''Rope,'' retitled ''Rope's End'' for its American release, is a 1929

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by Patrick Hamilton. It was said to be inspired by the real-life murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924 by

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...

students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. In formal terms, it is a

well-made play The well-made play (french: la pièce bien faite, pronounced ) is a dramatic genre from nineteenth-century theatre, developed by the French dramatist Eugène Scribe. It is characterised by concise plotting, compelling narrative and a largely sta ...

with a three-act

dramatic structure Dramatic structure (also known as dramaturgical structure) is the structure of a dramatic work such as a book, play, or film. There are different kinds of dramatic structures worldwide which have been hypothesized by critics, writers and schola ...

that adheres to the

classical unities The classical unities, Aristotelian unities, or three unities represent a prescriptive theory of dramatic tragedy that was introduced in Italy in the 16th century and was influential for three centuries. The three unities are: #''unity of action' ...

. Its action is continuous, punctuated only by the curtain fall at the end of each act. It may also be considered a thriller.

Samuel French Samuel French (1821–1898) was an American entrepreneur who, together with British actor, playwright and theatrical manager Thomas Hailes Lacy, pioneered in the field of theatrical publishing and the licensing of plays. Biography French foun ...

published the play in 1929.Patrick Hamilton, ''Rope'' (London: Samuel French, 2003). .

Plot and setting

The play is set on the first floor of a house in Mayfair, London in 1929. The story concerns two young university students, Wyndham Brandon and Charles Granillo (whom Brandon calls "Granno"), who have murdered fellow student Ronald Kentley as an expression of their supposed intellectual superiority. At the beginning of the play, they hide Kentley's body in a chest. They proceed to host a party for his friends and family at which the locked chest containing his corpse is used to serve a buffet. Suspicion arises among the guests as to the content of the chest. After the party, one guest, a former professor of the murderers, returns and contrives to open the chest. He is shocked and ashamed that they have acted in response to his own declarations of amorality. The play ends with this quandary unresolved.

Production history

''Rope'' was first presented by The Repertory Players in a Sunday night try-out production at the Strand Theatre,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, on 3 March 1929. The following month the play opened in the West End at the Ambassadors Theatre on 25 April 1929. The production ran for six months. Retitled ''Rope's End'', the first

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production opened at the

John Golden Theatre The John Golden Theatre, formerly the Theatre Masque and Masque Theater, is a Broadway theater at 252 West 45th Street ( George Abbott Way) in the Theater District of Midtown Manhattan in New York City. Opened in 1927, the Golden Theatre was ...

(then called the Theatre Masque) on 13 September 1929. On 16 December 2009, a revival of ''Rope'' began at the

Almeida Theatre The Almeida Theatre, opened in 1980, is a 325-seat producing house with an international reputation, which takes its name from the street on which it is located, off Upper Street, in the London Borough of Islington. The theatre produces a diver ...

in London, in a production directed by Roger Michell.

The 1929 London productions

Strand Theatre

* Wyndham Brandon - Sebastian Shaw * Charles Granillo -

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* Sabot -

Frederick Burtwell Augustus Frederick Burtwell (23 December 1894 – 16 November 1948) was an English actor, on stage from 1914, who featured in supporting roles in over 40 British films of the 1930s and 1940s. Partial filmography * ''Other People's Sins'' ( ...

* Kenneth Raglan -

Hugh Dempster Hugh Dempster (3 August 1900 – 30 April 1987) was a British theatre and film actor. Born in London, Dempster made his stage debut in 1920, and began his screen career in the silent film era. His credits included '' Vice Versa'', ''Anna Kareni ...

* Leila Arden - Betty Schuster * Sir Johnstone Kentley - Daniel Roe * Mrs Debenham - Ruth Taylor * Rupert Cadell - Robert Holmes

Ambassadors' Theatre

* Wyndham Brandon -

Brian Aherne William Brian de Lacy Aherne (2 May 190210 February 1986) was an English actor of stage, screen, radio and television, who enjoyed a long and varied career in Britain and the United States. His first Broadway appearance in '' The Barretts of ...

* Charles Granillo - Anthony Ireland * Sabot - Stafford Hilliard * Kenneth Raglan -

Patrick Waddington Patrick William Simpson Waddington (19 August 19014 February 1987) was an English actor, educated at Gresham's School at Holt in Norfolk. He was born and died in York, England. Biography Waddington was the grandson of William Waddington, the p ...

