Film & Quality B-Movies | "Rope" (1948)

Fig. 1 "Rope" Poster

“B-Movie“ also known as “B-Picture“ is a category of films published since the economic crisis in the 1930s until its upswing in the mid to late 1950s. During the crisis it was hard possible to maintain first class (A-class) entertainment and therefore people adapted to the low budget entertainment, especially in the movie industry, the so called B-Movies. The main strategy behind the B-Movie is to have so called “Stock Characters” whose main purpose is to bridge the time gap else the movie would be too short and therefore they try to entertain the audience with a side story/cheap chit chat. Various other characteristics for a “B-Movie” are such as: Cheesy Dialogue, Spectacles/Effects Driven, Cheesy Effects, Action Driven, Easily Digestible Story, “Has been” Movie Stars etc. Most B-Movies have the main genre of horror, science-fiction, splatter or action. This review will analyze the movie “Rope (1948)” directed by Alfred Hitchcock discussing why it is a B-Movie.

First off the main feature that makes “Rope” a “B-Movie” is the lack of scenery change throughout the movie. All the incidents in this film occur in only one apartment making the lack of budget obvious. Even the presence of the so called “stock characters”, whose main purpose was to bridge the time gap between start of the crime and the exposure of the murders, signals a low quality entertainment. However, Hitchcock managed to implement those side characters into the plot perfectly by giving them all a connection to the crime victim. Even though they lead a lot of chitchats, they still keep the audience on track or give hints about the missing character (crime victim: David). Having one of the most famous film actors acting a main character to lure in the audience is one of the characteristics of a “B-Movie”: James Maitland Stewart (famous actor) plays the role of the intelligent Rupert Cadell who exposes the two murderers Brandon and his accomplice Philip who are Ruperts best friends back in school. Aside from those traits the cheesy dialogues and cheesy effects makes it even more obvious.

As for five positive qualities for the movie:

1. Hitchcock’s expertise makes the movie way more enjoyable as a B-Movie which is supposed to be cheap entertainment. His brilliant ideas such as implementing usually unimportant characters or building up the tension beautifully with the method of the ticking bomb etc. makes the movie very enjoyable even as a B-Movie.
2. The treatment of the topic of “good and evil” in this movie was decent. Brandon who sees himself as a superior being among all the other human beings justifies his crime of murder by saying that inferior beings have no right to live. Whereupon Rupert explains/realizes that thinking of superior-inferior was purely a mistake. He realizes that every person has its right to work and live and judges the crime Brandon has committed.
3. The characters Brandon, Philip and Rupert were brilliantly acted out by the actors making the story very authentic. After killing David, the crime victim, Philip becomes mentally unstable throughout the movie making the audience tense because of his nervousness he is giving many hints of what happened.
4. The tension ramp up is very well done especially the scene where Mrs. Wilson, apparently the maid, cleans up the remains of the party from the chest where the corpse of David is hidden inside. The audience experiences the feeling of: “Oh, she is going to find out!” throughout the scene because she intended to put the books back inside the chest.
5. Even with the low budget the entertainment of this movie is really good compared to most other B-Movies such as “The Giant Claw”.

Illustration List:
Fig. 1 "Rope" Poster. At: https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNVPpKcrwjkzYdmiOu_D6tGr6IVUu9JBPgXnZTWls38KXni3zqsdWtS2hK8jufKDr1Jto83KDku_rOIMfWWzsPLFCgp_O3Rb4C5vyMf6y0c2gZZN-9eedzlaRO0IRpf6FEFa99RzMFuf0r/s1600/Jack-Durieux-Rope-Movie-Poster-Hitchcock-2017.jpg (Accessed on 29/10/2017)