Rope (film)

Rope
Theatrical release poster
Directed byAlfred Hitchcock
Screenplay byArthur Laurents
Story byHume Cronyn
Based onRope
by Patrick Hamilton
Produced by
Starring
CinematographyJoseph A. Valentine
William V. Skall
Edited byWilliam H. Ziegler
Music by
Production
company
Distributed byWarner Bros.
Release dates
  • August 26, 1948 (1948-08-26) (New York City)
  • September 25, 1948 (1948-09-25) (United States)
Running time
80 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$1.5–2 million
Box office$2.2–2.7 million

Rope is a 1948 American psychological crime thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, based on the 1929 play of the same title by Patrick Hamilton. The film was adapted by Hume Cronyn with a screenplay by Arthur Laurents.

The film was produced by Hitchcock and Sidney Bernstein as the first of their Transatlantic Pictures productions. Starring James Stewart, John Dall and Farley Granger, this 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 four long shots through the use of stitched-together long takes. It is the second of Hitchcock's "limited setting" films, the first being Lifeboat (1944). The original play was said to be inspired by the real-life murder of 14-year-old Bobby Franks in 1924 by University of Chicago students Nathan Leopold and Richard Loeb.