The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)

So far, I've blogged about the James Bond films chronologically from DR. NO (1962) thru DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971).  The next film in the series LIVE AND LET DIE (1973) would be Roger Moore's debut as James Bond 007.  But CrazyFilmGuy is going to jump out of order to visit the third entry in the Roger Moore era which holds a special place in my heart. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME (1977) directed by Lewis Gilbert with a screenplay by Christopher Wood and Bond veteran Richard Maibaum was the first James Bond film that CrazyFilmGuy saw in a real movie theater.  Up until 1977, all the James Bond films I had seen had been on television. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME did not let me down. It was a huge hit and might have been the top grossing film in 1977 if not for a little space fantasy that came out that same year called STAR WARS.

THE SPY WHO LOVED ME captured all the things I loved about James Bond films from watching them on television except this was on the big screen.  Maybe it was my imagination but everything seemed better in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME: the beautiful Bond women, the main villain, his henchmen, exotic locations, large action sequences and a hit theme song.  Special effects were becoming a bigger part of movies in the mid to late 1970s.  THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was no exception. I do love the early Roger Moore films like LIVE AND LET DIE and THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN (1974) but they were smaller, character driven Bond films.  The world wasn't in global jeopardy. Bond was up against a drug kingpin and an assassin in those two films.  The nefarious organization SPECTRE was no where to be found or a silent partner. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME would bring back the megalomaniac who wants to destroy the planet and start a new world order...underwater.

An English submarine and a Russian submarine, both carrying nuclear warheads, go missing as THE SPY WHO LOVED ME begins. KGB chief General Anatol Gogol (Walter Gotell) calls in their best spy Major Anya Amasova aka Agent XXX (Barbara Bach) to investigate while British spy chief M (Bernard Lee) recalls James Bond (Roger Moore) from a mission in Austria.  Chased by Russian killers on skis, Bond kills Sergei Barsov (Michael Billington) who happens to be Anya's lover. Both spies return home to pick up their assignment. They learn someone in Cairo, Egypt is trying to sell microfilm with plans for a submarine tracking system to the highest bidder.  Bond and Anya head to Cairo separately to investigate.

The hijacker of both the submarines and nuclear warheads is Karl Stromberg (Curt Jurgens), a shipping magnate with a fondness for the ocean (he even has webbed hands). Stromberg sends his two henchmen, the human bowling ball Sandor (Milton Reid) and the indestructible, gargantuan Jaws (Richard Kiel) to Cairo to retrieve the microfilm. After tracking a lead at the Pyramids of Giza, Bond and Anya both pursue nightclub owner Max Kalba (Vernon Dobtcheff) to bid on the microfilm. But Jaws manages to snare the microfilm and kill Max. Bond and Anya jump into Jaws's van as he makes his getaway. Jaws takes them to an archaeological site out in the desert. The two agents battle Jaws and get the microfilm back. Then, Anya drugs Bond and steals the microfilm from him. When Bond reports to M at the Abu Simbel Temple, he discovers M and Gogol have teamed in Anglo/Russian cooperation to find the hijacker. Anya and Bond will team up as well.

The microfilm reveals very little except the dimensions of a tanker ship and the insignia of Stromberg's shipping company. Bond and Anya head to Sardinia to interview Stromberg.  Posing as a marine biologist (which never fools the villain), Bond and Anya are picked up by Stromberg's assistant Naomi (Caroline Munro) and taken to his octopus like submersible lair the Aquapolis out in the Mediterranean. The meeting is uneventful except for Bond noticing the unusual bow on one of Stromberg's tanker models. Stromberg orders Naomi to kill Bond and Anya when they return to the mainland. Q (Desmond Llewelyn) provides Bond with an underwater car which comes in handy as they escape Stromberg's team of hit men and women.

Bond learns Stromberg's tanker Liparus has not come into port in 9 months. Bond and Anya are dropped onto an American submarine the USS Wayne to help Commander Carter (Shane Rimmer)track the Liparus but the tanker finds them and swallows up the U.S. submarine, joining the other two missing subs in its enormous hull. Stromberg plans to use the British and Russian submarines to fire nuclear warheads at New York and Moscow, igniting Armageddon. In its wake, Stromberg's underwater city will begin, a new Atlantis.  Bond with the assistance of the captured submarine crews break out and fight back. Bond reprograms the warheads to target the other submarine instead.  Then, Bond races to battle Jaws one last time and rescue Anya from Stromberg's webby clutches. But will Anya forgive Bond for killing her lover?

