April 2025 news: An extremely rare, near-mint condition copy of the original US three sheet poster is for sale by a Parisian collector and film director! You can also contact me about it directly.
- The Master of Suspense recreates a grim stage play in real time
- Fascinating experiment gives illusion of one uninterrupted take
- Replete with gay subtext in defiance of the strict Production Code
- His first colour film does it naturally, “purely as the eye received it.”
- Director’s cameo is subtle follow-up to fleeting Lifeboat appearance
- Like Lifeboat, Rope features only nine characters in a confined space
- Three and done: Detailing leading lady’s only other big screen roles
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.
Rope: Writing on a Classic, Pt 2: More writing | Collectors Guide, Pt 2: Production and home video
Contents
Production
Greek/alt, VHS trailers | Clips | Hitch discusses the opening scene | Mise-en-scène and editing in Rope |
James Stewart stars with Farley Granger and John Dall in this highly-charged 1948 Alfred Hitchcock thriller that’s intrigued fans because of its chilling subject and unique “unedited” cinematic style. Granger and Dall are two friends who strangle a classmate for intellectual thrills and then proceed to invite his family and mutual friends to dinner—with the body stuffed inside the trunk they use for a buffet table. Their former teacher, James Stewart, suspects wrongdoing. Before the night is over, he finds out how brutally his students have twisted his own academic theories. Inspired by the real-life Leopold-Loeb murder, Rope is one of Hitchcock’s most daring films. – US MCA/Universal VHS (1985/1995)
Rope has one of Hitch’s most interesting trailers, as it contains an entire, specially-shot, outdoor prologue absent from the film, in which David Kentley (Dick Hogan) actually appears for longer than he does in the film itself! Much of the remainder consists of non-film footage too. Aside from a opening view from a balcony to set the scene, Rope maintains its claustrophobic feel by taking place entirely within one apartment. Douglas Dick plays Kenneth Lawrence, former friend of the victim and lover of his fiancée, and coincidentally in his next film, The Accused, goes from good to bad and is the recipient of a righteous killing in the first reel who is also the plot’s MacGuffin.
TCM, more | Before You Watch | Farley Granger | Peter Bogdanovich (use subs)
Joan Chandler played David’s fiancée, Janet Walker, in an acting career of under two decades that was mostly confined to the stage and small screen. Her third film was 1958’s Dragstrip Riot, a budget ‘wild youth’ teen flick, perhaps most notable for also being Fay Wray’s final outing. Unfortunately, that’s officially unavailable but prior to Rope, Chandler was fifth-billed in the superior, soapy tear-jerker Humoresque, starring Joan Crawford and John Garfield. By the way, in Rope itself, Janet and her fellow guests self-reflexively refer to Hitch’s previous film, Notorious, and its stars; his next, Under Capricorn; and even North by Northwest a decade hence; as spotted by Hitchcock expert Rick Senger.
Money for old Rope: in May 2024, a substantial set of preliminary storyboard sketches and related ephemera sold for $15,000.
As a sign of the source play and film’s enduring appeal, Hollywood director David Fincher is reportedly slated for a remake of Rope. I know this won’t do anything to allay the “Leave Hitchcock’s classics alone!” brigade but Hitch’s film, like many of his others, was itself a remake and the third of at least 10 screen versions to date. Further, Fincher was previously reported to be remaking Strangers on a Train, also to great approbation, but that was snuffed out so this attempt may meet the same fate. Lastly, even if it does transpire, Hitch’s film, as well as all the other versions, will not be affected an iota and can only benefit from the renewed publicity, so it’s a win-win!
- Colour in Rope – Maurice Yacowar
- Rope Sets a Precedent/orig – Virginia Yates
- Rope: Something Different – George E. Turner
- Rope: The Camera That Will Not Stop –M. B. Cassman
- Re-Visiting the Double: Rope and Strangers on a Train – David Humbert
- Shadow, Rope and Strangers: Hitchcock’s Strangler Trilogy – Team Ruthless
Rope is one of three Hitch film titles borrowed by fans Duran Duran: their 1986 album Notorious and eponymous lead single; the instrumental demo “Rope” (0:00–3:32) which became track five, “Hold Me“; and track six, “Vertigo (Do the Demolition)”. All three sets of lyrics elliptically refer to the films’ plots.
