It is impossible not to admire anything Alfred Hitchcock did, and if you are a fan of Jimmy Stewart as well, "Rope" would seem to be a must-see. Unfortunately, the film is a flawed effort, worth taking the time to view if only to marvel at the camera angles Hitchcock used and the brilliance of the color cinematography -- this was Hitchcock's first use of technicolor.
What redeemed the film for me was the extra feature on the Universal Pictures DVD: "Rope Unleashed." This is worth the price of the DVD all by itself. It is a background documentary on the film, with numerous still photos of the production process. It is nothing less than awesome to see the size of the camera with which Joseph Valentine and his crew worked, and to imagine the effort required to plan and execute scenes that required that camera to move about. The documentary does a great job of describing the way in which Hitchcock pulled this off, beginning with the meticulous detail with which each scene was planned.
"Rope Unleashed" provides two other valuable insights to the movie as well. First, it describes how Hitchcock made the film into a personal directorial challenge, as he chose to shoot it as if one were watching a play, with 10-minute takes on the set. Second, we learn just why the movie itself is somewhat dissatisfying, as we hear how hampered Hitchcock was by Hollywood's homophobia in 1948 (a problem the playwright of the British original did not have to be as concerned about). It is also clear that Hitchcock and the studio's choice of Stewart as the "name" actor was most likely ill-chosen, since the views of that character simply do not fit with our conceptions of what Stewart should be like. This in turn forced the inclusion of the preachy monologue at the end of the film, when the former teacher renounces the beliefs that led to his students' tragic poor choices.
I give this a 7/10, though my vote is certainly biased upward by my love of both Hitchcock and Stewart. Were it not for that bias and the inclusion of "Rope Unleashed" I would probably knock the rating down to a 6, and that only because of the awesome achievement of cinematography.
What redeemed the film for me was the extra feature on the Universal Pictures DVD: "Rope Unleashed." This is worth the price of the DVD all by itself. It is a background documentary on the film, with numerous still photos of the production process. It is nothing less than awesome to see the size of the camera with which Joseph Valentine and his crew worked, and to imagine the effort required to plan and execute scenes that required that camera to move about. The documentary does a great job of describing the way in which Hitchcock pulled this off, beginning with the meticulous detail with which each scene was planned.
"Rope Unleashed" provides two other valuable insights to the movie as well. First, it describes how Hitchcock made the film into a personal directorial challenge, as he chose to shoot it as if one were watching a play, with 10-minute takes on the set. Second, we learn just why the movie itself is somewhat dissatisfying, as we hear how hampered Hitchcock was by Hollywood's homophobia in 1948 (a problem the playwright of the British original did not have to be as concerned about). It is also clear that Hitchcock and the studio's choice of Stewart as the "name" actor was most likely ill-chosen, since the views of that character simply do not fit with our conceptions of what Stewart should be like. This in turn forced the inclusion of the preachy monologue at the end of the film, when the former teacher renounces the beliefs that led to his students' tragic poor choices.
I give this a 7/10, though my vote is certainly biased upward by my love of both Hitchcock and Stewart. Were it not for that bias and the inclusion of "Rope Unleashed" I would probably knock the rating down to a 6, and that only because of the awesome achievement of cinematography.