Rope

Intellectual arrogance meets cold-blooded violence in Hitchcock’s virtuoso adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s play.

  • Director

    Alfred Hitchcock

  • With

    James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Cedric Hardwicke, Joan Chandler

  • USA 1948. 80min

  • Digital

  • Certificate

    PG

After strangling their classmate for kicks and inviting his family to dine in a room containing his corpse, two young men intellectualise their depravity over cocktails. The theatrical roots of Hitchcock’s chilling chamber piece – from Patrick Hamilton’s play – are brilliantly restricted to a claustrophobic single location. The (appropriately fake) illusion of a continuous long take, suggestive of ‘real’ time, amps up the tension as the drama unfolds.

Ruby McGuigan

The screening of Rope on Wednesday 1 May in NFT2 will be introduced by Bryony Dixon, BFI National Archive Curator.