All the familiar elements we've come to expect in a James Bond film are prevalent in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. But in previous Bond films, the villain was better than the Bond girl or the locations were better than the theme song. Except for GOLDFINGER, all the pieces weren't always perfect. With THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, the stars aligned and every category of SPY is excellent.  Barbara Bach's natural beauty (and cleavage) captures our attention immediately as the Bond Girl. She's just as wily and tough as Bond.  The locations in SPY are almost movie stars themselves. The temples and pyramids of Egypt and the breathtaking scenery of Sardinia are vividly captured by Director of Photography Claude Renoir. Bond films always had a clever introductory set piece. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME outdoes them all with a jaw dropping ski jump by Bond (actually ski jumper Rick Sylvester) off a snowy sheer cliff into a seemingly bottomless abyss until Bond's Union Jack parachute opens up while the first piano keys to Carly Simon's fantastic theme song Nobody Does It Better play over the image. Composer Marvin Hamlisch's score is eclectic. Sometimes orchestral, other times electronic, Hamlisch even borrows the theme from LAWRENCE OF ARABIA with Bond in the desert.

The Bond films always provide 007 a physical adversary besides the evil, urbane megalomaniac. Past Bond adversaries include Red Grant (Robert Shaw) and the lethal shoes of Rosa Klebb (Lotta Lenya) from 1963's FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE or the juggernaut Oddjob (Harold Sakata) and his deadly bowler hat from 1964's GOLDFINGER.  THE SPY WHO LOVED ME tops them all with Richard Kiel as the towering Jaws. Perhaps a playful nod to Steven Spielberg's 1975 film JAWS, this Jaws has a bite courtesy of his metal fangs.  Jaws is nearly indestructible. Jaws has buildings fall on him, Jaws is thrown from a train, and Jaws goes off a cliff in a car. Jaws wrestles with a man-eating shark. Each time, Jaws survives, smoothing out his suit, straightening his tie, and like a Great White Shark, continuing the hunt for Bond and Anya.

Every assassin has to have a boss.  THE SPY WHO LOVED ME brings back the tradition of the well dressed, older supervillain in Karl Stromberg played by German actor Curt Jurgens. We had seen these type of sophisticated bad guys with previous Bond baddies Dr. No, Auric Goldfinger, and Ernst Stavros Blofeld. But the Bond filmmakers had switched it up with younger villains in the previous two Bond films with Kananga (Yaphet Kotto) in LIVE AND LET DIE and Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee) in THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN GUN. Stromberg is a return to the good old Bond days. With his webbed hands and German accent, Stromberg might be a Nazi scientist who escaped Germany after the war to start his shipping empire. Stromberg wants to demolish what he considers the current, decadent world and start a new one under the ocean.  Stromberg loves sea life more than human life.  When Bond does shoot Stromberg, the white haired villain dies like a fish out water, gasping for air in his death throes.

One interesting facet abut THE SPY WHO LOVED ME is it might be the only film where Bond has an equal partner throughout the entire film, in this case, rival Russian spy Major Anya Amasova. Bond always teamed up with a Bond girl in all his films but many of the ladies appear later in the film or sporadically.  CIA Agent Felix Leiter shows up in many Bond films as a Bond ally but only for a few scenes. Barbara Bach as Anya has almost as much screen time as Roger Moore. Their chemistry and rivalry as spies draws us to them. The fact Bond unknowingly killed Anya's lover is an added twist to the relationship. The Bond filmmakers have always recycled ideas throughout the series but they never did pair Bond with a full time partner like Anya again. Spy novelist Robert Ludlum had a great novel The Matarese Circle in 1979 that teamed an American assassin with a Russian assassin but both were men. Surprisingly, the Bond filmmakers never tried that idea. Thankfully, they gave us Bond and Anya.

