Finally got a movie in this evening, it's been awhile!
Tonight I watched
Rope (1948), directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Jimmy Stewart and James Dall.
There's a thing about old movies, where I think a lot of people might feel hesitant to turn one on; it might be boring, or a thoughtful drama you need to really focus on, or it might just be hard for a modern viewer to relate to or understand. Sometimes all of those are true, but I tell you what, most Hitchcock movies are fun and hook you right away. Growing up, I only ever saw
Psycho (though I'd seen jokes about the
The Birds, of course), but every one of his movies I've watched as an adult has been a thrill. One day I'm sure I'll watch a bad Hitchcock movie, he must have them, but it's not this day.
Rope is practically a chamber play, taking place entirely within a single apartment, with three adjoining rooms. It opens on two friends *fucking murdering* an acquaintance, strangling him to death. Then, they get to work tidying up, because they're hosting a dinner party that same night, in that same apartment, to celebrate the kill....and that's as much as I'll say about the plot, but hot damn, what a way to start a picture!
The movie is tense all the way through, with a literal dead body mere inches away from the dinner guests the entire time, but like most Hitchcock movies it's never oppressive feeling. People laugh and tell jokes, and we occasionally get mixed up in personal drama that makes us forget the real elephant in the room. Jimmy Stewart is always great, but his opposite number here, James Dall, is one of the best performances of a murdering lunatic I've ever seen. He isn't unhinged or wild, instead he's so damned smug and arrogant that he's convinced if anyone should be allowed to play God, it's him. (Him?)
I'm a late-comer to this well known classic, but if you're like me and never saw it before, I couldn't recommend it more.