A movie about a murder, a party, and a Big Reveal, starring James Stewart and coming in at only 80 minutes? That’s like finding a non-iron designer dress, in my size, with pockets, for £1.50 in a charity shop. But how does it end? (If you’re after my 4-star review, it’s here.)
Rupert Cadell, rather than the upstanding citizen he believes himself to be, is actually a much more ambivalent character. His shock and revulsion at the monstrousness of Brandon and Phillip’s actions, which Brandon blames on Rupert’s teachings, soon turns into an attempt to avoid any kind of responsibility, not just for David Ketley’s death but also for informing on David’s killers.
It isn’t as simple as him reacting with horror that Brandon has taken his musings about superiority as truth and killed a man using them as an excuse; Rupert is indeed horrified, but he then appears to go to great pains to extricate himself not only from blame for the murder but also from Brandon and Phillip’s eventual fate (death at the hands of the State). Rupert doesn’t even call the police himself, despite there being a telephone in the flat’s hallway, but rather fires Brandon’s gun so someone else calls them.
He never seems willing to take responsibility for the big decisions in life. The question is, is this because deep down he still sees himself as a step above everyone else, or because now that he claims to realise that he is not above society but part of it he feels stepping back and letting society take control is the right thing to do?
Read on for a plot run down from the end of that tortuous party…
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Brandon and Phillip do get their comeuppance at the end of the film. Brandon’s need for silence clashes with his desire for praise from someone he admires (Rupert) and his clever hints generally morph into braggadocio. He also doesn’t bank on Rupert’s horror at what his abstract teachings about human worth have led to, his abhorrence at the murder, and indeed his old teacher’s refusal to take any blame himself.
As the party comes to an end, the guests are increasingly concerned about David. Brandon bundles up some books for David’s father, Henry Kentley, to take away, tying them with the actual rope used to kill David.
There is a phone call from David’s mother Alice, which Mrs Atwater takes. Meanwhile the housekeeper Mrs Wilson clears up the food, bringing stacks of books back from another room to put back in the trunk – the trunk still concealing David’s body. As she bustles, in the background the guests discuss where they think David last was that afternoon. After Brandon says he and Phillip had been too busy to go to the tennis club that afternoon as they were preparing for the party, Rupert says pointedly “oh there was a lot to be done this afternoon”. Rupert is starting to believe something bad has happened but has yet to complete the jigsaw.
Brandon notices Rupert helping Mrs Wilson open the trunk to put the books in, and rushes over to tell her to do it the next day when she’s back in to do the post-party cleaning. Mrs Atwater tells the assembled guests that Alice is terribly worried about David, and Henry Kentley decides to go home to his wife. Janet and Kenneth agree to leave with him and Mrs Atwater.
Rupert is leaving too, and Mrs Wilson brings him his hat from the hall closet. However it isn’t Rupert’s hat – far too small for him, he looks inside and sees the initials DK.
As the apartment front door closes on the guests, Brandon is thrilled at what the has achieved, how he has outwitted them, and out-manoeuvred Rupert, whom Brandon claims actually helped him say what he needed to to the other guests. Phillip is not so sure, scared that Rupert’s constant questioning put them in danger.
Brandon suggests a holiday once everything has blown over. For now though Brandon and Phillip are driving up to Brandon’s family farm that night. Mrs Wilson leaves, and Brandon orders his car to be brought round from the apartments garage. She is back in the next day to clean so the two men have to dispose of David’s body that night. The doorbell rings, and Brandon, about to open the trunk again, shoves the stacks of books back on it.
John Dall as Brandon and James Stewart as Dr Rupert Cadell
It is Rupert at the door wanting to come up, claiming he left his cigarette case behind. While talking to Brandon and Phillip, Rupert slips his cigarette case behind the books on the trunk and accepts the offer of a drink, before pretending to find the large cigarette case. Brandon of course is fully aware Rupert has just placed it there. Rupert sits down and the two killers loom over him. Rupert says he might stay and see them off on their drive up to Connecticut, then comments on the strangeness of the evening.
