One of Alfred Hitchcock’s occasional cinematic experiments – Lifeboat, shot entirely on the titular watercraft, another is – Rope is famous primarily for unfolding in what appears to be one uninterrupted take. That wasn’t actually the case – a film magazine only held 10 minutes of footage – but tracks over areas of black cleverly disguised most of the film’s nine cuts. Such single-take works –  now known as oners – have become more common with digital technology (see the recent TV shows Adolescence and The Studio for outstanding examples), but Rope, with its precisely timed, sinuous camera movements, was an unprecedented technical achievement in its day. Just as impressive was the studio-created view through the expansive apartment window, with the sun setting prettily, clouds subtly shifting, and lights winking on and illuminating the darkening cityscape. The story – adapted from Patrick Hamilton’s play by Hume Cronyn (who acted for Hitchcock in Shadow of a Doubt) and Arthur Laurents – takes inspiration from a real-life “perfect murder” committed by the infamous Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, a pair of university students who styled themselves as superior beings not bound by conventional morality. Rope’s Nietzschean Übermenschen are Brandon (John Dall) and Phillip (Farley Granger), who kill a fellow student and then audaciously host the victim’s father, aunt, fiancée, and romantic rival at a dinner party in which the food is served from atop a trunk containing the freshly dispatched body. As a further ironic flourish, they also invite their former teacher (James Stewart), whose lessons inspired their outrageous act.