History Theatre / Rope

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Brandon and Phillip's respective behavior during the party resembles the difference between extroverts and introverts. Brandon (in his own [[TheSociopath twisted]] way) fits in with the other guests during the story and comes out of the party feeling invigorated and satisfied. Phillip (granted, he's wrestling with his guilt) acts uncomfortable or awkward during the entire social event while surrounded by people or conversing with them, and comes out of the experience emotionally drained.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/112rope_2827.jpg]]

* BackBlocking: Hitchcock often ends a shot by panning to a character's back blocking the entire screen, then begins the next shot by panning away or when they move aside.

** Mrs. Wilson ends up mixing up Rupert and David's hats, giving him the final piece of proof he needs to fully realize what Brandon and Phillip has done.

* INeedAFreakingDrink: Several characters, most notably Phillip after the party guests have left.

* TheOner: Hitchcock wanted to make the film one long, continuous shot. Sadly, this wasn't feasible with the technology of the time: film would run out after about ten minutes. But he tried to get as close to this as he could. The finished film consists of ten long shots, ranging from four to ten minutes in length, joined together mostly by
by {{Body Wipe}}s (the camera zooms in on some person or something, and zooms out when it cuts). But because film reels need to be changed every twenty minutes in cinema screenings, Hitchcock still had to put four "hard cuts" in the film. But, given that the average film has hundreds of hard cuts, that's still impressive. But, to accomplish all of that, Hitchcock needed to limit ''Rope'''s running time to a mere 1 hour and 20 minutes, far and away his shortest film after he relocated to Hollywood in 1940.

* TheOner: Hitchcock wanted to make the film one long, continuous shot. Sadly, this wasn't feasible with the technology of the time: film would run out after about ten minutes. Still, he got as close to it as he could, by making the movie a handful of ten-minute-long single shots, joined together by {{Body Wipe}}s (the camera zooms in on some person or something, and zooms out when it cuts). But because film reels need to be changed every twenty minutes in cinema screenings, Hitchcock still had to put five "hard cuts" in the film. But, given that the average film has hundreds of hard cuts, that's still impressive. But, to accomplish all of that, Hitchcock needed to limit ''Rope'''s running time to a mere 1 hour and 21 minutes, far and away his shortest film after he relocated to Hollywood in 1940.

* TheOner: Hitchcock wanted to make the film one long, continuous shot. Sadly, this wasn't feasible with the technology of the time: film would run out after about ten minutes. So Hitchcock resorted to using {{Body Wipe}}s all over the place, meaning that the camera would zoom in on some person or something, and zoom out when it cuts. Sadly, even this wasn't enough; there are still five "hard cuts" in the film (because film reels in the cinema would ''also'' run out after twenty minutes and need to be changed over, so some cuts are straightforward and normal), but that's pretty impressive when most movies have hundreds of hard cuts.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The stage play from which the movie was adapted was inspired by the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder case from 1924. Another fictionalized version would come about a decade later with Richard Fleischer's ''Film/{{Compulsion}}''.

* RippedFromTheHeadlines: The stage play from which the movie was adapted was inspired by the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder case from 1924. Another fictionalized version would come about a decade later with Richard Fleischer's ''Compulsion''.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Brandon and Phillip's respective behavior during the party resembles the difference between extroverts and introverts. Brandon (in his own [[TheSociopath twisted]] way) fits in with the other guests during the story and comes out of the party feeling invigorated and satisfied. Phillipe (granted he's wrestling with his guilt) acts uncomfortable or awkward during the entire social event while surrounded by people or conversing with them, and comes out of the experience emotionally drained.

* DesecratingTheDead: Played with. Brandon decides to have the party's dinner served on the very chest where David's body is hidden. The cruelty of it is that the morbid meal is served to David's father, aunt, friend, and girlfriend, all of whom don't suspect that he is right under their noses.

* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Most of the supporting characters. Rupert gets a significant one too, from a young, effete, and bitchy UsefulNotes/WorldWarI veteran and poet to a more middle-aged, staid, conventional Jimmy Stewart type. The film's Rupert is also a more explicit mentor and authority figure to Brandon and Phillip, being their former teacher, while the play's version appears to be an older childhood friend who underestimated his influence.

* AmicableExes: Kenneth and Janet develop into this. Brandon's attempt to play matchmaker without David around causes them to not only realize he is being an asshole to them, but also lets them come to terms to the end of said relation, Kenneth apologizing for dumping Janet, while she confesses to truly be in love with David.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Brandon and Phillipe's respective behavior during the party resembles the difference between extroverts and introverts. Brandon (in his own [[TheSociopath twisted]] way) fits in with the other guests during the story and comes out of the party feeling invigorated and satisfied. Phillipe (granted he's wrestling with his guilt) acts uncomfortable or awkward during the entire social event while surrounded by people or conversing with them, and comes out of the experience emotionally drained.

* AdaptationPersonalityChange: Much of the supporting cast. Rupert gets a significant one too, from young, effete, and bitchy World War One veteran and poet to an older, more conventional Jimmy Stewart type. Film Rupert is also a more explicit mentor and authority figure to Brandon and Phillip, being their former teacher, while the play's version appears to be an older childhood friend who underestimated his influence.

* AdaptationalSexuality: Brandon and Philip being gay was a lot clearer in the original play, but is reduced to subtext in the film (mostly due to the censorship at the time), and Brandon is implied to be bisexual. Hitchcock claimed Rupert was written as being gay, too, and had even had an affair with Brandon.