ROPE (1948)

Cast

Plot

As an intellectual challenge, two young students strangle their "inferior" classmate, hide his body in their apartment, and invite his friends and family to a dinner party as a means to test the "perfection" of their crime. In attendance are Mr. Henry Kentley and Mrs. Anita Atwater, the victim's father and aunt; Kenneth Turner, the victim's love rival and the deceased's fiancée. The guest of honour is the student's former lecturer whose flippant repartee regarding social caste has been interpreted literally by the pathological pair. Rope was famously filmed entirely in one take – actually Hitch changed the film reel half way through – and shows the master of suspense at his chilling best. Brilliant.