The plot of Alfred Hithcock’s 1948 film is that two young men — who in no way share The Love That Dare Not Speak its Name (at least in 1948) and who bear No Resemblance Whatsoever to Leopold and Loeb — get their Nietzsche on and kill a fellow classmate to assert their uberman-esque superiority. (It’s no coincidence that Rope was made shortly after WWII and directed by a man who had filmed Belsen.) They then throw a swank dinner party with Jimmy Stewart as one of their guests, with the remains of their victim hidden inside a trunk, within plain sight. The above trailer is sort of a red herring, as the young man who stars in it doesn’t make it past the end of the opening credits of the actual movie. And the film itself is somewhat of a curiosity, as Hitchcock shot it, his first color movie, in a series of 20-minute continuous takes, both to build tension, and emphasize its stage play origins.
Flash-forward sixty-odd years to a story reported this week by NBC-Miami, which if true, echoes Rope’s chief plot-point remarkably well — albeit likely remarkably unintentionally:
A relative of the Port St Lucie teen accused of beating his parents to death with a hammer before throwing a house party says the murders have shocked and devastated the “normal family.”
Dave Zanoni, whose wife is the niece of victims Blake and Mary-Jo Hadley, said he couldn’t believe it when he picked up the phone and heard of the shocking deaths.
“When we received the phone call, we thought it was a terrible car accident or something, we had no idea it was going to be what it turned out to be,” Zanoni said. “I just can’t believe it, I’m waiting to wake up from the nightmare.”
Police say that nightmare unfolded Saturday, when 17-year-old Tyler Hadley allegedly attacked his parents with a hammer. By the time it was over, both were dead, having suffered blunt force trauma to the head and torso.
Just as shocking as the alleged murders, police say the teen threw a house party just hours after the deaths, with between 40 and 60 people attending, apparently unaware the Hadleys’ bodies were behind the locked door to the master bedroom.
Curiously, this isn’t the first time that elements from Rope’s plot echoed in real life in recent years.
Related: See David Swindle’s PJ Lifestyle post in response to this post here.
The theme, or convention, or motif, or habit of a killer socializing in the presence of the corpse is a time-honored event that is frequently called “ironic” as people consider it in retrospect. “His guests were just two feet from the body.” “Night after night he made love with his second wife, knowing that his first lay buried right under the bedroom window.”
Anyway, thank God this sicko was stopped at the age of 17. God only knows what he would have gone on to do.
here’s hoping the murderous tres-ironique bastage dances the Sparkydance. And no, that’s not a Donna Winter’s song.
I was struck by the park scene… how much things have changed. Left alone on a park bench in NYC. Consider our societal evolution:
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/54f7c1a32b/rap-translated-from-blackness
humm, answer: 17 years. question: how long does it take the current culture of sodom to spawn a souless monster?
Four years of rap is enough.
Four MINUTES of rap is enough….
Hitchcock had wanted to film Rope in one single continuous take, but he was limited by the amount of film that could be loaded into the camera. He therefore had to use several 20-minute segments. Nevertheless, Hitchcock made it appear as though the film was one continuous take by planning the filming so that he could stop on a totally black shot, replace the film canister with a fresh one, and then continue with the shooting. (Thus there are scenes in which an actor walks in front of the camera, blocking the shot. That is the precise moment at which the film was changed.)
The first feature film ever to be shot completely in one continuous, single take was the 96-minute Russian Ark, in 2002. That was possible because film was not used – it was recorded digitally.
Both Rope and Russian Ark are worth watching if only to appreciate and be amazed by the intricate planning necessary to create them. The director has to plan everything perfectly, and the actors cannot make a mistake and “get another take.”
I think the 8-minute opening scene of Robert Altman’s “The Player” is another famous single take. Hitchcock’s film “Rope” is actually mentioned by name in it, making that scene a sort of homage to Hitch….
Didnt the “The prisoner of Zenda”(1937) open with a really long continuous tracking shot?
St Lucia Accommodation are top notch, St Lucia must be the smartest island in the caribbean!!