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Rope (1948) is an Alfred Hitchcock classic film notable for its single location covered in what appeared to be just a few continuous shots. It is based on the play Rope by Patrick Hamilton, which was said to be in turn inspired by the real-life murder of a young boy in 1924 by two University of Chicago students named Leopold and Loeb. Hamilton, though, always denied the link between his play and the case. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) was an iconic and highly influential British-born film director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. ...
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) was an iconic and highly influential British-born film director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. ...
Patrick Hamilton (March 17, 1904 - September 23, 1962) was an English playwright and novelist. ...
This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...
Arthur Laurents (born July 14, 1918) is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, librettist and stage director. ...
Ben Hecht (February 28, 1894 – April 18, 1964) was a prolific Hollywood screenwriter, even though he professed disdain for the motion picture industry. ...
For other persons named James Stewart, see James Stewart (disambiguation). ...
John Dall (born May 26, 1918 in New York, New York; died January 15, 1971 in Hollywood, California) was an American actor. ...
Actor Farley Granger Farley Granger (born July 1, 1925) is an American actor. ...
Sir Cedric Webster Hardwicke (February 19, 1893 - August 6, 1964) was a British actor. ...
Constance Collier was a film actress. ...
David Buttolph (born James David Buttolph Jr. ...
“WB†redirects here. ...
Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...
{| style=float:right; |- | |- | |} is the 235th day of the year (236th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...
USD redirects here. ...
Year 1948 (MCMXLVIII) was a leap year starting on Thursday (link will display the 1948 calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ...
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE (August 13, 1899 – April 29, 1980) was an iconic and highly influential British-born film director and producer who pioneered many techniques in the suspense and thriller genres. ...
While there is no agreement upon the greatest film of all time, it is possible to list films considered the greatest ever by a sizeable populace of the film-watching community in the English-speaking world. ...
The cover of Constable & Companys 1935 edition of Patrick Hamiltons play Rope, reprinted in 1996 Rope is a 1929 British stage play by Patrick Hamilton. ...
Patrick Hamilton (March 17, 1904 - September 23, 1962) was an English playwright and novelist. ...
For the rap album, see 1924 (album). ...
For other uses, see University of Chicago (disambiguation). ...
Nathan Leopold (left) and Richard Loeb (center) under arrest Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, Jr. ...
Hitchcock was the producer and director of the film. Rope is the first movie for which Hitchcock received a credit as both producer and director (he was the uncredited producer on Number 13, Suspicion and Notorious). The rights to the film are now owned by Universal Studios, which bought the rights in 1983. A film producer creates the conditions for making movies. ...
The film director, on the right, gives last minute direction to the cast and crew, whilst filming a costume drama on location in London. ...
In 1922 Alfred Hitchcock obtained his first shot at directing for Gainsborough Pictures with the film Number 13 (or Mrs. ...
Suspicion DVD cover Suspicion (1941) is a film noir directed by Alfred Hitchcock starring Cary Grant and Joan Fontaine as a married couple. ...
Notorious is a 1946 thriller directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, and starring Cary Grant and Ingrid Bergman as two people whose lives become intimately entangled during an espionage operation. ...
This article is about the American media conglomerate. ...
Plot
Two brilliant aesthetes, Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Farley Granger), plan the perfect murder inspired by lectures on the art of murder once made by their erstwhile housemaster, Rupert Cadell (James Stewart). They invite a former classmate, David Kentley, to their apartment for drinks, strangle him, and hide his body in a chest, thus, they believe, demonstrating their superiority. Straight afterwards they throw a party in their apartment. Among the guests are the victim’s father and aunt (his mother does not turn up), his fiancee and her former boyfriend. Rupert Cadell also attends. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ...
John Dall (born May 26, 1918 in New York, New York; died January 15, 1971 in Hollywood, California) was an American actor. ...
Actor Farley Granger Farley Granger (born July 1, 1925) is an American actor. ...
In England in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, an aesthete was a person who was usually well educated, had exaggerated tastes and cultivated a style of dress and manner calculated to annoy the mainstream of intellectual society. ...
John Dall (born May 26, 1918 in New York, New York; died January 15, 1971 in Hollywood, California) was an American actor. ...
Actor Farley Granger Farley Granger (born July 1, 1925) is an American actor. ...
The idea of the Art of Murder is an expression of the modern notion that art, except for pure esthetics, is amoral, that murders may be dull, mundane and ordinary, or that they may be interesting and beautiful. ...
For other persons named James Stewart, see James Stewart (disambiguation). ...
To impress Rupert and to gain his approval, Brandon subtly drops hints throughout the party about the murder of David, and begins a discussion on the art of murder. David, his connection to the guests and his curious absence forms much of the conversation during the evening.
In contrast to Brandon, Phillip gets more and more nervous throughout the party. Rupert quizzes him over David’s absence and some inconsistencies that have been raised: Phillip denied strangling a chicken at the Shaws’ farm when Rupert knows that he did. Phillip later complains to Brandon that he “had a rotten evening” (a reference to Rupert’s probing, not David’s murder).
