The movie starts out with two young men strangling their classmate, David Kentley, with a small piece of rope. They temporarily hide his body inside an antique chest until they can dispose of him later. They host a party that evening, and guests start to wonder about David’s whereabouts, including his fiancée, Janet. Rupert, their prep school housemaster, picks up on certain details and becomes suspicious. Phillip loses it because of his nerves. Brandon, the mastermind, remains calm and collected because he feels confident they will pull off this crime. Rupert feels there is something suspicious about the antique chest because of Brandon and Phillip’s odd behavior. For one thing, it was suddenly being used as the party table instead of using the dining room table. Before everyone leaves, Rupert notices David’s fedora hat inside the closet.
Review: The Rope Movie 1948
Later that night, Rupert returns to investigate as well as question the two men, under the guise that he forgot something at the apartment. When he calls the apartment, Phillip freaks out. Brandon remains calm and lets Rupert enter the apartment. Rupert walks around cautiously to strategically sneak his cigarette case on the table while casually chatting with the men. Brandon has a handgun in his jacket pocket, ready to use it anytime. The three men drink and chat, as Rupert gathers information about David’s whereabouts. He notices the gun in Brandon’s pocket and questions the handgun. Brandon just tosses it out to the side, making it appear trivial. Rupert casually walks toward the table to pretend to find his cigarette case. He then opens up the antique chest to see the dead body before frantically opening the apartment window and shooting three bullets in the air in order to create a ruckus outside. People outside start to talk, wondering what had happened, and someone mentions they need to use the phone to call the police. Sirens start blaring throughout the streets of Manhattan, NYC, as Brandon relaxes himself by drinking liquor, Phillip plays the piano to calm his nerves, and Rupert tells them that he will make sure they will die for this murder. They all calmly await the arrival of the police.
Brandon’s murder plan stemmed from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Superman concept, which has to do with displaying superiority over others viewed as inferior in some way. Rupert had discussed this concept in prep school with his students, not realizing any of them would actually commit a murder.
The set design and costume design as well as the hint of homosexuality between the killers explains the two young men’s superiority complex. The high-rise apartment looks luxurious, elegant, and impeccably decorated. All the characters in Rope movie (1948) look impeccably dressed. The two men’s apartment is so high with a panoramic window view that they tend to have a god complex, looking down on others in society as inferior. People who have a god complex tend to act narcissistic and superior towards others. The characters’ clothes look understatedly elegant, which includes hats, simple elegant jewelry, and fur. There is also a collection of books, stacked on tables as a form of décor, as well as an elegant tray of liquor. Alcohol, similar to drugs, is often used as self-medication for narcissistic behavior. But liquor tends to be the choice of drug for the upper class because it connotes luxury, elegance, and high society.
Nietzsche’s concepts has to do with will to power, God is dead, master and slave moralities, perspectivism, fatalism, and nihilism. Nietzsche considered himself a pagan because he was opposed to the good and evil concept as well as being opposed to worshipping one God. He appeared to support the upper class and their will of power, will to live and will to dominate. This concept seems obvious with the current world situation because of the Zionists’ will of power for their will of domination over others who are inferior, on a worldwide scale.
Speaking of Nietzsche’s Superman, the 2025 Superman movie had a similar plot, in which the elite billionaires promoted Superman as having a superiority over others, mainly to silence and discredit him because he was going against their agenda. Superman was rescuing a certain country from all the manmade destruction and mass murder by the elites, who wanted to take over and dominate that country. But, actually, the elite billionaires are the ones with the superiority complex because they wanted to make the inferior people into their slaves.
I thought Rope movie 1948, was an interesting and suspenseful movie because it focuses on the two killers trying to cover up their crime, while their friends and family wonder about David’s whereabouts. Rupert probably felt that he was partly at fault for discussing Nietzsche’s Superman concept with his students, and the two young men pursued this concept as their own work of art. The mystery and suspense aspects are quite subtle in the movie. But toward the end of the movie, I noticed the darkness because of the two young men’s twisted mentality.
The Rope Movie 1948: full movie can be watched on YouTube for free.
