January 2023

Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope — Something Different

Many movies have been criticized as being “the same old stuff.” Such a complaint could never be leveled at Rope, which was produced by Alfred Hitchcock 37 [now 74] years ago. Rope was one of a kind. In 1946, Hitchcock and his old friend, Sidney L. Bernstein, a theater magnate, formed a producing company called Transatlantic Pictures Corp. While dining at Bernstein’s London home, Hitchcock was intrigued by an idea proposed by Bernstein that stage plays should be photographed during performances for research purposes. This article was originally published in AC, Feb. 1985. Some images are additional or alternate. Hitchcock mentioned a 1929 play by Patrick Hamilton, Rope’s End, which he believed would be ideal for such a treatment....more