Talk:Rope (film)/Archive 1

Archive 1

Just adding my two cents to the reel-matter: I've got the Universal R2 version of the film and I checked the timing of cuts. Actually I think there are two more cuts near the end of the film, in addition to the ones listed in the article. Besides, the durations of the takes are slightly different from that listed (mine are averagely 2,5% shorter: maybe the cinema-TV conversion plays some tricks on that?). Here follows my list:

1) Duration: 2:03. Start: the street view with titles. End: window close up. Actually I think there are two cuts which glue together scenes with people and scenes without people, anyway I am not sure about it.

2) Duration 9:09. Start: close up of David's face. End: Brandon's back.

3) Duration 7:32. Start: Brandon's back. End: Kenneth's close up looking towards the hall. Off screen Brandon says: "Janet!".

4) Duration 7:00. Start: Phillip and Brandon walking towards Janet. End: Kenneth's back.

5) Duration 6:52. Start: Kenneth's back. End: Phillip's close up: "That's a lie!".

6) Duration 9:34. Start: Rupert's close up. End: Brandon's back.

7) Duration 7:16. Start: Brandon's back. End: three shot of Phillip, Rupert and Brandon talking, while off screen Mrs Wilson interrupts: "Excuse me, sir".

8) Duration 7:28. Start: Mrs Wilson waist shot saying: "There's a lady phoning for either Mr Kentley or Mrs Atwater". End: Brandon's back.

9) Duration 9:42. Start: Brandon's back. End: close up of Brandon's pocket.

10) Duration 0:10. Start: Rupert's close up. End: door-post shot, at the end you see the kitchen door. Rupert has just said: "...and the two of us would put him in the car".

11) Duration 4:18. Start: the previous frame, just a moment before Brandon enters saying "You'd be seen". The cut is visible because the door-post changes a bit in position, and so the focus (just look at the candlestick on the table). End: the chest lid.

12) Duration 3:02. Start: the chest lid. End: shot over Brandon's shoulder with Rupert facing him and yelling out: "Is that what you thought when you served food from his---".

13) Duration 2:24. Start: same frame as previous, Rupert completes the line yelling out: "---grave?" and green neon light flashes over his figure. You recognize the cut because Brandon's shoulder is slightly more to left than before the cut, and so is Rupert. End: end of film.

As one can notice, if I am right the film is composed by thirteen takes, the longer being 9:42 and the shorter just 10 seconds. If one reel was really 10 minutes and not more, the longer shot must had been quite a challenge!

I tried to figure out why the short take of 10 seconds: I think it is a problem of focus. Just before the cut the focus is on the kitchen door, quite distant from the camera. Just after the cut, the focus is gone back and quite rapidly comes back to Brandon's close up. I don't know much of practical optics, but maybe a lens couldn't do all that in one single take, maybe they should have changed the lens. Moreover, there was no auto-focus at the time, so perhaps it would be to much risky to throw away the take for a bad focusing.

The other cut that I see in addition to those already noticed is rather odd, because it happens with people in the frame. An explanation that I can put forward is the green light that flashes on Rupert just after the word "grave". Remember the green light in Vertigo? Maybe Hitchcock wanted green spectral light on the word "grave". Or, maybe something went wrong and they had to cut some frame from the reel: actually Brandon's shoulder after the cut seems to having continued the slight movement towards left that he had before the cut (but Rupert seems rather still before the cut...any ideas?).

Among funny things, replaying this last scene with the line: "Is that what you thought when you served food from his grave?" again and again, I noticed a suspect trajectory from Stewart's mouth while saying "food". It is visible only looking carefully and step by step.

Thank you for your attention, an Hitchcock's fan from Italy

P.s.: please feel free to correct my not very accurate english...!