ROPE - Alfred Hitchcock - (1948)

 It's the first of June, it's already hot as Hell, and..........it feels like something is tightening around my throat!

 Tonight's classic thriller falls squarely into the department of "It's all been said before, it's just my time to say it!" But, if you just happen to be that one person who doesn't know about tonight's feature, but now you do, then my job is done!  

 I saw "Rope" as a student of film back in the mid seventies! My teacher couldn't stop babbling on about how the movie was shot in just one shot, and what a tremendous achievement that was, and you know what, he was absolutely correct! The only time they do a fade to another shot is when they had to change out the roll of film! It's really quite amazing!

 Why is this guy getting killed? It really doesn't matter because "Rope" isn't about something that happened, it's about lies and deceit!

Far ahead of the curve, "Rope" depicts a gay couple way back in 1948! It was also Alfred Hitchcock's first colour film! Many of the movies he made after this were still in black and white!

"Rope" is a stage play that goes against the grain of Alfred's total film philosophy that movies should be a montage! The small cast includes Edith (The Soul Of A Monster) Evanson as Mrs. Wilson, the maid!

The less than happy couple are John (Gun Crazy) Dall, and Farley (Strangers On A Train) Granger!

The guys murder their friend basically just to prove they can do it, leave his body in a chest in the living room, and then entertain their friends, and the victim's girlfriend, her ex, and the victim's family for dinner! Pretty sick! The girlfriend and her ex are Joan (Dragstrip Riot) Chandler, and Douglas (Waterfront) Dick!

Bernie Sanders, I mean Sir Cedric (Uncle Simon in the Twilight Zone episode "Uncle Simon Polk") Hardwicke as the victim's Father, and his sister Constance (Perils of Pauline) Collier show up for the party!

And so does the ever popular Jimmy Stewart, as Rupert, one of the guy's ex-professors!

They could have gotten away with it if they hadn't invited Rupert to the party, but they had to push it to the edge, and now, they have to pay!

The trunk containing the body is the centerpiece of the party, it's just that the guests don't know it!

No, it's not Jello Biafra's hat! It's the hat of the dead man handed to Rupert by mistake, and now it's time for all the lies to become truth!

Alfred Hitchcock's cameo is very difficult to find in "Rope!" Look out the window, and you'll barely be able to make out Alfred's classic silhouette as a flashing red neon light off in the distance!

If you'd like to know about each and every one of Alfred's cameos, there's an awesome site called The Hitchcock Zone that showcases them all with very cool screen caps!

So Rupert comes back and confronts the boys with the truth, and it doesn't take much imagination to figure out where it goes from there!
No shit, if you're looking for a bargain, I bought a 37 DVD Box set of Alfred Hitchcock films for 65 bucks from China on Ebay, and the quality has been quite good so far! It comes with Chinese sub-titles, but you can turn them off, and I can't even imagine what they think about it, but I'm pretty sure, in the next 50 years, we'll find out!