The action scenes in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME are epic and hearken back to the finale of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE (1967) with gun play, beautiful explosions, and somersaulting stuntmen.  It makes sense as Lewis Gilbert directed both films. Production designer and frequent Bond collaborator Ken Adam's enormous submarine set is beautifully used for the big finale as Bond and the submarine crews take on Stromberg's army. Adam recently revealed that famed director Stanley Kubrick helped him figure out how to light the gigantic set when Kubrick visited the set after hours. Adam worked with Kubrick on DR. STRANGELOVE (1964). THE SPY WHO LOVED ME uses a lot of miniatures and models for numerous shots of the tanker, the submarines, and Stromberg's Octopus like headquarters. Between STAR WARS and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, 1977 may have been the dawn of special effects.

Roger Moore says that THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was his favorite Bond film he made.  Moore gives a great deal of credit to director Lewis Gilbert. Gilbert's resume is a mixture of romantic comedies like ALFIE (1966) and EDUCATING RITA (1983) and historical action films such as SINK THE BISMARCK ! (1960) and DAMN THE DEFIANT! (1962). THE SPY WHO LOVED ME  would be one of three Bond films Gilbert would direct and probably his best contribution to the Bond series.  Perhaps because of his work with actors like Michael Caine and William Holden, Gilbert brings some human dimension to the picture.  Bond doesn't seem quite so cold hearted.  Anya reveals there's some warmth inside her Siberian exterior.  Even Stromberg and Jaws have their human moments. But Gilbert throws in large doses of humor to break up the drama and action as well.

Whatever magic Gilbert used for THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, it disappeared with the next installment MOONRAKER (1979). Originally, FOR YOUR EYES ONLY was supposed to be the next Bond film (per the end credits of SPY).  It appears the Bond filmmakers wanted to capitalize on the growing interest in space films thanks to STAR WARS.   MOONRAKER is basically the same plot as THE SPY WHO LOVED ME except in space.  Only this time, a giant space rocket gobbles up orbiting American and Russian astronauts instead of the ocean tanker swallowing submarines in THE SPY WHO LOVED ME. Richard Kiel as Jaws also returns but his shtick had run its course and he's not nearly as much fun as he was in SPY.

Bond films always have some interesting connections and THE SPY WHO LOVED ME is no different. Barbara Bach and Richard Kiel would work together the following year in FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE (1978) directed by Bond veteran Guy Hamilton (GOLDFINGER, LIVE AND LET DIE). Bad guy Curt Jurgens who plays Stromberg worked with SPY director Lewis Gilbert back in 1959 as the anti-hero in FERRY TO HONG KONG (1959) co-starring Orson Welles. Shane Rimmer who plays American submarine Captain Carter (Rimmer was born in Canada and lived in England) had a small part in DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER (1971). Walter Gotell who plays KGB Chief Gogol played a different character in FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE but would play Gogol in six other Bond films including THE SPY WHO LOVED ME and THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS (1987).

A word about Roger Moore as James Bond. THE SPY WHO LOVED ME was Moore's third time as the famed British secret agent.  It feels like he had found his footing in SPY.  He moves from fight scene to love scene, from Egypt to Sardinia, effortlessly. One liners and sexual innuendos are uttered in Moore's smooth British accent.  After THE SPY WHO LOVED ME, I would enjoy only one more Roger Moore Bond film FOR YOUR EYES ONLY. After that, Moore and the Bond series would go through a painful period where both seemed old and outdated, reaching their nadir with 1985's A VIEW TO A KILL, probably the worst film in the whole Bond canon.  Moore would make seven Bond films altogether.  Four out of his first five Bond films are entertaining and proved he was a worthy successor to Sean Connery.

If I had one regret when I watched THE SPY WHO LOVED ME in the movie theater, it would be that I wish I had seen it with a packed audience.  As I recall, I saw it on a summer afternoon and the cavernous Tanasbourne Theater was mostly empty. It was almost like sitting in the submarine bay of Stromberg's colossal tanker only without Major Anya Amasova next to me. But it was the beginning of my cinematic journey to see the latest James Bond release in a movie theater rather than my living room.  I would have memorable viewings like GOLDENEYE (1995) and SKYFALL (2012) and some dismal ones like A VIEW TO A KILL and THE WORLD IS NOT ENOUGH (1999).  But producer Albert Broccoli's first solo production (after co-producing with Harry Saltzman previously) THE SPY WHO LOVED ME is one movie memory I will always cherish.

