Two young men attempt to prove they committed the perfect murder by hosting a dinner party for the family of a classmate they just strangled to death.
Direction
Hitchcock's invisible cuts create unbearable real-time tension.
Acting
John Dall's smug superiority vs. Farley Granger's unraveling guilt.
Writing
Nietzschean philosophy weaponized as murder justification.
Director
Alfred Hitchcock
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Hitchcock called the ten-minute film magazine limit 'a nuisance' and planned every camera movement around reloading—look for zooms into dark jackets.
The real Leopold and Loeb case inspired the play; Hitchcock stripped the homosexual subtext that was obvious in 1929 but forbidden by 1948 Hollywood.
US