Rupert is still trying to make sense of everything and he doesn’t yet really know in his mind what happened to David. Still musing, he gets up and heads towards the trunk. He wonders if Brandon had kidnapped David for a prank. Brandon asks Rupert what he would have done to get rid of David. Rupert explains he would invite David to the apartment, take his hat (a reference to David’s hat still in Brandon’s hall closet) and offer him a drink in the living room. David was strong, so Rupert would hit him from behind. Brandon pushes him on where he would store the body. Rupert’s eyes alight on the trunk then says he’d have got Phillip to help him carry the body down the backstairs and into the car. After Brandon points out it would be daylight Rupert says he would hide the body until dark. Brandon asks him where and Rupert walks up to the trunk.
Phillip is breaking down – he shouts “cat and mouse” but asks who is which. Brandon suggests Rupert leave unless he came back for a different reason. Rupert is upfront: does Brandon mean did Rupert return to see if Brandon had indeed got rid of David? Rupert says he does not think Brandon had kidnapped him and he wouldn’t even have mentioned this theory (one of Janet’s) were it not for what he calls the “fear of discovery in your pocket” – he means the gun in Brandon’s jacket pocket. Brandon laughs and throws the gun on the piano. He has it, he says, because he needs it for going up to the country.
Facing away from the two killers Rupert removes the rope that had been used to tie the books from his pocket. He comments that he would have liked to have gone with them but now such a trip would be too suspenseful. Phillip sees the rope and shouts “he knows!” then grabs Brandon’s own gun, saying he would rather kill Brandon than Rupert. Rupert goes for the gun and they grapple with it; it goes off but no one is hurt. Rupert wraps it in a cloth while Brandon, still thinking they can get away with their crime, says Phillip is merely drunk.
Rupert cuts him short and moves to look in the chest. Brandon tries to argue then gives up saying “I hope you like what you see”, a reference to it being Rupert’s teachings that he claims have led he and Phillip here. Rupert lifts the lid, uttering “oh no!” as he sees David’s body inside.
Brandon says he can explain, that Rupert will understand. He reminds Rupert of their earlier conversation at the party with David’s father Henry, and also of Rupert’s earlier teachings that “moral concepts of good and evil and right and wrong don’t hold for the intellectually superior”. Brandon claims he and Phillip have just put into action what Rupert taught them. Rupert is horrified.
Rupert sinks into a chair, telling Brandon that the world has felt incomprehensible to him, and he has tried to make sense of it with logic and his “superior intellect”, but that now Brandon has thrown that back at him. He says he never meant what Brandon has done and Brandon is making excuses for his murder. He tries to separate out himself from Brandon: that Brandon was born that way (with the capacity for murder) while Rupert was not. They are different but both obligated to society. He asks Brandon what right did he have to decide David was inferior, and points out the qualities David had – now snuffed out – that Brandon does not (such as the ability to love). And it is not what Rupert will do to Brandon but what society will do – they are members of society, not a superior caste, and will have to abide by its morals and rules.
He points out to Phillip and Brandon that they will both die, then picks up Brandon’s gun. But as per his previous speech he isn’t going to shoot them – their deaths are for society (the State) to decide and carry out. He opens the window and fires the gun. Soon voices below talk about having heard gunshots and call the police.
It is as if Rupert, having just extricated himself in his own mind from any moral responsibility for Brandon’s actions, is now also extricating himself from moral responsibility for the future deaths by the State of Brandon and Phillip. He doesn’t directly call the police from the phone, or even shout from the window, but fires the gun so someone else has to call them.
The continued chatter, beeping cars and bright lights intrude from outside; real life has found them. Brandon and Phillip finally realise they are part of society and will be held to account as such. Brandon pours himself a drink, while Rupert almost slumps into a chair. Phillip stands by the piano, which could have been his life’s saving grace, utterly defeated. Sirens are heard.
THE END
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