Alfred Hitchcock Called One of His Masterpieces a "Nonsensical" and "Unreal" Stunt

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Published Feb 25, 2026, 5:51 PM EST

In addition to being a contributor for Collider, Rance Collins has also written for Variety, IndieWire, Los Angeles Magazine, Turner Classic Movies and The Huffington Post. His news coverage has earned him multiple honors from the California News Publishers Association, while his film and theater criticism made him a two-time Southern California Journalism Award winner. He also was recognized with 2024’s Excellence in Journalism Award by the California 51st Assembly District.

Before committing to journalism as a career, the Texas native lived many lives in Los Angeles – including as a Warner Bros. and Universal Studios tour guide, a political organizer, a marketing writer and producer, a leasing consultant, an occasional indie filmmaker, a Postmates driver and the personal assistant to TCM host Ben Mankiewicz. He holds a BFA in mass communications from Ouachita University and an MFA in screenwriting from Emerson College.

Other interests include ‘90s sitcoms, Hollywood backlots, true crime, record stores, Linda Ronstadt, two cats named Charlotte and Flynn, game nights, advocating for an expanded “Hacks” universe, his AMC A List entourage (aka Jorge), the daily NYT Connections, his Barbra Strikesand bowling team, and making his educator mom and author dad proud.

Few directors are held in higher regard than Alfred Hitchcock. In an era long before the auteur theory, Hitchcock managed to make his signature style — a tight combination of suspense and thrills — a brand. Even before his hit anthology series, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, premiered in 1955, the director had become an above-the-title marketing tool. After a string of pot-boiler successes in his native England, Hitchcock made an immediate splash in the United States when his very first American film,Rebecca, won the Best Picture Academy Award.

But starting withRebecca and continuing through the decade, Hitchcock kept returning not to a genre — but to a cinematic device: the long take. While certainly the quick edits he had become known for in England are still present, there are scenes in his 1940s films that stretch the limits of just how long a shot can go on. One scene inRebecca, for instance, nearly reaches three minutes before a cut. After the 1940s, however, Hitchcock would largely abandon these shots. AndRope was the reason why.

Alfred Hitchcock's 'Rope' Went From the Stage to the Screen

Rope has many elements that connect it to other Hitchcock works. Two young men — let’s call them “roommates” — have just committed what they believe to be the perfect murder, which Brandon Shaw and Phillip Morgan (John Dall and Farley Granger) think showcases their intellectual superiority. They have a dinner party with the body hidden in a chest, used as a buffet for the evening's festivities. Of course, things don’t go as planned, particularly when their friend Rupert Cadell (James Stewart) starts getting suspicious. At a base, the story has all the Hitchcock elements: murder, suspense, sympathetic killers, Jimmy Stewart... the works.

It could all just be a talky melodrama if put in the wrong hands. After all, it is based on a 1929 stage play, and plays are notoriously difficult to adapt as films. But with an assured hand, there is no such concern. As the famed Master of Suspense proved with Lifeboat, closed quarters can make for nail-biting suspense. In the case ofRope, Hitchcock decided to ratchet up the claustrophobia by keeping it all contained to a single location, totally eschewing the traditional wisdom that a stage play should be expanded for the screen. Then… he took it a step further. He decided to make all 80 minutes of the movie a single take, or, rather, as close to a single take as was possible in 1948, when filmmakers were limited by the length of a film reel.

Most cuts in Rope are masked with clever workarounds, such as panning around a character’s back. The longest take is just over 10 minutes. The intensity is palpable in every scene. Similar to watching a live stage performance, the viewer has the opportunity to breathe in every subtle nuance of the performers’ actions. And, as the body in the chest comes closer and closer to discovery, the suspense is able to build naturally — in a way that makes the viewer feel as if they can’t exhale.But Hitchcock himself, ultimately, was not a fan.

Hitchcock Thought of 'Rope' as a Failed Experiment

In the legendary book Hitchcock/Truffaut, released in 1967, Hitchcock spoke with fellow filmmaker François Truffaut in a wide-ranging interview, covering every movie Hitchcock had made up to that point in extreme detail. The conversation has become the bedrock of study for Hitchcock scholars. When Ropeis broached, the director is primarily interested in discussing the technical aspects of the movie. It was his first color film, and he broke down the differences in lighting for black and white versus color photography. A large picture window is visible throughout the movie, and Hitchcock went to great pains to create a realistic-looking sunset — one that was timed properly, and that was not too orange. He was so dissatisfied with the initial takes, in fact, that production added nine days to the schedule to reshoot the last few reels of footage.

Half of the production was rehearsal, since the choreography of the actors, camera, and lighting were of the utmost importance.While Hitchcock does not seem totally dissatisfied withRope, speaking more highly of it than his follow-upUnder Capricorn, he ultimately indicates that he found it to be a failed experiment and "a crazy idea."

"I undertook Rope as a stunt; that’s the only way I can describe it," Hitchcock told Truffaut. "I really don’t know how I came to indulge in it... When I look back, I realize that it was quite nonsensical because I was breaking with my own theories on the importance of cutting and montage for the visual narration of a story.

In the 1950s, Hitchcock's Style Came to Full Fruition

Alfred Hitchcock behind bars in 'Alfred Hitchcock Presents'

Under Capricorn would be a more extreme financial and critical failure for Hitchcock (though it has its defenders), despite its starry cast (Ingrid Bergman and Joseph Cotton) and a return to England for principal photography (though it was set in Australia). That film also contained several six-and-seven-minute long takes, although these shots did not make up the entirety of the picture. That was Hitchcock’s last serious piece of experimentation with the device, and the 1950s would see him returning to a masterful cutting rhythm, employed impressively in sequences such as the merry-go-round finale of Strangers on a Train and, of course, culminating in the shower scene of 1960’s Psycho.

ButRope remains a curious bit of filmmaking that some even argue is Alfred Hitchcock’s true masterpiece. Even in 1948, as it was met with shrugs from audiences, it had its defenders, as a TIME Magazine staff reviewer wrote, “In photographing the action, Director Hitchcock brought off a tour de force.” Decades later, it's still an unusual but essential piece of Hitchcock's filmography.Rope is available to rent or buy on VOD services.