Rope (1948)

Alfred Hitchcock is my favorite film director of all time.  His list of bona fide hits is a Who's Who of the best films in cinema history (THE THIRTY NINE STEPS, SHADOW OF A DOUBT, VERTIGO, PSYCHO). But even the Master of Suspense got a little bored with the filmmaking process during his fifty plus year career.  Hitchcock said that once the script is done, "the picture's over. Now I have to go and put it on film." There are four films that Hitchcock made where he experimented with the filmmaking process.  In LIFEBOAT (1944), the entire film takes place on a lifeboat after a ship is sunk by a German sub and the survivors manage to reach a lifeboat.  1954's DIAL M FOR MURDER Hitchcock tried his hand at 3-D. In REAR WINDOW (also 1954), Hitchcock uses one large set for the entire film. His last experiment is the suspense film ROPE (1948).  ROPE is unique in that it's shot in continuous sequences ranging from 5 and a half to ten minutes. In each sequence, there are very few edits or cuts (a total of nine in all).

ROPE feels like a stage play which isn't surprising as it is based on a play by Patrick Hamilton called Rope's End about a real life murder committed by two University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb in 1924. But Hitchcock moves the camera, following characters down a hallway or pushing in on them during a dramatic moment or focusing on a key prop.  Hitchcock called making ROPE a "stunt." When I first saw ROPE, I wasn't that impressed but upon further review, ROPE is engaging, suspenseful, and a bit morbid.  ROPE was one of five Hitchcock films that was lost temporarily to moviegoers until 1984 when Hitchcock's daughter Patricia along with Universal Studios re-released them after a thirty year absence. ROPE is the first Hitchcock film that James Stewart would appear in (it turns out it was Stewart's least favorite of the four films he did with Hitchcock). ROPE is also the first color film that Alfred Hitchcock would make.

Despite the black and white stills, ROPE was Alfred Hitchcock's first color film. 

Actor/screenwriter Hume Cronyn adapted ROPE from the Hamilton play with Arthur Laurents writing the final screenplay.  Ironically, Cronyn had a supporting part in Hitchcock's SHADOW OF A DOUBT (1943) as a neighbor who theorizes with Teresa Wright's father about different murder cases and who the culprit might be. In reality, Cronyn adapted ROPE from a play about two murderers trying to hide their crime. Hitchcock opens ROPE with a shock. A tight close up on David Kentley (Dick Hogan) with a rope around his neck as he's strangled by two of his former classmates Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Farley Granger) in the middle of the afternoon in their apartment.  Brandon and Phillip should dispose of the body immediately but they hide it in an unlocked trunk in the living room. Brandon and Phillip are throwing a party later that evening. Brandon insists the trunk be used as a serving table.

Their unsuspecting house servant Mrs. Wilson (Edith Evanson) arrives soon after to prepare for the party.  The guests begin to arrive including Janet (Joan Chandler), the dead David's fiancée and her ex-boyfriend Kenneth Lawrence (Douglas Dick); David's father Mr. Kentley (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) and David's aunt Mrs. Atwater (Constance Collier), and the most important guest of all Rupert Cadell (James Stewart), a former prep school housemaster to all the young men including Brandon and Phillip. Sociopath Brandon considers the murder a work of art and the party a diabolical way to get away with it under everyone's nose.

When the guests start to wonder where David is, the tension in ROPE begins to build. The topic of murder comes up which Mr. Kentley finds morbid.  Phillip begins to show signs of cracking. This only emboldens Brandon.  He repeatedly tries to reconnect Janet with her old flame Kenneth since David has failed to show.  Mrs. Wilson reveals to Rupert that the two men have been acting strange all afternoon which arouses Rupert's curiosity. Rupert probes the two men.  It's only when Rupert accidentally discovers a hat in the closet with David's initials that he truly realizes what his two former pupils have done.

