The Big Picture

Hitchcock’s film,
Rope
, inspired by the real-life Leopold and Loeb case, took creative liberties.

Rope
, initially not a classic, has been re-evaluated as a masterful film due to its innovative continuous one-shot.
Loeb was killed during a fight with another inmate in 1936. Leopold, who passed in 1971, was released after 34 years in 1958.

Director Afred Hitchcock more than earned his title of Master of Suspense. To date, his feature films, Psycho and The Birds, remain among the most revered thrillers ever made, while pictures such as Vertigo revolutionalized the industry. Though not initially the success his later films would be, one of the director’s earliest films, Rope, has since been re-evaluated and praised for its tense atmosphere and incredible cinematography thanks to the director’s insistence that the film be made in one continuous shot.

Inspired by Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 play, Rope’s End, the film tells the story of Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Farley Granger) who strangle their old classmate, David (Dick Hogan) to death, and hide his body in a chest in their apartment. They throw a party consisting of many of David’s friends and family members, who are unaware that his body is hidden in the very room in which they mingle. They were inspired by their former teacher, Rupert Cadell (Hitchcock favorite, Jimmy Stewart) and his theory that some people are superior to others and, therefore, should be permitted to kill. A film filled with tension set against a backdrop of frivolity, it’s a story that remains effective. But what’s even more disturbing than the crime committed on-screen is that it’s based on one that occurred in real-life.

Rope (1948) Two young men commit a murder merely for the intellectual challenge and then host a dinner party, using the chest containing the body as a buffet table to flaunt their perceived intellectual superiority. As their former schoolmaster grows increasingly suspicious, tension mounts, culminating in a dramatic confrontation.Release Date September 25, 1948 Cast James Stewart , John Dall , Farley Granger , Dick Hogan , Edith Evanson , Cedric Hardwicke Runtime 80 Minutes Main Genre Drama Writers Hume Cronyn , Patrick Hamilton , Arthur Laurents , Ben Hecht

What Murder Case Inspired Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘Rope’?
In 1924, wealthy Chicago students, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb sought to commit what they considered “the perfect crime,” only to be foiled by their own arrogance. The trial created a national obsession the following year, inspired both Hamilton and Hitchcock, and even ended in a final twist that was not unlike a Hollywood thriller. Eight years after making his trying American film debut with 1940’s Rebecca, Hitchcock had truly begun to build his identity with movies such as Spellbound and Notorious, but he wasn’t an instant success. Despite its dynamic filmmaking, Rope wasn’t initially the classic it has become in more recent years. It was, however, inspired by a real murder case that had America gripped.

According to PBS, it began on May 21, 1924, when wealthy neighbors, Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb were young students living in a Chicago suburb. Loeb, just 17 at the time, had freshly graduated from the University of Michigan and was planning to attend law school the following semester, per PBS. Northwestern.edu says that the two were enamored with the idea of committing “the perfect crime.” They were inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s theory of the “superman,” which is described as “a creative individual who does not merely follow or obey the laws of others, even the laws of God.” Per PBS, Leopold and Loeb lured a 14-year-old boy named Bobby Frank (a neighbor whom they did not know) to their car when they brutally killed him using a chisel. Leopold and Loeb hid his body in a culvert and sent the boy’s family a ransom note demanding $10,000 for the boy’s return. Unlike the characters in the film, however, they would not get away with it for long.

Leopold and Loeb’s “Perfect Crime” Unravels Quickly

Films based on true stories often deviate from the actual events, and Rope was no different. While Brandon and Phillip execute their plan for a few hours before getting caught, Leopold and Loeb’s crime falls apart rather immediately. Before a ransom could be paid, police discovered the body of young Bobby with a nearby pair of glasses. The frames were expensive and made exclusively in Chicago. As if that didn’t narrow down the search enough, only three people had purchased the model, one of those buyers being Nathan Leopold. The two were arrested and, per the Northwestern source, confessed to the crime.

Related Alfred Hitchcock’s Final Movie Is More Black Comedy Than Thriller Unsurprisingly, the Master of Suspense had a shockingly dark sense of humor.

Leopold and Loeb’s parents hired Chicago’s top attorney, Clarence Darrow, to represent the men, according to PBS. Darrow, however, knew he wouldn’t be able to get his clients off, and instead focused on ensuring the two didn’t receive the death penalty. Darrow’s closing argument famously lasted 12 hours, which law professor, Phillip Johnson described as “Nature made them do it, evolution made them do it, Nietzsche made them do it. So they should not be sentenced to death for it.” In the end, the two men were sentenced to jail time. In one final twist, Loeb was killed during a fight with another inmate in 1936. Leopold, who passed in 1971, was released after 34 years in 1958, a decade after his story had been turned into a big screen thriller by Hitchcock.

‘Rope’ Is One of Alfred Hitchcock’s Most Impressive Movies

Despite not being all that well received when it was released, Rope has since been re-evaluated as a marvelous film achievement. The ambitious idea to shoot the film in essentially one continuous shot was more than just a gimmick, with many praising its philosophical and frighteningly real intensity. In the decades since Hitchcock’s passing, it has also been called one of the director’s most intense films, due to the claustrophobic nature of the crime scene being the setting for a lengthy party, just moments after a murder has taken place with the victim’s body still in the room. Rope isn’t the first movie that comes to mind when thinking of Hitchcock’s work. The crime that inspired it, though, left a mark on so many lives, from its young victim, Bobby Franks, to his family, and the country that followed the haunting story.

Rope is available to rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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