Writing on a Classic: Rope (1948)

by Brent Reid
  • Revisiting contemporary and modern critical appreciation
  • Alfred Hitchcock’s macabre murder-thriller play in 80 minutes
  • Simulated lack of cutting creates the illusion of real-time action
  • Director discussed the film’s production in great detail on release

Note: this is part of an ongoing series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles; any dead links are to those not yet published. Subscribe to the email list to be notified when new ones appear.

RopeWriting on a Classic, Pt 2: More writing; Collectors Guide, Pt 2: Production and home video

Rope aka Nodo alla gola (1948, dir. Alfred Hitchcock) Italian 1956 two sheet poster by Luigi Martinati

“Knot in the throat” Italian 1956 two sheet poster by Luigi Martinati, who completed several beautiful works for Hitch’s Warner Bros. films and died on his birthday, New Year’s Eve 1983, at the age of 90.

Suspense in Rope
Alfred Hitchcock has produced a near masterpiece in crime film in Rope now showing at the Capitol. If the film is somewhat slow at the beginning there are more than ample compensations later with movement of gripping suspense until it reaches an anti-climax—at least for the hero, James Stewart, who sees his discourse on the eradication of the unfit from society translated into actuality—murder. Rope is a gripping story well filmed and ably acted. – T.H., The Straits Times

Rope: My Most Exciting Picture/cntd/text – Hitchcock


Hollywood’s Ideas Go Sky-High: ‘Hitch’ Wants Ahem That Way
One of the latest Hollywood illusions, the most impressive, although far from the most spectacular, are the clouds in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope. This is the much discussed film which introduces quite a few striking novel methods of movie making. Much has been reported about this film already. The screening time is equal to the actual length of the incident which deals with a murder in a New York skyscraper apartment; and all action takes place there. It is continuous, without usual cuts for close-ups, etc.

Spanish teaser

Hitchcock attached particular importance to the view from the apartments on the twenty-second floor of the building. The changing light outside windows, from dusk to night, was to indicate the passing of time. He had a miniature replica built which, placed outside the windows, showed not only the New York skyline, but separate and world-known buildings. At night they were lighted and, in day time, smoke could be seen coming from their chimneys.

It was the clouds that presented a special problem. Hitchcock wanted them to float between the windows and the New York skyline which made special effects mens hit on spun glass. Five hundred pounds of the delicate material were purchased and scenic artists wove it into chicken wire moulds. But what about their shape? The movie makers had settled for the cumulus type, for it is white and fleecy before it turns gray and formidable during a storm. And Hitchcock needed a storm.

Altogether eight cloud changes were used in the picture to represent various “moods” of the sky during one evening They were replaced with a different “formation” at eight evenly spaced interval when the camera was not “looking,” and the floating effect in the scenes when the camera was facing a window was achieved by moving the clouds by hand. Some were set up on undercarriages which were pulled past the windows while others were attached to overhead wires. The effect was amazing. – Sunday Tribune

Movie of the Week: Rope – Life


Farley Granger, James Stewart and John Dall in Rope (1948, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

Rope: Jimmy Stewart tangled with Farley Granger (left) and John Dall (B&W, source)

Super Hitchcock
Rope runs 80 minutes on screen and no more, no less in the lives of the people it presents. Far from a coincidence, this is the inevitable result of Alfred Hitchcock’s latest—and certainly most revolutionary—variation in his suspense-picture technique.

Hitchcock describes it as shooting, “with stage technique under sound-stage conditions, continuous action.” While this approach required a lot of time spent in patient rehearsals of cast and crew alike, the director was able to shoot as much as an entire reel at a time without stopping as his constantly: questing camera followed the actors from room to room unimpeded by furniture and walls that got out of the ‘camera’s path and back again before it backtracked. Call the result a stunt—Rope is a good one if you can do it, and lovingly contrived to play hob with your hackles.

The Arthur Laurents adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s play is ideally suited to the director’s purpose. The action takes place between late afternoon and early evening in a three-room penthouse apartment. The prowling camera invades the curtained living room as two young men (John Dall and Farley Granger) methodically strangle a younger friend and cram his body into an antique chest. To these practicing psychopaths, their crime is more than just a “thrill” murder. It affirms their theory that murder is the privilege of the superior few; and further to prove their own superiority, they have arranged a special party.

