"Rope" Hitchcock's transcendent skill demonstrated in one scene and one cut

Hitchcock's transcendental skill highlighted by shackles

This movie perfectly proves one fact. This is the fact that ``no matter how difficult the characters are to empathize with the culprit, if there is a depiction of a murder exposed, the audience will be nervous.'' Even when Brandon and Philip commit a selfish murder, we, the audience, somehow end up watching the proceedings while praying that their bodies will never be discovered.

What impressed me was the scene at the end of the party. Mrs. Wilson (Edith Evanson), the housekeeper, clears away the dishes, candles, and tablecloths in the chest where David's body was shoved. Normally, the film would create suspense by cutting back to ``Mrs. Wilson cleaning up the top of the chest of drawers'' and ``Brandon and Philip who noticed this and looked worried.'' However, when it comes to one scene or one cut, you can't rely on editing.

Hitchcock took advantage of this and deliberately fixed the camera. We used a production that captures Mrs. Wilson's movements through the chest in a matter-of-fact manner. Visually, there shouldn't be anything interesting, but as the chest becomes more and more exposed, a sense of suspense is created that the hidden corpse might also be exposed.

"Rope" (c)Photofest / Getty Images

Or the scene where Rupert deduces how Brandon and Philip invited David into their apartment and ended up killing him. Normally, they would have played Rupert's voice as a monologue and inserted a flashback scene of David's murder. However, Hitchcock seamlessly moved the camera through the entrance, the glass on the table, the chair, the piano, and the chest of drawers, allowing us to imagine David's movements.

His use of sound is also skillful. Rupert dares to ask Philipp a question that gets to the heart of the matter as he plays the piano. Philip's feelings gradually become disturbed. As if in sync, the piano, which had been playing elegantly, became more and more disturbed, and a cacophony filled the room... By imposing the shackles of one scene and one cut on himself, Hitchcock's transcendental technique becomes even more prominent.

“Making a movie that kills is a creative force.”