The guests all leave for the evening.  Brandon and Phillip believe they have gotten away with their perfect crime.  They plan to drive up to Connecticut that night where they will dispose of David's body. But then Rupert calls.  He has forgotten his cigarette case and asks if he can come back up to the apartment to look for it. Phillip doesn't want Rupert to come back up but Brandon relishes the opportunity.  Rupert reveals he knows what Brandon and Phillip have done.  Brandon tells Rupert the two men were inspired by Rupert's thesis about intellectual superiority and getting away with the murder of an inferior. Rupert wrestles a gun away from Phillip and calls the police. Phillip finds solace playing the piano as the three of them wait for the authorities.

ROPE is one of many Hitchcock films that has a handsome, well educated psychopath (or sociopath) committing murder. In ROPE's case, two handsome young men trying to get away with the perfect murder. From Ivor Novello in THE LODGER (1927) to Joseph Cotton in SHADOW OF A DOUBT to Robert Walker in STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951) and Anthony Perkins in PSYCHO (1960), these villains don't have scars or a missing eye or bad teeth. What's different with ROPE is that the two killers are homosexual (or it's implied).  I couldn't find any evidence that the real killers Leopold and Loeb were gay but Hamilton's play has a homosexual subtext with even a subplot that Rupert had an affair with one of the boys.  In 1948, the topic of homosexuality would have been too controversial to address yet Hitchcock doesn't shy away from it.  John Dall as Brandon is the more confident, brazen partner.  Farley Granger as Phillip is the weaker, more feminine one. The film doesn't imply that the two men murdered their classmate because they were gay (although their reactions after killing David are sexually charged).  The murder was to impress their former teacher Rupert.  They wanted to see if they could get away with murder, based in part on a thesis the young men had debated with Rupert on how a person with intellectual superiority could commit the perfect murder and get away with it.  Only Brandon and Phillip have twisted Rupert's hypothetical idea into a terrifying reality.

Rupert's hypothetical argument was that the privileged can murder and get away with it because they are superior.  The victims are the inferior. Rupert begins to unravel the mystery of David's absence from the party. When he confronts Brandon and Phillip and hears their rationale for the murder, Rupert realizes he's an unwitting third accomplice.  It was Rupert's musings about superiority and inferiority that sparked Brandon and Phillip to kill. The two men warped Rupert's theory, choosing to play God. In a way,  Rupert is as guilty as Brandon and Phillip. Only Rupert has a moral compass. He knows what's right and wrong.

If you are a fan of James Stewart, you remember he mostly appeared in comedies in the 30s and early 40s like DESTRY RIDES AGAIN (1939) and George Cukor's THE PHILADELPHIA STORY (1940). But when Stewart returned from World War II, he began to seek more serious roles.  Even his first film after the war Frank Capra's IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE (1946), Stewart mixes dramatic intensity with comedy as George Bailey. In ROPE, Stewart plays his first of four conflicted characters in Hitchcock films, his best troubled performance in his last with Hitchcock VERTIGO (1958). Stewart would play psychologically challenged roles in several Westerns for director Anthony Mann as well.

Stewart does a good job early in ROPE playing curious but not too suspicious. We the audience root for Rupert since we know who the murderers already are. We need Rupert to solve it. But Rupert's uncovering the murder reveals he may have inadvertently instigated it. Early in the party, Rupert jokes that murder should be an art. "And, as such, the privilege of committing it should be reserved for those few who are really superior individuals." He's had this lively conversation with Brandon and Phillip before. In the end, he realizes they put his hypothesis to the test.  Brandon and Phillip may die in a gas chamber but Rupert will carry his role in a young man's death for the rest of his life.

The young handsome killers are played by John Dall and Farley Granger. Dall as the charismatic Brandon is the flashier role, the Alpha of the two men, a thrill seeker.  He orchestrates the murder and party with equal aplomb. He has taken Rupert's hypothetical theory about "superiority" to a grisly level. He wants to prove he can get away with murder. "Murder can be an art, too. The power to kill can be just as satisfying as the power to create," Brandon boasts to Phillip. I'd never seen Dall in a film before.  He nearly steals ROPE with his icy performance. Unfortunately, after a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for THE CORN IS GREEN (1945), Dall's first film, his career never kicked off after ROPE even though he appeared in the Film Noir cult classic GUN CRAZY (1950) and in Stanley Kubrick's SPARTACUS (1960).

