incredibly succinct story filled with juicy relationship drama.

Unlike Hitchcock’s typical montage style, he made the movie using ten-minute-long takes. Ten minutes was the length of film the camera could hold at the time. The camera is moving constantly, so the action never feels static for too long, though watching it definitely requires more patience and focus than his other films. In his book The Art of Hitchcock, David Spoto writes that the actors’ blocking, along with the set and camera movements, were all choreographed and meticulously rehearsed before filming. The set was built on a soundstage so the camera could move throughout the set while crew moved the walls and the furniture. Apparently, this filming style pissed off actor James Stewart because he thought it over emphasized the camera over great performances. When it came out, critics and audience members thought the long takes were taxing on the viewer and didn’t really work, and a lot of filmmakers still agree.

Beyond location, the story structure offers another source of inspiration for low budget filmmakers. Taking place in real time (more or less) over the course of an evening, the theatrical tone, the eccentric personalities, and the story structure give the film a sitcom-like vibe—almost like someone made a long episode of Seinfeld but replaced Jerry with Patrick Bateman.

Juicy Drama Unfolds  (Spoiler Alert)

Rope begins with Brandon and Philip strangling their friend David just because they can—seemingly because they consider themselves better than he is. After David is definitely deceased, they hide him in a chest. Philip is horrified, but Brandon is thrilled. Their housekeeper arrives in a tizzy because the guests are going to arrive any moment, and she’s not ready. Then, the guests do arrive. They are a former college professor, David’s parents (!), David’s fiancé Janet (!!), and Janet’s ex/David’s bff Kenneth (!!!). It’s an outrageously cold guestlist.

The night takes a left turn when Brandon and the professor tell a story about the time Philip murdered a chicken, which Philip vehemently denies. Conflict escalates over several small breakout scenes: Brandon drops hints about David's absence. The housekeeper rants about Philip and Brandon’s bizarre hosting requests. Philip is upset that Brandon is casually dropping hints left and right about David’s absence. Janet is worried about David, and gets pissed at Brandon for gossiping about her relationship problems. The professor—the man who inspired the intellectual theory that Philip and Brandon put into practice when they murdered David—begins to suspect something happened to David. The guests leave, and the two murderers assume they’ve gotten away with the crime.

My Take

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t blown away after the first watch, and I found the long takes somewhat taxing. Then I read the chapter in David Spoto’s The Art of Hitchcock, and because I was not alive in 1948, it opened my eyes to some useful historical context. Rope was adapted for the screen right around the time that the Nuremberg trials began. Until reading more, the main characters’ obsession with a Nietzschian philosophy sounded like stereotypical college bro bullshit, which was perhaps Hitchcock’s entire point. Brandon, Philip, and the professor’s argument sounds identical to the one Nazis and far right wingers use, either spoken or unspoken, to justify genocide and discrimination—that “murder should be a crime for most men, but a privilege for the few.” Seventy-five years later, this film still feels topical, no thanks to certain lawmakers in Tennessee and Florida, not to mention Roman Roy’s stance on last week’s episode of Succession.

The film never explicitly states that Brandon and Philip are a romantic couple, though it’s obvious to my queer eye within the first three minutes. Their chemistry throughout the film is incredible. And even though their relationship would have been illegal in 1948, they don’t seem to hide it from their dinner guests and housekeeper. It’s possible that I’m applying too much of a modern POV to the film, but I didn’t really sense that Rope was making a homophobic attempt to relate homosexuality with murder until I read this review. Instead, I assumed it was a commentary on the fascism and hypocrisy within our legal system, full of laws that could be summarized like this: “all men are created equal except for those men,” or “murder is bad except when we do it” or “love is good except when they do it.”

Seeking Recommendations!

I’m curious to hear if you agree or disagree with my take on this film, but more than anything I’d love some recommendations on other one-location films. What are your favorites and must-sees? Share them in the comments below!