This is an excellent film based on the principle of a one act play - don't know whether Hamilton's was or not. To criticise it for remaining within the apartment and lacking suspense strikes me as rather superficial.
It would be hard for the film to find a reason to leave the apartment (it doesn't need to) and the suspense isn't so much to do with the act of murder, but whether Jimmy Stewart's character will confirm or betray the amoral stance his protégés claim to have learnt from him.
The dialogue is rather stilted but no more and probably less so than much of the scripting of the time - indeed Stewart's own, initial, lightheartedness offers an instructive counterpoint to the formality of the rest of the cast and could be seen as deliberate as he is the only guest not to be fooled.
There is a plausible homosexual undercurrent here and I agree that there's certainly a huge amount of ambiguity but let's not forget the whole 'Janet' issue and Stewart's interest in the housekeeper. To boil the whole film down to an "are they/aren't they?" argument may be hugely fashionable but I think it would be a disservice to a full understanding of a rich film accessible from a variety if angles - you could just as easily go S&M with the rope or Marxist over the housekeeper.
It would be hard for the film to find a reason to leave the apartment (it doesn't need to) and the suspense isn't so much to do with the act of murder, but whether Jimmy Stewart's character will confirm or betray the amoral stance his protégés claim to have learnt from him.
The dialogue is rather stilted but no more and probably less so than much of the scripting of the time - indeed Stewart's own, initial, lightheartedness offers an instructive counterpoint to the formality of the rest of the cast and could be seen as deliberate as he is the only guest not to be fooled.
There is a plausible homosexual undercurrent here and I agree that there's certainly a huge amount of ambiguity but let's not forget the whole 'Janet' issue and Stewart's interest in the housekeeper. To boil the whole film down to an "are they/aren't they?" argument may be hugely fashionable but I think it would be a disservice to a full understanding of a rich film accessible from a variety if angles - you could just as easily go S&M with the rope or Marxist over the housekeeper.