At the end of the party Rupert is handed another person’s hat by mistake. In it he sees the initials “D.K.” (as in David Kentley) and becomes rather uneasy. Highly suspicious Rupert returns to the apartment after everyone has departed, claiming he has misplaced his cigarette case. When he arrives back in the apartment, he plants his cigarette case, finds it, but then stays to theorize about the murder of David, encouraged by Brandon who seems eager to have Rupert discover it. When Rupert lifts open the chest to reveal the body still tucked inside and realizes that his two former students have indeed murdered, he is horrified — and ashamed of his own rhetoric that had led them to perform the morbid deed. He then takes Brandon’s gun and fires several shots into the night in order to attract police attention.
Filming The film is Hitchcock’s most experimental, abandoning many standard film techniques to allow for the long unbroken scenes. Each shot ran continuously for up to ten minutes without interruption. It was shot on a single set, aside from the opening establishing shot street scene. Camera moves were planned in advance and there was almost no editing. The walls of the set were on rollers and could silently be moved out of the way to make way for the camera, and then replaced when they were to come back into shot. Prop men also had to constantly move the furniture and other props out of the way of the large camera, and then ensure they were replaced in the correct location. A team of soundmen and camera operators kept the camera and mics in constant motion, as the actors kept to a carefully choreographed set of cues. The cyclorama in the background was the largest backing ever used on a sound stage and included models of the Empire State and Chrysler buildings. Within the course of nine reels the cumulus clouds made of spun glass change a total of eight times. This was also Hitchcock’s first color film. Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata No higher resolution available. ...
Actor Farley Granger Farley Granger (born July 1, 1925) is an American actor. ...
For other persons named James Stewart, see James Stewart (disambiguation). ...
John Dall (born May 26, 1918 in New York, New York; died January 15, 1971 in Hollywood, California) was an American actor. ...
In film and television, an establishing shot sets up, or establishes, a scenes setting and/or its participants. ...
A cyclorama is a large curtain or wall, often concave, positioned at the back of the stage area. ...
Soundstage redirects here. ...
The Empire State Building is a 102-story Art Deco skyscraper in New York City, New York at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street. ...
The Chrysler Building is an Art Deco skyscraper in New York City, located on the east side of Manhattan at the intersection of 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue. ...
Cumulus can also refer to Cumulus Media (also known as Cumulus Broadcasting) A cumulus cloud is a cloud belonging to a class characterized by dense individual elements in the form of puffs, mounds or towers, with flat bases and tops that often resemble cauliflower. ...
Hitchcock filmed each scene in segments lasting up to ten minutes (the length of a reel of film at the time), each segment continuously panning from character to character in real time. Several segments end by panning against or zooming into an object (a man’s jacket, or the back of a piece of furniture, for example) or by having an actor move in front of the camera, blocking the entire screen; each scene after that starts a static shot of that same object. In this way Hitchcock effectively masked many of the cuts in the film, a technique that has frequently been used since to hide edits.
Although it is commonly believed that all the cuts in Rope are hidden, in fact, only half are. Another misconception is that all the shots last ten minutes. Actually, of the ten shots used for the film, only three approach or exceed the ten minute mark. Five of the shots range between seven and eight minutes, and the penultimate and final shots last only about four-and-a-half and five-and-a-half minutes, respectively. A description of the beginning and end of each reel follows, with the approximate duration of the shot given in parentheses.
- R1 (9:34) CU strangulation to Blackout on Brandon’s back.
- R2 (7:51) Black, pan off Brandon’s back to CU Kenneth: “What do you mean?”
- R3 (7:18) Unmasked cut, men crossing to Janet to Blackout on Kenneth’s back.
- R4 (7:08) Black, pan off Kenneth’s back to CU Phillip: “That’s a lie.”
- R5 (9:57) Unmasked cut, CU Rupert to Blackout on Brandon’s back.
- R6 (7:33) Black, pan off Brandon’s back to Three shot.
- R7 (7:46) Unmasked cut, Mrs. Wilson: “Excuse me, sir.” to Blackout on Brandon.
- R8 (10:06) Black, pan off Brandon to CU Brandon’s hand in gun pocket.
- R9 (4:37) Unmasked cut, CU Rupert to Blackout on lid of chest.
- R10 (5:38) Black, pan up from lid of chest to End.
Hitchcock ended up reshooting the last 4-5 segments because he was dissatisfied with the color of the sunset. He shot about one segment a day.
Hitchcock used this long-take approach again on his next film, Under Capricorn. Under Capricorn is a 1949 film directed by Alfred Hitchcock based on a novel by Helen Simpson. ...
A cameo appearance by Hitchcock is a signature in almost all of his films. In this film, Hitchcock makes two appearances[1]. In the opening scene he plays one of the men walking down the street. Later on in the film, Hitchcock’s caricature is on a neon sign visible from the apartment window. Below his caricature is the word “Reduco,” recalling Hitch’s cameo in a newspaper ad for “Reduco” in Lifeboat. A cameo role or cameo appearance (often shortened to just cameo) is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television. ...
