This lesser-celebrated feature by the Master of Suspense remains one of his most fascinating pictures because it aligns with his thematic interests yet deviates from his usual formal methods.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 31, 2024

It grips the audience from the very beginning, and it radiates the same morbid cleverness that would define Hitchcock’s later films.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 4, 2024

The film’s biggest strength is in its tantalizing plot. “Rope” is a very good movie that suffers only from its somewhat false sense of editing, but overall benefits from Hitchcock’s masterful direction.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 4, 2023

Though not quite a horror film, Rope is the kind of murder mystery that would pave the way for more explicit psychologically-motivated thrillers, as well as being a technical landmark in its use of Technicolor and extended takes.

| Oct 26, 2022

As a piece of film, Rope is pretty terrible.

| Sep 9, 2022

Hitchcock examines his and his audience’s participatory roles in a centuries-old circuit of art production and reception. —Guest post by Michael Joshua Rowin

| Jun 10, 2022

An entertaining exercise in technical prowess, if not exactly suspense. The queer undertones alone make it worth a watch, though.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 16, 2021

"Rope" is a wonderful exercise in technique and the party guest characters are performed deliciously. Pay attention to the spectacular panorama of Manhattan's gleaming skyline.

| Nov 11, 2020

Hitchcock manages to keep everything light and humorous, but not without taking a couple of shots at a callous society actively choosing not to hear what they don't like.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 30, 2020

The resultant study of high class homicide is revolutionary, which, spectacular though the word may sound, does not mean that Rope is Hitchcock's best screenplay.

| Aug 13, 2019

In photographing the action, Director Hitchcock brought off a tour de force.

| Feb 9, 2019

Although the story of this verbose film is intriguing, it's not top-drawer Hitchcock.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 9, 2019

A disappointing addition to the great director's canon of work.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 9, 2019

It's Hitchcock experimenting. It's great.

| Feb 9, 2019

The trickery is still distracting, but there are hints in this 1948 film of the perversity that will yield Psycho, Strangers On A Train, Vertigo and Rear Window, so it's a must for Hitch collectors.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 9, 2019

Hitchcock liked to pretend that the film was an empty technical exercise, but it introduces the principal themes and motifs of the major period that would begin with Rear Window.

| Feb 9, 2019

Rope is an interesting experiment which largely succeeds.

| Feb 9, 2019

This still underrated masterpiece is both a brilliant technical experiment and a perverse manifesto, with James Stewart in typically ambiguous form as the lads' intellectual mentor.

| Oct 19, 2018

Though it is above the average for thrillers, the main interest lies in its technical novelty.

| Jul 3, 2018

While its fearless attempt to do something new makes it one of Hitchcock's most interesting movies, I can't pretend to regard it as anywhere near his best.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 4, 2016