Brandon wants excitement and little cares how he gets it. He persuades his weak-minded friend, Granillo, to assist him in the murder of a fellow undergraduate. The two place the body in a wooden chest and, to add spice to their handiwork, invite a few acquaintances, including the dead man's father, round to a party, the chest with its gruesome contents serving as a supper table. The horror and tension are worked up gradually; thunder growls outside, the guests leave, and we see the reactions of the two murderers, watched closely by the suspicting Rupert Cadell. Finally, they break down under the strain and confess their guilt. The final curtain descends on Cadell blowing the whistle which will summon a waiting policeman. Rope, first produced and published in 1929, was filmed by Alfred Hitchcock in 1948 and remains to this day one of the classics of the thriller genre.
Rope was also famously turned into a Hitchcock film starring James Stewart. However, the film version, as good as it is, is set in a different time and misses out, in my opinion, on one of the crucial issues of Hamilton's original play, even though it does try to update the discussion.
The original play was set in the post-war London of the 1920s with the questions and issues raised by the First World War still very much on the minds of people. It is with this background, that Hamilton weaves in the question of when murder becomes socially and morally acceptable - when is killing murder and when is it war.
I had so far only seen the film, but the original play is really worth listening to - even if some of the dialogue and plot are a little forced.
