Alfred Hitchcock was always looking for something new to amaze his audiences. In Rope, he not only made the picture look like it had been filmed in one continuous shot, but he also shows us the crime at the beginning of the film. This would be a mystery that the audience knew the answer to before anyone on screen did.
Onscreen we see the murderers after they've committed their crime. Believing themselves to be incredibly intelligent, they put the victim's body in a chest and use it as a coffee table for a dinner party they're throwing. They're literally challenging their guests to figure out what they've done.
Mr. Hitchcock ingeniously builds up the suspense even though the audience already knows whodunnit. Jimmy Stewart's professor character senses something is wrong and the audience is on the edge of its seat, wondering if the professor will figure it out.
The production was an amazing undertaking; props and set pieces had to be moved quickly in order for the continuous shot conceit to work. At one point, the camera visibly wobbles; that's a poor cameraman whose foot got run over by a camera dolly. Despite breaking his foot, he doesn't make a sound, so the footage was actually used in the film. Mr. Hitchcock's experiment was a huge success, becoming a classic of suspense.
