Rope (1948)

John Dall: Brandon

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Mrs. Atwater : Do you know, when I was a girl I used to read quite a bit.

  Brandon : We all do strange things in our childhood.

• Brandon : What are you doing?

  Rupert Cadell : It's not what I'm going to do, Brandon. It's what society is going to do. I don't know what that will be, but I can guess, and I can help. You're going to die, Brandon. Both of you. You are going to die.

  [opens a window and fires three shots] 

• Brandon : I've always wished for more artistic talent. Well, murder can be an art, too. The power to kill can be just as satisfying as the power to create.

• Phillip : Rupert only publishes books *he* likes... usually philosophy.

  Janet : Oh. Small print, big words, no sales.

  Brandon : Rupert's extremely radical. Do you know that he selects his books on the assumption that people not only can read but actually can think?

• Brandon : Nobody commits a murder just for the experiment of committing it. Nobody except us.

• Brandon : It is a little difficult trying to keep up with your romances. After me came Kenneth, now it's David. Why the, the switch from Kenneth to David anyway?

  Janet : Obviously I think he's nicer.

  Brandon : Well, he's certainly richer.

  Janet : That's a new low... even for you, chum.

• Brandon : Mrs. Wilson, champagne!

  Kenneth : Oh, it isn't someone's birthday, is it?

  Brandon : Don't look so worried, Kenneth. It's, uh, really almost the opposite.

• Brandon : I've always thought that it was out of character for David to drink anything as corrupt as whiskey.

  Phillip : Out of character for him to be murdered, too.

• Brandon : An immaculate murder. We've killed for the sake of danger and for the sake of killing. We're alive, truly and wonderfully alive.

• Brandon : Determined to get drunk, aren't you?

  Phillip : I am drunk.

  Brandon : And just as childish as you were before when you called me a liar.

  Phillip : You had no business telling that story.

  Brandon : Why did you lie anyway?

  Phillip : I had to! Have you ever bothered for just one minute to understand how someone else might feel?

  Brandon : I'm not sentimental if that's what you...

  Phillip : No, that's not what I mean; but it doesn't matter. Nothing matters... except that Mr. Brandon liked the party. Mr. Brandon gave the party. Mr. Brandon had a delightful evening. Well, I had a rotten evening!

  Brandon : Keep drinking, and you'll have a worse morning.

  Phillip : At least if I have a hangover, it'll be all mine!

• Rupert Cadell : After all, murder is - or should be - an art. Not one of the 'seven lively', perhaps, but an art nevertheless. And, as such, the privilege of committing it should be reserved for those few who are really superior individuals.

  Brandon : And the victims: inferior beings whose lives are unimportant anyway.

  Rupert Cadell : Obviously. Now, mind you, I don't hold with the extremists who feel that there should be open season for murder all year round. No, personally, I would prefer to have..."Cut a Throat Week"... or, uh, "Strangulation Day"...

• Brandon : That's where we're superior, Phillip. We have courage. Rupert doesn't.

  Mrs. Wilson : [placing a tray of food on the table]  Mr. Cadell got a bad leg in the war for his courage. And you've got your sleeve in the celery, Mr. Phillip.

• Brandon : [handing Kenneth a drink]  Would you mind taking this in to Janet?

  Kenneth : Sure. Why?

  Brandon : No particular reason. I thought you'd like to take it to her. She's in the bedroom.

  Kenneth : Then you'd like David to walk in.

  Brandon : No, that'd be too much of a shock.

• Brandon : The good Americans usually die young on the battlefield, don't they? Well, the Davids of this world merely occupy space, which is why he was the perfect victim for the perfect murder. Course he, uh, he was a Harvard undergraduate. That might make it justifiable homicide.

• Brandon : It's only a piece of rope, Phillip, an ordinary household article. Why hide it?

• Phillip : Cat and mouse! Cat and mouse!

  Brandon : Phillip!

  Phillip : Which is the cat and which is the mouse?

• Brandon : But why should I want to come back?

  Phillip : Yes, why?

  Brandon : For the pleasure of our company, or another drink?

  Rupert Cadell : That's a very good idea. May I have one for the road?

• Brandon : It's the darkness that's got you down. Nobody feels really safe in the dark.

• Brandon : We agreed there was only one crime either of us could commit. The crime of making a mistake. Being weak is a mistake.

  Phillip : Because it's being human?

  Brandon : Because it's being ordinary.

• Brandon : You look lovely.

  Janet : I won't by the time it's all paid for.

  [Brandon laughs] 

  Janet : Was that funny? I never know when I'm being funny. Whenever I try to be, I lay the bomb of all time.

• Rupert Cadell : Brandon, till this very moment, this world and the people in it have always been dark and incomprehensible to me. I've tried to clear my way with logic and superior intellect. And you've thrown my own words right back in my face, Brandon. You were right, too. If nothing else, a man should stand by his words. But you've given my words a meaning that i never dreamed of ! And you've tried to twist them into a cold, logical excuse for your ugly murder ! Well, they never were that Brandon, and you cant make them that. There must of been something deep inside you from the very start that let you do this thing, but there's always been something deep inside me, that would never let me do it - and would never let me be a party to it now.

  Brandon : What do you mean ?