* Leila Arden - Lilian Oldland * Sir Johnstone Kentley - Paul Gill * Mrs Debenham - Alix Frizell * Rupert Cadell - Ernest Milton Directed by

Reginald Denham Reginald Denham (10 January 1894 – 4 February 1983) was an English writer, theatre and film director, actor and film producer. Biography Reginald H. F. Denham was born in London, England, in 1894. He spent a good part of his career dire ...

The 1929 Broadway production

* Charles Granillo -

Ivan Brandt Ivan Brandt (1903–1972) was a British stage and film actor An actor or actress is a person who portrays a character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as ...

* Leila Arden - Margaret Delamere * Kenneth Raglan - Hugh Dempster * Sir Johnstone Kentley - Samuels Lysons * Rupert Cadell - Ernest Milton * Mrs. Debenham -

Nora Nicholson Nora Nicholson (7 December 1887 – 18 September 1973) was an English actress. Known for her portrayal of character roles, she achieved her greatest success in the later years of her career. She played in classics by Shakespeare and Chekhov and ...

* Wyndham Brandon - Sebastian Shaw * Sabot - John Trevor Directed by Reginald Denham

Film and TV adaptations

The play was first broadcast on experimental live television by the BBC, on 8 March 1939. It was adapted by Hamilton, produced by

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, and used

long take In filmmaking, a long take (also called a continuous take or continuous shot) is a shot with a duration much longer than the conventional editing pace either of the film itself or of films in general. Significant camera movement and elaborate bl ...

s. Director Alfred Hitchcock later said he saw (or heard about) the long takes of this television production and was inspired to attempt a feature film version. Another version was broadcast on the British commercial network ITV in 1957. In different roles,

Dennis Price Dennistoun Franklyn John Rose Price (23 June 1915 – 6 October 1973) was an English actor, best remembered for his role as Louis Mazzini in the film '' Kind Hearts and Coronets'' (1949) and for his portrayal of the omnicompetent valet Jeeve ...

appeared in both versions. A version was made for Australian television in 1959, and aired as part of the series ''

Shell Presents ''Shell Presents'' was an early attempt at Australian television drama, being an umbrella title for several different productions. It debuted on 4 April 1959, and aired on ATN-7 and GTV-9, who split production of plays for the series between t ...

''. A different version for Australian television aired in 1957. In Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 film version, ''

Rope A rope is a group of yarns, plies, fibres, or strands that are twisted or braided together into a larger and stronger form. Ropes have tensile strength and so can be used for dragging and lifting. Rope is thicker and stronger than similar ...

'', Hitchcock,

Hume Cronyn Hume Blake Cronyn Jr. OC (July 18, 1911 – June 15, 2003) was a Canadian-American actor and writer. Early life Cronyn, one of five children, was born in London, Ontario, Canada. His father, Hume Blake Cronyn, Sr., was a businessman and ...

, and

Arthur Laurents Arthur Laurents (July 14, 1917 – May 5, 2011) was an American playwright, theatre director, film producer and screenwriter. After writing scripts for radio shows after college and then training films for the U.S. Army during World War II ...

made some changes to the original stage play. The setting is relocated to the 1940s

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and the names of all of the characters, with the exception of Rupert Cadell, are altered. Quiet Mrs. Debenham became cheerful Mrs. Atwater. The murder victim is renamed David Kentley. In the original play, Rupert Cadell is a 29-year-old First World War veteran, who walks with a stick. He was a teacher of Brandon and Granillo when they were at school. In the film, Cadell is played by James Stewart, who was forty at the time. In this version, Cadell had been the teacher of Brandon Shaw, Philip Morgan, Kenneth Lawrence, and David Kentley, and is currently a publisher. Hitchcock's is the only

feature film A feature film or feature-length film is a narrative film (motion picture or "movie") with a running time long enough to be considered the principal or sole presentation in a commercial entertainment program. The term ''feature film'' originall ...

version of the play to-date. In 1983, ''Rope'' was dramatised as a

BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC' ...

Drama for ''

Saturday Night Theatre ''Saturday Night Theatre'' was a long-running radio drama strand on BBC Radio 4 BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken ...

'', starring

Alan Rickman Alan Sidney Patrick Rickman (21 February 1946 – 14 January 2016) was an English actor and director. Known for his deep, languid voice, he trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and became a member of the Royal Shakespe ...

as Cadell.

References

External links

* {{ibdb title, 10926, Rope's End
1939 BBC TV version at IMDB1952 ''Best Plays'' radio adaptation of play
at

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1957 ITV version at IMDB
1929 plays Plays by Patrick Hamilton Plays set in London Plays based on real people British plays adapted into films Cultural depictions of Leopold and Loeb West End plays