"ROPE' STRETCHES SUSPENSE

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A Hitchcock film based on a real-life incident

A friend recently lent me a few DVDs, mostly of old Hollywood films. One of these, ‘Rope’, a Hitchcock film was as thrilling now as when I first saw it in 1950. This film was based on a play by Patrick Hamilton.

Hamilton’s play was put up by me on behalf of Curtain Club at the American College Auditorium, and was quite a success. M. Lawrence of the Department of English, who was at that time a student played the role made famous by James Stewart. Ravindran Solomon, Daniel David and David Bloom were some of the other actors in our production.

Aiming for a perfect crime

The story of ‘Rope’ was based on a real-life murder that shocked the world. Two young men, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb killed a fourteen year old boy, Bobby Franks in 1924. It was a murder without any motive except the desire to commit the perfect crime.

The murderers were brilliant young men. Loeb was the youngest graduate ever of the University of Michigan. He was nineteen years old at the time of the murder. Leopold was a student of law. He was also passionately interested in ornithology. Even at the age of twenty he was the leading authority on the Kirkland Warbler, an endangered song bird. Both the young men were avid readers of the works of Nietzsche. They were fascinated by the German philosopher’s theory that the superman should be able to rise above the restrictive morality of ordinary men - he should rise above good and evil.

Unfortunately for young Bobby Franks, Leopold and Loeb chose to put into practice this theory. Thus murder should be an intellectual exercise beyond good and evil. And so Bobby died. The trial of the murderous duo turned out to be a global sensation mainly because of the flamboyant Clarence Darrow’s arguments for the defence. In his usual impressive style he presented an appeal for rehabilitative rather than retributive punishment. Leopold and Loeb received life sentences. Loeb was killed by a fellow prisoner in 1936. Leopold died after his release in 1971.

In the play and the film, ‘Rope’ the victim and the killers were made a little older. The two men strangle their victim and put the body inside a large box used for storing things. Then a few people, including the fiancée of the dead man, are invited for dinner. The dishes are arranged on this box. The suspense is whether the guests will see the body. The housekeeper going back and forth clearing the dishes adds to the nail-biting suspense. James Stewart, Farley Granger and John Dall were the main players. Stewart is the one who discovers the murder and brings Granger and Dall to book.

Technical wizardry

Hitchcock’s film is a stark presentation sans frills in which he experimented with the format and the setting. There is no background music except towards the very end of the film. The quietness thus caused enhanced the effect of the tense suspense.

It is generally agreed that one of the great advantages of the film medium is the editing. One can cut and paste to create effects. But Hitchcock decided to do away with editing, and the whole film was shot at one stretch. The camera moved to a close-up of someone’s back. Then the reel was changed, and the movement started from that close-up. The time taken for the actual shooting was the same as that of the duration of the film.

The whole film was shot inside a room. It was a tradition in Hitchcock’s films that he would make a brief appearance. So one wondered how he would do that since the camera never left the room. And then through an open window you see a hoarding advertising a slimming drug. The plump Hitchcock is there in the advertisement illustrating perhaps the ‘before’ stage.

The film is one of Hitchcock’s more innovative thrillers.

J.VASANTHAN (e-mail: jvasanthan@sancharnet.in )

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