It can be an art, too: On murder and more in Hitchcock’s close quarters

Rope is an interesting movie in Alfred Hitchcock’s œuvre. It’s his first color picture. It’s one of 13 movies he made based on plays, and it’s one of four movies he made that are set basically entirely in single locations (along with Lifeboat, Dial M for Murder, and Rear Window).

But of the four single-location pictures, Rope is the only one that Hitchcock made to really seem like a filmed play. It unfolds in real-time, in one room, in long, continuous shots that are edited together in ways that are meant to hide most of the cuts.

As Hartford Stage’s new adaptation of the play Rope is based on opens, we present a conversation taped on their stage, in front of an audience, about Alfred Hitchcock, his movies in general, and Rope, the movie and the play, in particular.

Note: This podcast version of the show is more than eight minutes longer than the episode as it’s airing on the radio.

GUESTS:

• Illeana Douglas: The Official Movie Star of The Colin McEnroe Show and the author of Connecticut in the Movies: From Dream Houses to Dark Suburbia
• Sidney Gottlieb: Professor of communication and media studies at Sacred Heart University and the editor of The Hitchcock Annual
• Jeffrey Hatcher: A playwright and screenwriter; he wrote the adaptation of Patrick Hamilton’s Rope that’s currently in production at Hartford Stage

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Thanks to Lucas Clopton and Jennifer Levine at Hartford Stage.

Colin McEnroe, Robyn Doyon-Aitken, Dylan Reyes, and Lily Tyson contributed to this show.

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