FILM

REVIEW: ROPE (1948) Dir. Alfred Hitchcock

Fig 1 - Original 1948 Theatrical poster Cast/Crew Produced and Directed by Alfred Hitchcock Written by Patrick Hamilton (play Rope (1929) Adaptation: Hume Cronyn Screenplay:Arthur Laurents Ben Hecht (uncredited) Starring James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Joan Chandler, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Douglas Dick Music by Musical direction:Leo F. Forbstein Music: (uncredited) David Buttolph William V. Skall Editing by William H. Ziegleris

Fig 2

 Rope is a 1948 American thriller film based on the play Rope (1929) by Patrick Hamilton and adapted by Hume Cronyn and Arthur Laurents, directed by Alfred Hitchcock and produced by Sidney Bernstein, and Hitchcock as the first of their Transatlantic Pictures productions. Starring James Stewart, John Dall and Farley Granger, it is the first of Hitchcock's Technicolor films, and is notable for taking place in real time and being edited so as to appear as a single continuous shot through the use of long takes. [WIKIPEDIA] The original play was loosely based on the real-life murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924 by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb. Hitchcock, never one to get emotionally involved with his characters, managed to stretch what is quite a short story into a full length film, winding up the tension and keeping the audience in suspense. In Rope,'' writes Vincent Canby (1984) Hitchcock is less concerned with the characters and their moral dilemmas than with how they look, sound and move, and with the overall spectacle of how a perfect crime goes wrong. (Hitchcock) denies himself the usual tools of his trade to find out just how effective the camera can be, working more or less on its own. The film was not well received on release, and even as late as 1984 Roger Ebert wrote, "Alfred Hitchcock called Rope an experiment that didnt work out'. Hitchcock felt that suspense did not come from withholding information from the audience and preferred to make the viewer a witness to the crime. The tension comes from knowing the secret and being unable to do anything about it.

Fig 3 Hitchcock was interested in seeing whether he could shoot the story in real-time which takes place in the actual length of time of the story. He filmed in what appears to be one continuous take, disguising the necessary reel changes with close-ups. Canby feels this results in a film of unusual, fascinating technical facility, whose chilliness almost perfectly suits the subject.

ILLUSTRATIONS FIG 1 - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rope2.jpg [accessed on 10/02/12] FIG 2 - http://liberalironist.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/rope-the-poverty-of- superior-human-beings/[accessed on 10/02/12] FIG 3 - http://www.gonemovies.com/www/Hoofd/A/Detail.php?Keuze=HitchcockStew artRope&Cat=Crime [accessed on 10/02/12] BIBLIOGRAPHY Canby, V (1984) Hitchcocks Rope: A Stunt to Behold online at http://www.nytimes.com/1984/06/03/movies/hitchcock-s-rope-a-stunt-to- behold.html?pagewanted=all (accessed on 09/02/12) Ebert, R (1984) Rope online at http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/19840615/REVIE WS/811069998/1023 (accessed on 09/02/12) Unknown, Rope http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117794569/ (accessed on 09/02/12)