- Parlophone LP/CD/MP3 Notorious Deluxe Edition (1986) – Duran Duran
- Hitchcock. Nodo alla gola (2009) – Alberto Boschi
- Perpetual Movement: AH’s Rope (2021) – Neil Badmington
- Hitchcock Versus Hitchcock – André Bazin, Focus on Hitchcock (1972)
- The Intertextual Knot: An Analysis of AH’s Rope (2021) – Dario Martinelli
- Understyle: A Too-Close View of Rope, also in Hidden Hitchcock (2016) – D. A. Miller | interview | review/#2/#3
Long takes
In order to cut costs on his first independent production, Hitch decided to shoot Rope in the minimum number of takes that then current technology would allow, inspired by a 1939 BBC TV version where the technique helped keep the chest constantly in shot. Hitch’s film is exactly 80 minutes long and contains 11 shots including the opening credits, with an equal number of hidden and regular hard cuts, lasting 2:30, 9:34, 7:51, 7:18, 7:09, 9:59, 7:35, 7:50, 10:06, 4:37 and 5:40. It may have been a clever move financially but proved such a technical headache that Hitch only attempted the exercise once more, and to a much lesser degree, in Under Capricorn. Though the overall effect is of watching a stage play in real time, several clever tricks are used to give the impression the action has actually taken place over around 105 minutes.
- A Long Rope/orig – Irving Pichel, Passport to Hollywood (1976)
- How Rope Stretches Time/text – Antonio Damasio
- Skipping Rope: analysing the edits – Catherine Grant
- Rope’s Illusion of the Uninterrupted Take – David Crow
- Filmic Space and Real Time in Rope/alt/orig– Peter Dellolio
- Shot Transitions and Narrative Logic in H’s Rope – Philippe Mather
- The Style and Meaning of the Long Take in Rope and Under Capricorn – Jang Mihwa
Article | Scene transitions | Changed editing
Crime scene
The infamous system of movable sets, allowing the finely orchestrated actors and action to proceed in uninterrupted takes, was hugely complex and stressful for all but must have been a wonder to behold. In an interview at the film’s 1983 re-release, Stewart said this was the most strenuous film he made with Hitch and told him he’d missed a trick by not adding tiered seating around the set and charging folk to watch the technically complicated filming.
- The Wrong House: The Architecture of Alfred Hitchcock (2014) – Steven Jacobs
On a related note but taking a broader view to incorporate Hitch’s love of art, music and liminal space, are:
- Six thrillers, seven strategies of architectural design/orig – Alfons Puigarnau and Ignacio Infiesta
- El proyecto arquitectónico como crimen perfecto – Puigarnau and Infiesta
- Hitchcock: Anatomía del Suspense (2020) – Puigarnau | info
Plan by Iñaki Aliste Lizarralde, 2019, who had to invent almost half the apartment to complete it.
Love and murder
Don Ward, ahem, executed this tie-in novelisation of the film with handy floor plan but shorn of gay subtext; excerpt from UK Edition
- The Perfect Crime: The Real Life Crime that Inspired H’s Rope (2013) – Fergus Mason, also in 6-book Stranger Than Fiction
I’m not always the biggest advocate of searching for hidden meanings in films but no one in their right mind can deny Hitch’s trademark gayness or queer coding is particularly strong in this one – as it ought to be, given the source. It’s based on Brit Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 play of the same name (videos), retitled Rope’s End in America, which was itself based on the infamous Leopold and Loeb murder case. The much-reported kidnap and murder of Bobby Franks, a 14-year-old boy, was carried out in Chicago by a young gay couple. A new play, adapted directly from the film’s script, was staged in 2001, and another followed in 2023 with two livestreamed performances.
- Staging Laurents’ Original Screenplay/A Take on Rope’s Gay Subtext – Paul Fahey
- Staging Rope – Ken Mogg (Aug 20-28)
Though the film could only hint at the protagonists’ sexuality due to the restrictive Production Code in force at the time, the play is very explicit about the nature of their relationship. The film’s screenwriter, Arthur Laurents, and co-lead Granger, who in the parlance of the time were openly gay and bisexual respectively, embarked on a year-long relationship when they met immediately prior to the commencement of filming. The latter discusses their brief union and subsequent long term friendship in his candid autobiography; the two coincidentally died within weeks of each other in early 2011.
- Anal Rope – D. A. Miller
- Gay Coding in Hitchcock Films – Scott Badman and Connie Hosier
Suggestive clips | Rope’s Problematic Queer Coding | Homoerotismo em Rope
Dall, who played opposite Granger, is also believed to have been gay. Having said all that, Laurents claimed in the first of his own candid memoirs that the final script was so circumspect he wasn’t sure whether third lead Stewart ever realised that his character was supposed to be gay. Eventually, Laurents became so disillusioned with Hollywood’s constant censorship of gay storylines that he quit writing for film altogether, instead preferring to devote himself to theatre, his far more permissive first love.
