Rope
Short description
Two students, Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan, strangle a classmate named David Kentley and hide the body in a chest in their apartment. They then hold a dinner party, with the chest serving as the table, and invite the dead man's father and his girlfriend, along with their former teacher Rupert Cadell, who has lectured on the idea that a superior intellect might commit murder without consequence. As the evening goes on, Phillip becomes increasingly unsettled, while Rupert begins to suspect that something is wrong.
Alfred Hitchcock directed and produced the film, working from a screenplay by Ben Hecht, Arthur Laurents and Hume Cronyn. It was his twenty-third feature as director, following The Paradine Case and preceding Under Capricorn. James Stewart plays Rupert, with John Dall as Brandon, Farley Granger as Phillip, Cedric Hardwicke as Mr. Kentley, Constance Collier as Mrs. Atwater and Douglas Dick as Kenneth Lawrence. The film runs eighty-one minutes and was made for about two million dollars, a figure it matched at the worldwide box office.
On IMDb it holds 7.9 out of 10 from roughly 164,000 votes, and on TMDB it also stands at 7.9, from around three thousand votes. A critics' rating of 7.8 from fifty-eight reviews places it close to the audience scores rather than sharply apart from them.
What's left behind the scenes
- Part of the film's plot is based on a real murder committed by Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb, students at the “University of Chicago.” This crime also formed the basis of the plot of “Compulsion” (1959).
- The film was shot using long takes lasting from four to ten minutes (ten minutes being the maximum amount of time the camera’s film would allow).
- While filming, Alfred Hitchcock drew inspiration from a BBC television production – "Rope" (1939).
- Despite the film's runtime of 80 minutes, it is assumed that the action unfolds in real time. However, the events shown in the film last approximately 100 minutes.
- The film features only nine editing cuts.
- When Janet and Mrs. Atwater discuss their favorite actors, both mention how good Cary Grant was "in that new film with Ingrid Bergman." Neither of them names the film, but it is most likely a reference to "Notorious" (1946), also directed by Alfred Hitchcock.
- During filming, the actors had to watch their step carefully, as the entire floor was covered with wires running to the cameras and lighting.
- According to Arthur Laurents, the play on which the film was based supposedly featured a love affair between Cadell (James Stewart) and one of the murderers.
- Several of the film's final scenes were reshot multiple times because Alfred Hitchcock was dissatisfied with the color of the sunset.
- “Rope” was Alfred Hitchcock’s first color film.
- The film was shot entirely on studio sets, with the exception of the scene against which the opening credits roll.
- The clouds that viewers can see in some scenes were made of fiberglass.
- To achieve the desired sound effect of a police siren approaching the house, an ambulance was used, which drove up to the Warner Brothers studio building at full speed with its siren on. The sound of the siren was recorded through a microphone installed at the main studio gate.
- Alfred Hitchcock filmed a romantic scene in Central Park between Joanna Chandler (Janet Walker) and Dick Hogan (David Kentley). This scene was used for a promotional trailer for the film, but was removed from the finished picture.
- Cary Grant was the initial candidate for the role of Rupert Cadel.
- Montgomery Clift was the initial candidate for the role of Brandon Shaw.
- The film was banned in some US cities due to allusions to a homosexual relationship between Phillip (Farley Granger) and Brandon (John Dall).
- In London, the play on which the film was based was called 'Rope'. When the play was staged on Broadway, the title was changed to 'Rope’s End'.
- According to Arthur Laurents, Hitchcock initially assured him that the film would not show a murder, which, in turn, was supposed to make viewers doubt whether the main characters had committed a crime; whether a corpse was lying in the chest of drawers. However, Hitchcock still filmed the murder scene and showed it at the very beginning of the film.
- Hitchcock did not miss the opportunity to appear in his signature cameo in this film as well. Around the 55th minute of the film, his profile appears on a neon sign visible from the apartment window. Additionally, some claim that Hitchcock can be seen walking down the street in shots accompanying the opening credits.
- Since the episodes were filmed continuously in incredibly long takes, all members of the film crew tried to avoid mistakes. Even once, when a camera dolly ran over the foot of the cameraman (resulting in a fracture), filming did not stop. And on another occasion, one of the actresses tried to place a glass on the table, but missed. Then someone from the crew instantly rushed forward and managed to catch the glass before it broke. Incidentally, both of these takes were included in the final version of the film.
- This is the first film in which Hitchcock himself acted as a producer.
- This film was unavailable for several decades because the rights to this picture (as well as to four others) were bought by Alfred Hitchcock, and after his death, passed to his daughter, Patricia Hitchcock. These five films were known for many years as "Hitchcock's Lost Five" (5 lost Hitchcock’s). All five films were re-released in 1984. The other four films are "The Man Who Knew Too Much" (1956), "Rear Window" (1954), "The Trouble with Harry" (1955), and "Vertigo" (1958).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