Lifeboat is a 1944 World War II war film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock from a story written by John Steinbeck. ...
Themes
Homoeroticism Rope may be considered a homoerotic movie, even though the film version never indicates that the two murderers in the film were having an affair, and reference is made to one of them (Brandon) having previously been in a relationship with the fiancee of the murdered man. However, there is no indication that the two men live apart, and towards the end of the movie they discuss going away together for a holiday. Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ...
Even though homosexuality was a highly controversial theme for the 1940s the movie made it through censorship. However, many towns chose to ban it independently, memories of Leopold and Loeb still being fresh in some people’s minds. Both Dall and Granger were actually gay in real life, as was screenwriter Arthur Laurents — even the piano score played by Granger (Mouvement Perpétuel No. 1 by Francis Poulenc) was the work of a gay composer. Granger’s role was first offered to another homosexual actor, Montgomery Clift, who turned the offer down, probably due to the risks of coming out in public. Cary Grant turned down the part of Rupert Cadell for similar reasons. Leopold and Loeb, whom it has been suggested that Phillip and Brandon are based upon, were also gay. Nathan Leopold (left) and Richard Loeb (center) under arrest Nathan Freudenthal Leopold, Jr. ...
Arthur Laurents (born July 14, 1918) is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, librettist and stage director. ...
Francis Jean Marcel Poulenc (IPA: ) (January 7, 1899 - January 30, 1963) was a French composer and a member of the French group Les Six. ...
Edward Montgomery Clift (October 17, 1920 - July 23, 1966) was an American Academy Award-nominated actor known by the stage name of Montgomery Clift. ...
For other uses, see Coming out (disambiguation). ...
This article is about the British actor. ...
In Hitchcock’s Films Revisited, critic Robin Wood points to several instances in the film that could be interpreted as homoerotic. He suggests the opening strangulation reflects the euphoria of an orgasm and the subsequent limpness; and Wood sees masturbatory overtones to the scene in which Brandon excitedly fingers the neck of a champagne bottle. There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...
In Hamilton’s play, the dialogue is much more homoerotic, as is the relationship between the students and their teacher. Many of these “risky” elements were removed from the script as the play was rewritten for the film, due to the censorship of the time. Despite this, Hitchcock managed to supply much subtext which made it past the rigorous tests of the censor.
One example is how Hitchcock makes plain the sexual nature of their relationship, as well as each character’s role, at the very start of the movie with the first lines of dialogue spoken. Directly after the murder, while both men are standing, Brandon wants to get moving to arrange the party — but Phillip, shocked and drained by what they have just done, asks if they can’t “just stay like this for a while.” Brandon agrees, then lights a cigarette. This mirroring of post-sexual dialog is immediately identifiable, and also indicates that Phillip’s role in the relationship is that of the female submissive archetype, while Brandon’s is that of the dominant male.
Four other films, Compulsion, Swoon, Murder by Numbers and RSVP were also based on the Leopold and Loeb case. Compulsion directed by Richard Fleischer, was a film made in 1959. ...
Swoon is an independent film written and directed by Tom Kalin, released in 1992. ...
To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
R.S.V.P. is a horror film released in 2002 written and directed by Mark Anthony Galluzzo. ...
Nietzsche Much of the film is based on the idea that one might murder someone just to prove that one could. Some film scholarship has found links between this idea and literature and philosophy. Suggestions have been made that Crime and Punishment and its protagonist Raskolnikov form a subtext to the film — whereby the film parallels the idea of murdering just for the sake of performing the act. References to Nietzsche abound throughout the film — particularly to his idea of the overman. However, Nietzsche’s concept of the Übermensch is much more complex than that of Crime and Punishment, and for Mr. Cadell to draw a parallel between Hitler and Nietzsche can only be the result of very selective readings of him. For other uses, see Crime and Punishment (disambiguation). ...
Rodion Romanovitch Raskolnikov is the protagonist of Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. ...
Friedrich Nietzsche, 1882 Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (October 15, 1844 - August 25, 1900) was a highly influential German philosopher. ...
The introduction to this article provides insufficient context for those unfamiliar with the subject matter. ...
References in Popular Culture Although not one of Hitchcock's more famous films, it is referenced in the Comet Gain song 'Movies' which contains the line, 'Rachel thinks Rope has its moments' in response to the question 'What's your favorite Hitchcock?' Comet Gain are a British indie rock band, with heavy influences from Dexys Midnight Runners and northern soul. ...
See Also - R.S.V.P., a film which borrowed several key elements from Rope, and in which the film is discussed.
R.S.V.P. is a horror film released in 2002 written and directed by Mark Anthony Galluzzo. ...
References - ^ Interview with Arthur Laurents in the making-of documentary, Rope Unleashed
- Peter Wollen. “Rope: Three Hypotheses.” Alfred Hitchcock Centenary Essays
Arthur Laurents (born July 14, 1918) is an American playwright, novelist, screenwriter, librettist and stage director. ...
External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Rope (film) Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Rope |
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