Nothing will hold you as tight as HItchcock's Rope!

An absolutely magnificent experiment in film making by Alfred Hitchcock.

The film tells the tale of two young homosexuals (Farley Granger and John Dall in fine form) who in order to obtain intellectual thrills and enlightenment murder a friend; hide him in a trunk and later serve a meal on the trunk containing the body to their unfortunate friend's family and friends. Also at the dinner party is the professor (Stewart) whose intellectual theories they have twisted to provide a motive for the murder.

This is a wildly amusing tale from Hitchcock which centers around Stewart's performance, which is absolutely superb and the performances of both Granger and Dall. Granger plays the killer riddled with guilt who gradually goes insane as the night goes on, with Dall as the confident, dominant and witty instigator of the crime.

The film itself is laced with black humour and suspense : Hitchcock's perverse sense of justice forces the audience to side with the killers against the authorities - not least because of Grangers sympathetic portrayl.

Although the film hasn't aged well and may be a touch over the top and its melodramatics may bewilder today's audiences; it remains a most intriguing, innovative and enormously entertaining piece of cinema.

If you like this, you may wish to try other Hitchcock thrillers such as Strangers on a Train (1951) and Dial M for Murder (1953).