  Rupert Cadell : I mean that tonight you've made me ashamed of every concept i ever had of superior or inferior beings. But i thank you for that shame, because now i know that we are each of us a separate human being, Brandon. With the right to live and work and think as individuals, but with an obligation to the society we live in. By what right do you dare say that there's a superior few to which you belong ? By what right did you dare decide that, that boy in there was inferior and therefore could be killed ? Did you think you were God, Brandon ? Is that what you thought when you choked the life out of him ? Is that what you thought when you served food from his grave ? I dont know what you thought or what you are, but i know what you've done. You've murdered ! You've strangled the life out of another fellow human being who could live and love as you never could - and never will again

  Brandon : What are you doing ?

  Rupert Cadell : It's not what i'm going to do, it's what society's going to do. I don't know what that will be, but i can guess. And i can help. You're going to die, Brandon - both of you ! You're going to die!

• Brandon : Now look, I'm not going to get caught because of you or anyone else. Nobody is going to get in my way now.

• Brandon : What a lovely evening. Pity we couldn't have done it with the curtains open in the bright sunlight.

• Brandon : [referring to his nearly empty glass of champagne]  Kenneth, there's too much air in your glass.

• Brandon : You're not frightened anymore, are you, Phillip?

  Phillip : No.

  Brandon : Not even of me?

  Phillip : No.

  Brandon : That's good.

  Phillip : You just astound me, as always.

  Brandon : That's even better.

• Janet : I could really strangle you, Brandon.

  Brandon : What have I done now?

  Janet : At times, your sense of humor is a little too malicious, chum.

• Rupert Cadell : Brandon, exactly what is this?

  Brandon : A cassone I got in Italy.

  Rupert Cadell : No, no, I mean why are we eating off it?

  Brandon : Oh, I've turned the dining room into a library.

  Rupert Cadell : Trust you to find a new use for a chest. One was always turning up in the bedtime stories he told in prep school. 'The Mistletoe Bough', that was always your favorite tale, wasn't it?

  Janet : What was that one about? I don't remember exactly how it started. It was about a lovely young girl...

  Mr. Kentley : She was a bride-to-be. And on her wedding day, she playfully hid herself in a chest.

  Rupert Cadell : Yes, that's right.

  Mr. Kentley : Unfortunately, it had a spring lock. Fifty years later, they found her skeleton.

  Janet : I don't think I'll get that playful.

• Brandon : The few are those men of such intellectual and cultural superiority that they're above the traditional moral concepts. Good and evil, right and wrong, were invented for the ordinary, average man, the inferior man, because he needs them.

  Mr. Kentley : Then obviously you agree with Nietzsche and his theory of the superman.

  Brandon : Yes, I do.

  Mr. Kentley : So did Hitler.

  Brandon : Hitler was a paranoiac savage. His supermen, all fascist supermen, were brainless murderers. I'd hang any who were left. But then, you see, I'd hang them first for being stupid. I'd hang all incompetents and fools anyway. There are far too many in the world.

  Mr. Kentley : Then, perhaps you should hang me, Brandon.

• Rupert Cadell : You were really pushing your point rather hard. You aren't planning to do away with a few inferiors, by any chance?

  Brandon : I'm a creature of whim. Who knows?

• Brandon : Kenneth, why don't you switch on the radio or play some records? A little atmospheric music goes a long way.

• Brandon : I'm not interested in Janet's prattle, but you always interest me, Rupert.

• Brandon : Another drink?

  Rupert Cadell : Well, that's a very good idea. May I have one for the road?

  Brandon : Of course. A short one?

  Rupert Cadell : No, I'd prefer a long one if you don't mind.

• [first lines] 

  Brandon : [David screams, to Phillip]  Open it.

  [they put David in the trunk and close it] 

• Brandon : It's a trifle late for that, don't you think?

• Phillip : You don't think the party's a mistake?

  Brandon : No, it's the finishing touch to our work. It's more. It's the signature of the artists. Not having it would be like, uh...

  Phillip : Painting the picture and not hanging it?

  Brandon : That's not a good choice of words.

  Phillip : It may end up too choice, thanks to the party.

• Phillip : How did it feel... during it?

  Brandon : I don't remember feeling very much of anything... until his body went limp and I knew it was over. I felt tremendously exhilarated. How did you feel?

• Brandon : There's champagne in the icebox.

  Mrs. Wilson : Oh, we're not giving them champagne?

  Brandon : We are.

  Mrs. Wilson : Oh, well, it's going to be that kind of party. I'd better doll up a little.

• Brandon : That's the difference between us and the ordinary men, Phillip. They talk about committing the perfect crime, but nobody does it.

• Brandon : Kenneth, there's too much air in your glass.

• Janet : Hello, ducks. Angel!

  [hugs Brandon] 

  Janet : Be careful of my hair, it took hours. You smell dreamy. What is it?

  Brandon : That swill you gave me last Christmas.

  Janet : I always knew I had good taste.

• Janet : May I use the phone?

  Brandon : Of course. It's in the bedroom.

  Janet : How cozy.

• Janet : Why did you invite Kenneth?

  Brandon : Why not?

  Janet : You know perfectly well why not. We called it quits ages ago and I'm practically engaged to his best friend.

  Brandon : David?

  Janet : Yes, David. Which makes everything just ginger-peachy.

• Brandon : Perhaps what is called "civilization" is hypocrisy.