8 Chilling Old-Hollywood Movies You Need To See

3. Rope (1948)

By 1948, Alfred Hitchcock had amassed his legendary reputation as "the master of suspense," However, Rope became one of his first box-office flops, which is such a shame.

Roommates Brandon and Philip endeavor to commit the "perfect" murder. The two brazenly host a tense dinner party as their friend's corpse takes center stage in a trunk nearby.

Rope is perhaps Hitchcock's most ambitious project to that point. Always one to try something new, the action is limited to the confines of one room in an apartment and filmed so as to seem like one continuous shot. All of this makes for an almost unbearably tense and claustrophobic tale as we wonder: will these two devious young men get away with their crime?

Perhaps what is most interesting about Rope is the very intentional homoerotic subtext. Always one to push the envelope, Hitchcock uses a murder as a metaphor for a gay love affair that just might be found out. This subtext has since been confirmed by star Farley Granger who praised Hitchcock's willingness to explore and push the limits of what was deemed acceptable at the time.

Rope has so many more layers than the simple dark thriller it seems on the surface, and is most definitely worth another look.