Although Rope claims to be based on the Leopold-Loeb murder, it does not contain much of any factual information. It is based more on the idea than the facts of the case. In Rope, two college friends host a dinner party, after murdering a classmate.

They hide the classmate's body in a trunk, then proceed to serve their dinner upon it.

Jimmy Stewart is their former teacher whose theories and ideas the boys had put into practice- i.e Stewart represents Friedrich Nietzsche. He represents a Nietzsche to Leopold and Loeb as Nietzsche was to the Nazis. And this story, set in 1948, does make that point. By the end, Stewart has discovered the crime and states that his theories were never meant to be put into practice in the real world, and that the boy's had twisted them.

Rope is interesting mostly for Hitchcock's cinematic trick of making the entire movie appear to have been captured in one continuous shot. Philip represents, more or less, Nathan Leopold, and Brandon is Richard Loeb, the stronger dominating character. Brandon is motivated to commit a perfect crime under the influence of his teacher, i.e Nietzsche, and the notions of superiority.

In Rope, the Brandon character really is both Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Brandon is the strong dominating characteristics, Philip is the weaker characteristics. That is what is interesting about Rope- however, these characters are pieces of the ultimate character that was Leopold and Loeb. They can not be split off into two people, one dominating, one weak. Both Leopold and Loeb posessed dominating and weak characteristics; both were the Master and the Slave and they played off each other and fed each other.

Rope is still an interesting flick. For one thing, there is far more hinting of a homosexual relationship than in Compulsion, which was made a whole ten years later. This innuendo is purely acted out. There is no suggestive dialog. But it's interesting to watch.