An analysis of Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rope': Plot Analysis Part 1

Rope is a 1948 crime noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on a play of the same name by Patrick Hamilton and adapted by actor and writer Hume Cronyn and Arthur Laurents. The film is based on the 1928 murder of 14 year old Bobby Franks by teenagers Richard Loeb and Nathan Leopold, both from a wealthy neighborhood called Kenwood situated on Lake Michigan in Chicago’s South Side. The subsequent trial for both men was labeled “The Trial of the Century” at the time and the play and film based on the incident contains some striking parallels. For 1, Leopold and Loeb both came from wealthy families, possessed superior IQs, and shared a fascination in Friedrich Nietzsche’sidea of Übermensch— or Superman —-who are transcendent individuals, possessing extraordinary and unusual capabilities, whose superior intellects allows them to rise above the laws and rules that restricts the unimportant, average populace (Wikipedia). Another parallel between the actual incident and the film are both victim’s passion for tennis. To prove their immunity to the consequences ordinary men are subjected to, Leopold and Loeb committed a series of small crimes at the school they attended (The University of Chicago), crimes that, to their disappointment, received very little attention. For this reason, they planned and executed the murder of Bobby Franks to validate their belief that they were superior individuals. 

Rope was Hitchcock’s 2nd “limited setting” film with the 1st being 1944’s Lifeboat. Rope was also Hitchcock’s 1st film shot in Technicolor. But the film is best known for being shot as a stage play in, seemingly, 1 continuous shot; actually, the film is composed of 10 takes of up to 10 minutes each that were seamed together by zooming the shots on walls and characters’ backs to hide the cuts. Another unique element in Rope is the cityscape of the large window which was the largest background cyclorama every used on a sound stage at that time (Wikipedia) that used the slow transitioning from day to night as symbolic references to the story’s 3 themes: shame, fear, and vanity. This summary I’ve provided contains the main themes in the movie.

David’s murder and Janet and Kenneth’s breakup

Brandon and Phillip believe that privilege gives them the right to commit murder and act out their belief by strangling David Kentley. Janet also feels like privilege gives her the right to dump men when she sees someone better. Everyone believes that she left Kenneth to be with his best friend David but this is not true. In reality, Kenneth breaks off the relationship and hurts Janet’s ego because she is not used to rejection. She had originally dumped Brandon to be with Kenneth who turns the tables and gives her a taste of her own medicine. Of course she pretends to take his rejection gracefully but that same night, David—who happens to bear a strong resemblance to Kenneth—walks her home and she cries on his shoulder, revealing her vulnerable side. Brandon and Phillip represents these 2 sides of Janet: Brandon is her vain side of her and Phillip is the weak side. In the backstory, Janet dumps Brandon to be with Kenneth. Brandon’s vanity is wounded by this and he would have killed Kenneth if he hadn’t dumped her to be with David. This is why he said that it didn’t matter who he and Phillip murdered, it could have been anyone. Being replaced by someone inferior to him gives Brandon the justification to act out his belief that he is superior and has the right to commit murder. In doing this, vanity motivates his decision in the same way that vanity motivates Janet’s decision to be with David. 

The Rope

The rope is synonymous with vanity. It dangles carelessly from the chest because Brandon is proud and wants to show off his work, especially to Rupert Cadell who loves philosophy, particularly the concepts of Nietzsche's Übermensch (or Superman) that promotes the idea of killing being a privilege for the elite.When Phillip notices a piece of the rope dangling out of the chest, instead of hiding the evidence of their crime, Brandon pulls it out and walks around with it in plain view. Later, he uses the rope to tie a stack of books together, presenting them to David father like a present. The rope is also synonymous with vanity in how Janet protects her honor by allowing everyone to assume that she broke off with Kenneth who, in fact, had broken off their relationship. The evidence that Kenneth dumped Janet is the fact that he and David look alike. Mrs. Atwater mistakes him for David at the party.

Shame, Fear, and Vanity

After murdering David, Brandon turns on a light but Phillip quickly tells him to turn it off, ashamed of what they had both done. But Brandon is not ashamed of murdering David and opens the curtains wide to let the light in. For Phillip, the light is a source of shame but for Brandon, light is a source of pride. This contrast in how Phillip and Brandon perceive evil recurs throughout the film. Phillip is ashamed of the evil he’s done and wants to conceal David’s murder; Brandon is proud of murdering David and leaves “bread crumbs” for the body to be discovered so that he can get glory and be considered an artist for doing so.

After they murder David and place him in the chest leaving a piece of the rope that strangled him dangling from it, Phillip wants to hide the rope but Brandon pulls it out of the chest and walks around with it openly, even using it to tie up a stack of books he gives to David’s father
Brandon leaves the chest unlocked on purpose, claiming the lock as being too old against Phillip’s objection
Brandon moves everything from the dining room table to the chest containing David’s body increasing the chances of it being discovered
Brandon tells everybody the story about how he and Phillip visited his mother’s farm and how Phillip strangled some chickens there. One of the chickens didn’t die right away and rose like “Lazarus.” Phillip cuts Brandon off and denies the incident which reminds him of the manner in which he killed David. Brandon tells this story because he is proud of murdering David and knows that such a story can make Phillip panic give away their secret because he kills the chickens in the same manner that he kills David; subconsciously, Brandon wants to get caught so he can get credit for pulling off the perfect crime by murdering someone unimportant

Phillip and Brandon are 2 sides of the same coin, each revealing a weakness preventing them from getting away with murder. Phillip’s weaknesses are shame and fear; Brandon’s weakness is vanity.