'It Begins With a Shriek... It Ends With a Shot!'
Based on the 1929 play by Patrick Hamilton, Alfred Hitchcock's Rope was originally adapted for the screen by Hume Cronyn with a screenplay by Arthur Laurents. The story focuses on Brandon (John Dall) and Philip, (Farley Granger) two brilliant young aesthetes who strangle to death David Kentley, their former classmate from prep school.
The murder takes place in their Manhattan penthouse apartment, just hours before the pair host a dinner party. One of the guests is their prep-school housemaster, publisher Rupert Cadwell. (James Stewart) who helped plant the idea.
Rupert had previously discussed with them, in an apparently approving way, the intellectual concepts of Nietzsche's Superman, as a means of showing one's superiority over others. For Brandon and Philip, the murder is part of an intellectual exercise, a perfect murder as a way to prove their superiority
Rope (1957)
Visual Interpretation by
Tom Nakielski, Lights On Studio
'I've always wished for more artistic talent. Well, murder can be an art, too. The power to kill can be just as satisfying as the power to create.'
Brandon, Rope
Rope is completely infused with homosexual subtexts. After he had come out as gay later in life, the films screenplay writer, Arthur Laurents, shares on the films DVD commentary that to him, it was obvious that Brandon and Philip were gay.
In addition to the murder weapon, rope is also a metaphor for how emotionally twisted the characters become after the murder. This is especially true for Philip who cannot hide his nervousness, fear and guilt. In real life, John Dall was also gay but died in 1971 without talking openly about his sexuality. Farley Granger was supposedly bisexual when the movie was made, but was in a lifelong gay relationship starting in 1963.
Alfred Hitchcock was well aware of the sexual orientations of both actors and was reportedly pleased with what is now called the on-screen “chemistry” between the two. Hitchcock avoided obvious gay stereotypes in his portrayals of Brandon and Philip. Also, he could have easily incorporated indications that they were straight. Other directors regularly “straightened out” characters that were gay in the source material. He chose neither option for Brandon and Philip, keeping their homosexual relationship as just another, rather minor, aspect of their twisted personalities.
Badman & Russell, Mensa
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