Alfred Hitchcock Homosexual

Rope, a 1948 American thriller film directed by Alfred Hitchcock, begins with the screams of a man being strangled to death with a rope. Roommates, Philip and Brandon, invite their mutual friend, David, back to their apartment in order to kill him for the sake of killing someone. Philip is seen holding the rope around David’s neck, and Brandon checks his heart to make sure he is dead. The two men temporarily stuff David’s body in a large wooden chest until they can properly dispose of the body. After this, they discuss the murder briefly and begin preparing for a dinner party for David’s father, his aunt, his fiancée Janet, David’s friend who is Janet’s former lover, and Brandon and Philip’s former prep school housemaster, Rupert. To have more …show more content…
Farley Granger, who played Philip, was even the lover of Arthur Laurents, who worked on the screenplay with Cronyn. Hitchcock highly enjoyed this slightly kinky touch that was added to the film. Because of the clear homosexual implications in the script, Carey Grant, originally Rupert, and Montgomery Clift, originally Brandon, decided to not do the film because they were scared of the career implications the film could have caused for them. They were replaced by James Stewart and John Dall, respectively. Though Hitchcock was initially excited about a film with long, continuous shots roughly nine and a half minutes long, he later admitted that the technique was an attention-getting stunt. He may have been trying to prove something to himself, to prove to the American film industry that such a thing could even be done, or to add distractions to avoid censorship. This type of production was a strain on the cast and crew, who were accustomed to shorter takes and briefer passages of dialogue to remember. Also, this was Hitchcock’s color film debut, and he chose a subdued palette for the …show more content…
Though the ends and beginnings of takes are fairly obvious when the screen fills with the black of a jacket, they did not take away from the film. One of the most interesting features of the film is the sexual overtones between the two men. After the murder is committed, Brandon and Philip have a conversation that is a metaphor to the killing being sexual and orgasmic. The two men breathe heavily after the act, and Philip wants to keep the lights off and continue to be in the moment for as long as possible. Brandon remarks that he wishes they could have done it with the curtains open and lights a cigarette a short time later, which was something men often did after they had sex in this time. More allusions towards the act being sexual in nature can be seen throughout the film, such as when Brandon is describing how he felt during the murder of David. He can be seen clumsily fondling a champagne bottle, which is a clear allusion to masturbation and the sexual release the act gave him. Even the rope used can be seen as a powerful, phallic object that further shows the sexual nature of the

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