I'm currently taking a film appreciation course and reviewing Hitchcock's "Rope" for an oral presentation. Most probably remember it's about a couple of fancy-pants college boys under the influence of a prep school teacher who hypothetically discusses Nietzchean (sp?) philosophy [long story short] the kids murder a friend to prove the ordinary rules don't apply to "superior" people. Anyway, Jimmy Stewart plays the former teacher who fingers his former students. Anyone else who's seen this film think Stewart seems somewhat Columboish in the way he solves the murder?

I don't know if I would agree that Stewart's character is Columbo-ish in the way he solves the murder. Stewart's character is very perceptive to the behavior of the "secondary" murderer. That character can't control his nerves. It's been sometime since I saw the movie, but isn't there a moment when the "secondary" murderer see's that the "lead" murderer has tied up a bunch of books with the rope/murder weapon? When he see's it, his eyes bulge out of their sockets, he starts tugging at his shirt collar and he starts gasping, "R-r-r-rope! R-r-r-r-r-rope! Murder! Death! Blood! ARRRGHHH! I never wanted to be a university student anyway! I wanted to be... A LUMBERJACK!"

Uh.

Yes, well. Anyway.

Again, it seems to me that Stewart's character reacts to how the murderers act. Stewart's character isn't the one who gets them to act the way they do. Their own reactions to each another's guilt(secondary murderer) and arrogance (lead murderer) does them in. Stewart's character doesn't really get a chance to nag at them or get on their nerves or anything like that. It's a darn great movie though!

But Stewart does have conversations with both characters in which he becomes somewhat "annoying" and dosen't accept polite replys. At end he makes a "one more thing" reentry onto the scene on the pretext he forgot his cigarette case and continues with his cat-and-mouse game until he solves the crime. Unlike Columbo, he is a formally educated guy. "Rope" ain't Hitch's best, but it's still better than many.