Capote & Hitchcock Part 2: Rope

      Rope (1948) is one of Alfred Hitchcock's most intriguing films, and was quite experimental for its time. Aside from the opening credits, the entire movie was filmed in real time on the single set of an apartment. Furthermore, it was filmed in a series of very long takes (most are 7-9 minutes) and edited in such a way as to give the impression of the nearly the entire film's being a single shot. In 1948, this was technically impossible because a single reel of film could hold about only 10 minutes of footage. Hitchcock masked his cuts using techniques like panning across a man's back or piece of furniture so that the screen would go dark for a moment and the cut could be made, and the effect of the pan made it appear seamless. There are only four undisguised cuts in this 80 minute film, and even those were planned to occur at the moments when the movie theater projectors of the day would have to change reels during a screening.

      Okay, so I know that bit of trivia has nothing to do with In Cold Blood, but I wanted to share it because I think it's pretty interesting. Nevertheless, there are a few things about Rope that I did consider in relation to In Cold Blood as we were reading and discussing Capote's non-fiction novel. The most basic connection is that both deal with a murder committed by two men; however, Hitchcock's protagonists, Brandon and Philip commit their murder with the belief that their getting away with the crime, committing “the perfect murder,” will prove their superiority over other men. Although Dick and Perry's motivations are different, Capote still presents them as having similarly inflated senses of self. Even so, I must admit that I didn't make the Rope connection immediately. That didn't occur until Luis mentioned that Dick and Perry, and possibly Capote and Perry, might have had a sexual relationship. Rope is based on a play that was inspired by the case of Leopold and Loeb (if you don't know this one, look it up on Wikipedia, it's a chilling piece of our Chicago history), and the film has a very strong queer subtext. Of course the film had to get past the censors of 1948, so there is nothing overt in it, but both Brandon and Philip are discernibly coded as gay and so is their former professor, played by Jimmy Stewart. The actors who played Brandon and Philip were both gay in real life as was the screenwriter; and the discussion that Brandon and Philip have about how they felt during the murder is a clear allusion to gay sex (not entirely sure how I feel about that one though...)

      There is certainly a homoerotic element in Dick and Perry's relationship as well, but it is difficult to determine to what degree this might have been an invention of Capote's. Still, Dick frequently refers to Perry as “honey” and “baby,” and both are presented as something of sexual misfits, not quite fitting into a heteronormative portrait. Perry has a history of sexual abuse, Dick is something of a pedophile, and they seemingly attempt to hustle men while in Mexico. I also read a critical essay online that argues that the Clutter family's murder is a result of Perry's missing the opportunity for a gay encounter with Willie-Jay. Of course, like Rope, none of these instances do a great job of promoting positive images of gay culture—apparently we're all murders—but this was a different time. Being gay was still considered a mental illness; and any potentially gay characters that appeared in the media (coded, of course) were almost inevitably homicidal villains; and if they happened to be sympathetic, they likely commit suicide. (If you're interested in this part of movie history, I recommend The Celluloid Closet.)

      I can't help but wonder how the homoeroticism of In Cold Blood might have played out in a different time. The film Capote hints at Capote and Perry's possible relationship, but even so, it's still a subtext. I think that there are the beginnings of a very interesting critical analysis here, but I'm not up to that challenge at this point. I still want to talk about Dial M for Murder, so like the rest of them, I'm going to shelve that “queery” for now...