The guests who arrive shortly are the dead boy’s father (Sir Cedric Hardwicke) , his aunt (Constance Collier) , his- fiancée (Joan Chandler), his ex-rival (Douglas Dick) , and lastly, the hosts’ former housemaster at school (James Stewart). Although the teacher is a kindred spirit—and therefore a foe worthy of their mettle—Dall, the more arrogantly assured of the two killers, adds to the risk of discovery by serving food from the substitute sarcophagus and later giving the father a package of books tied with the rope that strangled his son.

Fluid Camera: Rope is a double tour de force in that the plot is little more than a detailed, relentless report on the murderers’ disintegrating “superiority” as the teacher’s prodding questions lead him closer and closer to the truth. However, Hitchcock’s brilliant use of a fluid camera maintains unflagging suspense from the moment the chest is closed until its lid is lifted again. By way of further experiment, Hitchcock tries Technicolor for the first time—subdued, natural tones that are used to heighten the drama rather than the décor. It goes without saying that the director gets first-rate performances from all his players. – Newsweek


L-R: Douglas Dick, James Stewart, Joan Chandler, Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier, John Dall and Farley Granger in Rope (1948, dir. Alfred Hitchcock)

L-R: Douglas Dick, James Stewart, Joan Chandler, Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier, John Dall and Farley Granger (source)

Technicolor shocker for the seeker of cinema thrills.
Rope undoubtedly will be ballyhooed as a super-horror film. It is and in so being may defeat itself. It’s a cold-blooded account of a wanton murder. The fastidious seeker of cinema thrills should be delighted with the ruthless way in which Alfred Hitchcock has displayed an unsavory subject, but acceptance by the general run of audiences, from whom the heavy b.o. coin comes, is unpredictable. It’s definitely not for the kiddies. Film has plenty of pegs upon which to hang strong exploitation and Warners can be expected to turn loose its full powers to bally-hoo this one. The type of selling should result in some big initial grosses, particularly in key situations where large groups of the morbidly curious can be attracted. The brutally uncompromising manner of presentation also may catch on, and if it does, general situations will pay off.

Critically, it seems that Hitchcock could have chosen a more entertaining subject with which to use the arresting camera and staging technique displayed in Rope. Theme of a thrill murder, done for no reason but to satisfy a sadistical urge and intellectual vanity, is in questionable taste. Plot has its real-life counterpart in the infamous Loeb Leopold case, and is based on the play by Patrick Hamilton. Feature of the picture is that story action is continuous without time lapses. Action takes place within an hour and a half period and the film footage nearly duplicates the span, being 80 minutes. It is entirely confined to the murder apartment of two male dilettantes, intellectual morons who commit what they believe to be the perfect crime, then celebrate the deed with a ghoulish supper served to the victim’s relatives and friends from atop the chest in which the body is concealed.

Farley Granger, John Dall, James Stewart and Alfred Hitchcock on the set of Rope (1948)

Boxing not-so clever: Farley Granger, John Dall and James Stewart show Hitch what death is like on the receiving end

Conventional camera closeups are omitted, Hitchcock using a soaring lens that moves without restraint through the apartment, zooming up to a player and then away, sometimes with a whirling-dervish effect that distracts. The continuous action and the extremely mobile camera are technical features of which industry craftsmen will make much, but to the layman audience effect is of a distracting interest that doesn’t add to b.o. merits of the subject on which it is used. To achieve his effects, Hitchcock put his cast and technicians through lengthy rehearsals before turning a camera. The method has paid off for presenting something. different in production and does serve to emphasize the sordid story. An outstanding feature of the picture is the brilliant use of Technicolor and lighting shades that approximate real life. It will draw favorable critical comment.

Performances are class deliveries, characters remaining consistently true to type as the play unfolds. Hitchcock has managed a compelling suspense in telling a story which always can be anticipated, a neat trick of shudder-making with events that forecast their coming. James Stewart, as the ex-professor who first senses the guilt of his former pupils and nibbles away at their composure with verbal barbs, does a commanding job. John Dall stands out as the egocentric who masterminds the killing and ghoulish wake. Equally good is Farley Granger as the weakling partner in crime.

Sir Cedric Hardwicke, the victim’s father: Constance Collier, his aunt; Douglas Dick, a friend; Joan Chandler, fiancee; and William Hogan, the victim whose only scene is his strangling at film’s opening, give capable accounts of themselves. Edith Evanson adds some contrasting humor as a maid serving the party. Joseph Valentine and William V. Skall share the major camera credit, a most important contribution to the picture’s unusualness. Credited also are Edward Fitzgerald, Paul G. Hill, Richard Emmons and Morris Rosen as operators of camera movement. – Brog, Variety

RopeWriting on a Classic, Pt 2: More writing; Collectors Guide, Pt 2: Production and home video


This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.

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