Rope 1948

Yet another sizzling dish of suspense from Hitchcock. The earlier films do not reach the pitch of terror we see in the likes of Psycho. (This one does start with a throttled scream). However I found this quite unputdownable and although the much awaited plot twist at the end failed to materialize, which is perhaps all the better for the film, which can do well enough without it. James Stewart with his enigmatic persona as the highly deductive ex-tutor of the murderers adds salt and spice. The movie is about a party of socialites in which a wooden chest containing the newly murdered body serves as a dining table and the parents, girl friend,  former teacher and the girl friend's ex boy friend  are guests. Atypically the movie ends with a sermon on the wrongness of killing. Some Nietzchean jargon about inferior and superior human beings is also unnecessarily appended. But certainly an hour and a half worth of of gripping entertainment, which is what we visit Hitchcock for, and which he has never failed to deliver.