In a New York City
apartment a faint scream can be heard as two friends’ murder a third before
concealing his body inside a large wooden chest placed prominently inside their
living room. The crime is committed moments before people who know the dead man
arrive for a party. Lead conspirator Brandon Shaw (John Dall) commits the
murder as an intellectual exercise in order to prove his superiority over the
dead man and other party guests. Fellow conspirator Phillip Morgan (Farley
Granger) is less confident about the crime and much more conscious of having a
dead body in his midst. Amongst the party guests are the dead man, David’s
parents, girlfriend, ex-classmate and all four friend’s ex-prep school
housemaster Rupert Cadell (James Stewart) of whom Brandon is most wary of being able to
discover the body.
The film comes off like a play and is indeed based on a play
from the 1920s. The entire plot takes place inside one apartment set and mostly
within one room of that apartment. Although characters move about the setting I
don’t think the camera ever leaves the living room. Adding to the sense of
being a play is the editing. The film is shot as though one long, continuous
take though is actually broken up into ten separate takes with each cut being
masked by a man’s jacket moving across the screen or the back of some
furniture. This allowed the director, Alfred Hitchcock the chance to cut scenes
and change the magnificent backdrop which indicates the passing of the day.
