VERSUS THE SCARECROW EPISODE 17: Based On A True Story. I decided to challenge myself and really open the doors of my film knowledge and take on “The Scarecrow Video Movie Guide”. It’s 808 pages of movies and movie reviews from some of the most knowledgeable movie people you don’t know. It’s a book put together by a staff that praises, and destroys, some of our favorites and not so favorites. You can read the rest of my series here.
Just a quick refresher: each episode, I’m going to tackle three films from three different categories. Two films will be films I’ve never seen before and one will be one I’ve seen before or own. For the new films, well, new to me, I’m going to review them like a typical FTS review using the TOAST Rating system. But, for the films I’ve seen, I’m going give a quick paragraph or two about why I like or don’t like the film. We’ll try to include the poster and trailer for each film. “….and here. We. Go!”
The title says it all this week as I review JFK (1991), Rope (1948), and I reflect on Serpico (1978) and the beginnings of my love hate relationship with Sidney Lumet. Because these films are based on true stories, I’ll have small blurbs regarding the actual events about each one.
Rope (1948) Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Starring: Dick Hogan, John Dall, Farley Granger. IMDB says: “Two young men strangle their “inferior” classmate, hide his body in their apartment, and invite his friends and family to a dinner party as a means to challenge the “perfection” of their crime.”
“I never strangled a chicken in my life!”
Rope is a film that only suffers from the constraints of the technology of its time. Aside from the 9 fade/cuts, the film looks like it was to be intentionally filmed in one take. But due to the length of film reels back in 1948, that vision is cut whenever the camera zooms into some ones back, fading to black, then pulling back out. Even when doing a scene change like this, it’s still intriguing and makes you wonder why Hitchcock chose to fade like that rather than fixate on an item in the room and splice the film together. Rope is about two friends Brandon ( John Dall) and Phillip (Farley Granger) who strangle a former classmate David (Dick Hogan) in their apartment, and hide him in a trunk. To show off their superior intellect, they throw a party and use the trunk as the parties centerpiece. All is going according to plan until their old Housemaster Rupert Cadell (James Stewart) shows up to the party and begins to feel that something is wrong.
It’s a film that builds suspense and tension from the word go and who better than the films Director/Producer Alfred Hitchcock. The colors look great, the apartment works great as the films singular set, and the music by Leo F. Forbstein is a great device used to dissipate and layer on the tension throughout the film. The film is based on the play Rope, which debuted in 1929, and was written by Patrick Hamilton. The play was inspired by the real life events of wealthy University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Motivated by the desire to commit the perfect crime, they kidnapped and murdered 14-year-old Robert Franks. After being found guilty, Richard Loeb ended up being murdered in prison in 1936 whereas Leopold was released on parole in 1958.
Definitely check out this film. It’s about 80 minutes long but feels even shorter, but more importantly, it’s another classic from the repertoire of Alfred Hitchcock.
Check back tomorrow to read the conclusion of episode 17 with my reflections on Serpico. If you're interested in more, you can find the rest of the Versus The Scarecrow series here.