Murders Most Foul. Also Hilarious

Rope is a film Hitchcock supposedly did in one take. The entire film, which is pretty impressive. He had multiple cameras running simultaneously, and when it was planned to switch from one to another, he had both cameras zoom in on something. A character's back, the chest the dead body is hidden in, something that would fill the screen so it was obvious there was a switch going on.

I don't know if there was a particular point Hitchcock was trying to make, or if it was an interesting exercise he wanted to try. Just to see if he could, perhaps? Like that issue of Byrne's Alpha Flight, with the Snowbird fighting the all white creature in a snowstorm, perhaps. I suppose I shouldn't have been surprised that the murders would take to the notion that a superior person is above the standard morality, and can kill as they see fit, while ignoring the obvious question of who determines one's superiority, but surprised I was. I suppose I considered that such an obvious flaw it was hard to believe guys as smart as Phillip and Brandon (and Rupert, since he was the one who engrained the idea in their heads) were supposed to be wouldn't have discerned it.

The other movie on the docket was Without a Clue, with Michael Caine and Ben Kingsley. Kingsley plays Dr. Watson, who in this film is the deductive genius, and Caine plays an actor Watson hired to play Sherlock Holmes, who is really a figment of Watson's imagination. Several years into this arrangementm they've worn on each other's nerves. Holmes tired of all the little facts he must memorize to repeat, Watson tired of Holmes' drinking, gambling, and other vices. But the British mystery enthusiasts of the time, much like superhero comic fans today, don't want new stuff, so watson's idea to publish stories of "John Watson, the Crime Doctor", goes over like a lead balloon. Throw Moriarty out to destroy his arch-foe and wreck England's economy, and there you go.

It's an highly entertaining film. Caine does have excellent comic timing, and the ways he and Kingsley go about carrying their little ruse is highly amusing. I especially like that Holmes will wander the crime scene with his magnifying glass, appearing to inspect things closely to draw LeStrade after him, which leaves Watson free to look for actual clues.