His Pick 1940s: Rope

We watched Alfred Hitchcock this past weekend.

It's an interesting movie.  It doesn't take much, but this one definitely kept me nervous the entire time, but not too badly.

I won't ruin anything for you by telling you that this movie is about two guys who use a rope to strangle a mutual "friend" and stuff the body in a trunk until dark so they can get rid of it. That part happens in the first scene.  The motive is kind of unbelievable..they did it just to prove they could, that they are superior.

The rest of the movie takes place during a dinner party.  The excuse is that it's a going away party for one of the guys, but it's really another way to just gloat that they've done this thing and they aren't going to get caught.  The guests are a surprising mix of the victim's friends and family.

James Stewart is a former mentor of the two men on each side of him who are the murderers.

The trunk with the body inside. 

It's pretty stressful knowing that the body is right there in the room the entire time.  One of the guys is confident and smug.  The other is scared and nervous. 

It's not the best acting I've ever seen, or the most complicated plot.  But it definitely evokes emotion, it did from me anyway. There were some technologically advanced methods used in the filming which you can read about more on the IMDb page, one being that Hitchcock uses only ten separate takes for the entire movie, necessitating a lot of interesting methods with scenery, etc.

I had never heard of any of the actors except James Stewart.  I did enjoy his part pretty well, I think I'm discovering I like his movies.  I had never really seen any except It's a Wonderful Life, haha.

I would give this movie a 6 out of 10.  I mean, I didn't dislike it, but it wasn't extremely memorable or impressive to me. I was very interested to see how it ended, but not because of any particular interest in the characters, just because of the "are they going to get caught?!" factor. That part was pretty stressful.

We've got a few more movies left to go, I think we can do it!