Farley Granger who plays Phillip, the weaker, more nervous of the pair would have a much more successful career after ROPE although mostly in television.  Granger would play the wronged hero Guy Haines in Hitchcock's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN (1951). Granger's Phillip is the conscience of the two killers yet he's the one who strangled their friend David. Phillip's a nervous wreck as the guests arrive and begin to wonder where's David. Phillip calms himself by playing the piano.  When Brandon recalls a story about Phillip strangling chickens on a farm, Phillip shouts, "I never strangled a chicken in my life!"  It's almost a confession from Phillip, a plea to find the body and rid him of his guilt.

Sir Cedric Hardwicke as David's father is the only well known supporting cast member. Hardwicke also appeared in Hitchcock's SUSPICION (1941) and played Ludwig Frankenstein in THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942). Hardwicke was knighted in 1934 (hence the Sir) and had a successful stage and film career.  Joan Chandler as Janet and Douglas Dick as ex-boyfriend Kenneth are fresh faces. Kenneth keeps joking how he's not very smart.  He's lucky he didn't end up with the rope around his neck. Constance Collier as Mrs. Atwater, David's aunt, provides the comic relief.  She provides some in-jokes when trying to remember the title of a film starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman (it's Hitchcock's NOTORIOUS) or proclaiming her admiration for Cary Grant as she stands next to James Stewart (Grant's co-star in THE PHILADELPHIA STORY). Collier began acting in the silent era but her last film would be two years later with the 1950 Film Noir WHIRLPOOL directed by Otto Preminger. She would retire from film after that.

ROPE is Hitchcock at his most macabre.  The murder weapon, a piece of rope, is almost a character of its own. First, we see it wrapped around David's throat. After he's disposed of in the trunk, Phillip finds it hanging from the side.  Brandon twirls it as he hides it in the kitchen. But then, Brandon uses the murder weapon to tie some rare books together for Mr. Kentley, David's father. Finally, Rupert brings the rope back in view (having removed it offscreen from Mr. Kentley's books) when he accuses the two men of their crime.  Whether it be a knife, a neck tie, scissors, or rope, Hitchcock often made the murder weapon a supporting character. The dialogue by Cronyn and Laurents is very ghoulish. Rupert goes on a hypothetical rant about how murdering people will free up a table at a good restaurant or better seats at the theater. Later, Mrs. Atwater (an amateur palm reader) tells Phillip that his hands will bring him great fame. Phillip yearns to be a pianist but it's his hands that killed David. It's funny, dark stuff from the Master of Suspense.

Besides Hitchcock taking on yet another technical challenge, the real heroes of ROPE are the Operators of the Camera Movement (four in all) as well as the production design team who had to move walls silently as the camera moved during the continuous long takes. ROPE is supposed to take place in real time (80 minutes in all). Except for a few straight cuts at dramatic junctures of the film, most of the cuts happen as the camera is blocked momentarily by a character's back. It's noticeable but the technique doesn't distract the audience from the plot.

The real life murderers Leopold and Loeb would go to court in the Trial of the Century. They were represented by the legendary attorney Clarence Darrow but even he couldn't save them. Leopold and Loeb would be convicted of the kidnapping and murder of 14 year old Bobby Franks and sentenced to life in prison. The killers and murder have spawned several plays and movies besides ROPE including Richard Fleischer's COMPULSION (1959) starring Orson Welles, Dean Stockwell, and Bradford Dillman.

ROPE would not be the first film that Hitchcock made based on real life events and people.  THE WRONG MAN (1956) starring Henry Fonda is based on the real life story of an innocent man mistaken as an armed robber.  And Hitchcock's PSYCHO based on the novel by Robert Bloch, some of the events are taken from the real life serial killer Ed Gein. As interesting an exercise and engaging a film as ROPE is, it would be a failure for Hitchcock at the box office.  But like many films that failed initially with the public, ROPE'S reputation has grown over the years. It's not at the pantheon of great Hitchcock films but the second tier of entertaining near misses for the Master of Suspense.