The Hunt for Pants

My lovely spouse is a woman of many talents and a distinctive style that I find absolutely breathtaking. Everything she chooses for her wardrobe, she chooses with thought and care that I could never have. Seriously, I live in leggings and dresses and I don’t even gravitate towards matching jewellery (or matching fixtures in our house). However, she does frequently run into one problem — pants.

She’s just very hard on trousers. How hard? I bought her a pair of jeggings a month back, and already they have enough holes to be relegated into being just gardening pants. She just wears them into the ground and loves them to death. They have to endure dirt and flour and everything else that life throws at her in a week. And, because of that, so many trousers have been found decidedly lacking and have broken down under the pressure.

So, I was ecstatic when she found a few pairs at a local shop that she loved. They are sturdy. Each of them will last. And, most importantly, her face lit up when she tried them on. My lovely spouse always acts like getting nice things for her is too much, but she’s worth the universe to me and then some. Hopefully I’ll be able to convince someday that trousers she likes are an expense I am very happy to incur.

A Murder with No Mystery

I picked Patrick Hamilton’s Rope because it is a subtle kind of spooky. It’s not a murder-mystery. The murder has happened and it is no mystery who did it. Wyndham Brandon and Charles Granillo are a couple that has decided to kill their friend Ronald Raglan, who they view as superfluous. Why? For the thrill of it, and, more chillingly, because they think they are part of an elite group that can pass judgement on who does or does not deserve to live.

If you think that the violence is the spooky part, it isn’t. Instead, what is truly scary is Hamilton’s examination of privilege and his questions about intellectual pursuit carried too far. Rope also talks about human connection and just how many lives one person touches regardless of how ordinary they appear.

I must admit that I am particularly drawn to this kind of examination of what makes a human being a monster and how far the depths of human cruelty and callousness extend. Works on this these themes make it into my to-read list every time I come across them.

The Film vs The Play

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope from 1947 remains one of my favourite films of all time. It came in a box set I bought when DVD box sets were new and exciting. I watched it and remember my young mind being torn open by the monologue delivered at the end of the movie by Rupert Cadell (wonderfully played by Jimmy Stewart). I even incorporated a quote from it in one of my tattoos.

How does the film compare to the play? Well, first off, it’s important to remember that the film had nearly twenty years of literary growth to help refine Hamilton’s original. I may prefer the film, but mostly that’s because it took Hamilton’s play and made it into the cohesive, compelling piece that it couldn’t quite have been when it was produced due to the limits of 1929.

Hamilton also relies on tropes that very much fall flat modernly (and would have in the 1940s as well). The character of the aunt, and the character of Leila Arden grate quite badly because they are lifeless clichés. The servant Sabot also suffers from clichés and a dose of stereotype used as humour. Rope’s screenwriter, Arthur Laurents, turns those characters into something fantastic and cleans up the problems of Hamilton’s original script. Janet Walker is a complex part that does not fully hinge on her appearance and gender! The victim’s aunt is not a silent, strange gag! The servant actually has something to say! All excellent changes!

Aging Well

Rope, or the film at least, has experienced a lovely renaissance. It is now featured not only for Halloween or Hitchcock retrospectives, but also as a pride feature. The criminal case that Hamilton based the original play on was a murder committed by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb who were lovers. Hamilton preserved this in his story and Laurents preserved it in his script (as much as the censors would allow). The film features LGBT+ actors in LGBT+ roles, which was rare for the time, as well as the sheer amount of LGBT+ subtext.

While I don’t think that the Hamilton’s play has been staged as much as Hitchcock’s film has been screened, I’m sure that there are plenty of individuals like me who will seek it out as the source of the film. That alone will probably keep it in print for years to come.

Fall Arrivals

While we were hunting for some pairs of trousers, the clerks were just sorting through a shipment of mittens. Mittens? Now? I feel bad when kids are bombarded with back-to-school ads in July. We haven’t reached fall yet! I love winter, but I am not ready for the cool weather and colours of fall to be just wished away through store inventory.