20 Myths and Truths About Alfred Hitchcock

MYTH: Rope was filmed as one uninterrupted take. TRUTH: Film magazines of the period could hold only about ten minutes of 35mm footage, making a genuine feature-length take impossible in 1948. Hitchcock instead staged unusually long shots and disguised several cuts by moving the camera into dark jackets or other surfaces. A few transitions remained visible. The experiment created the sensation of continuous real time decades before digital cinema made genuine feature-length takes more practical.