- Include Me Out: My Life from Goldwyn to Broadway (2007) – Farley Granger with Robert Calhoun | interview/#2
- Original Story By: A Memoir of Broadway and Hollywood (2000) – Arthur Laurents
- The Rest of the Story: A Life Completed (2012) – Arthur Laurents, ed. David Saint
Both allegedly bisexual Cary Grant and unequivocally gay Montgomery Clift turned down the lead roles, reputedly for being too close to home and risky to their careers. Grant’s refusal reputedly led to a fallout with Hitch: after making Suspicion and Notorious the two didn’t collaborate again for almost a decade with To Catch a Thief, followed by North by Northwest – which threw in a couple of sly digs at Grant’s sexuality for good measure. Rope epitomises Truffaut’s famous quote, that “Hitchcock… shoots scenes of murder like scenes of love!” Following that reading lends the film’s gruesome opening scene an even darker aspect – if that were possible. I’ll leave it to your imagination but don’t dwell on it for too long.
Rope and the Question of Hitchcock’s Homophobia – David Greven
Ro / pe – Christopher D. Morris
Humoresque (1946)
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TIFF | TCM | telephone | clips
“Joan Crawford is magnificent.” – The Hollywood Reporter
Considered one of Joan Crawford’s finest performances, Humoresque is the heartbreaking story of a glamorous socialite’s doomed affair with an ambitious musician. Twice divorced and trapped in a loveless marriage to an older man, Helen Wright (Crawford) buries her loneliness in biting humor and stiff drinks, But when she agrees to underwrite the debut performance of Paul Boray (John Garfield), a talented young violinist, her life is forever changed.
Irresistibly drawn to the tempestuous Boray, Helen finds herself reluctantly falling in love with him. Together, the two share a glorious but brief moment of happiness before Helen’s alcoholism and self-doubt come between them. A soaring score (with violinist Isaac Stern’s stirring performance highlighting the soundtrack) and a superb supporting cast, including pianist Oscar Levant as Boray’s cynical best friend, combine to make Humoresque “one of the most potent love stories of the American cinema” (Los Angeles Reader). Beautifully acted and achingly romantic, Humoresque is a modern classic
When Joan Crawford was asked to leave Metro in 1943, it seemed that the once-reigning queen of the silver screen was doomed to end up in the same pasture other informal stats of the had been banished to. But Mommie Dearest bounced back and headed from Culver City to Burbank and Warner Bros. There she earned an Oscar for Mildred Pierce, positioning her to battle Bette Davis for the top female roles at that studio. Crawford was given a plum role in Jean Negulesco’s Humoresque, playing a society lady who falls for a struggling young violinist (portrayed by John Garfield). The Fannie Hurst story provided the production team with a classic tale on which to build a vehicle totally geared toward the two stars, and the result was a box office smash.
MGM/UA Home Video has mastered Humoresque directly from a 35mm composite fine-grain master, manufactured from the original nitrate camera negative. – LD (1991)
- Prime Video HD | YouTube
- US: DVD (R0 reissue 2017), also in 4-DVD TCM Greatest Classic Legends Film and 5-DVD Joan C Collections
- UK: DVD, also in 4-DVD and 5-DVD JC Collections
- Italy: DVD
- Germany: DVD
- France: 5-DVD Collection JC
- Holland: DVD, also in 4-DVD JC Collection
All legit DVDs were released by Warner Bros. in 2005 with the preserved transfer described above, also on streaming. Extras are “The Music of Humoresque” featurette (2005, 9:15) and theatrical trailer, while their sole BD, with an exclusive 4k restoration, adds two 1946 Bugs Bunny cartoons: Racketeer Rabbit and Rhapsody Rabbit.
Avoid the bootleg discs on any other label, such as those from Australia (Amsell Entertainment), Chile (Cinematekka/set), Korea (Sky Cinema) and Spain (Llamentol).
The script is based on Fannie Hurst’s eponymous short story (IA, PG), which was initially published in Cosmopolitan before appearing in several anthologies.Humoresque+Fannie+Hurst It was first filmed in 1920 by Frank Borzage and while his version has never been officially released, it is in the public domain and there’s a rough copy of the UCLA Film and Television Archive’s restoration on YouTube. The film was Borzage’s breakthrough success and its title was soon parodied by the Marx Brothers for their first screen outing. Lastly, it was adapted for radio:
- 78rpm/LP/MP3 Isaac Stern in Violin Selections from Humoresque (1946)
- CD/MP3 Humoresque (1998) – Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg
The score of Joan Chandler’s only other available film was mostly comprised of pre-existing classical works and popular standards, newly arranged and conducted by Franz Waxman (Rebecca, Suspicion, The Paradine Case, Rear Window). His concurrently re-recorded selection has seen a trio of releases, while violinist Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg later released an album covering many of the film’s numbers
- Screen Directors Playhouse: Humoresque, April 19, 1951 – Tallulah Bankhead and Steve Cochran
Rope: Writing on a Classic, Pt 2: More writing | Collectors Guide, Pt 2: Production and home video
Related articles
This is part of a unique, in-depth series of 150-odd Hitchcock articles.
