Horst in Translation ([email protected]) "'Rope' Unleashed" is an American English-language documentary film by French filmmaker Laurent Bouzereau and he made quite a few of these Hitchcock documentaries back then when this one came out, namely in 2001, so it has its 15th anniversary this year. This one here runs for approximately half an hour and focuses on Hitchcock's 1940's film "Rope", a murder story involving two best friends. I have not seen the film that this is about, but this documentary only partially got me interested. I did not like how it focused so much on the protagonists' homosexuality and I am not sure how much this was a crucial factor in "Rope" as none of it is mentioned in the basic plot of the film's IMDb profile page. All in all, just like with some other stuff I watched by Bouzereau, I cannot say this got me curious at all about the film sadly. I also feel that it lacks a bit in terms of telling us anything that goes beyond the basic story and some interpretations, like Hitchcock's personal connection with this film for example. That's why I give it a thumbs-down.

Hot 888 Mama . . . (STRANGERS ON A TRAIN includes a far better one by Laurent Bouzereau, who wrote, directed and produced that one, this one for ROPE, and many others for both Hitchcock flicks and movies by other directors), but at least it is adequate. Hume Cronyn, one of the actors in Cocoon (as well as being Mr. Jessica Tandy), wrote the screen adaptation for ROPE and appears as one of the "talking heads" for this extra. ROPE screenwriter Arthur Laurents also puts in more than the proverbial "two cents worth," and Farley Granger--who played the pianist thrill killer Phillip in the feature--also sheds some light on his role (the consensus seems to be that the cast and crew were much more in the closet about ROPE's psycho-sexual overtones in the late 1940s during the actual filming than they are now, or than people would be today if they remade this movie). Alfred Hitchcock's daughter Patricia also puts in an appearance here.

Michael_Elliott Rope Unleashed (2001)*** 1/2 (out of 4) Entertaining making of featurette features interviews with Pat Hitchcock, Hume Cronyn, Arthur Laurents and Farley Granger as they discuss Alfred Hitchcock's ROPE. Pat doesn't have too much to say throughout the thing nor does Cronyn outside of explaining how he ended up writing a treatment early on in production. From here the majority of the screen time is devoted to screenwriter Laurents who is clearly not overly impressed with the movie. I will say that I'm a huge fan of the movie and feel it to be an underrated gem so hearing some of Laurents comments took me by surprised. I don't mind the fact that we have different opinions on the movie but it is refreshing watching one of these featurettes and not just have it being some love fest where everyone talks about how great everything was. Laurents starts off talking about how no one wanted to be reminded that this story was based on an actual case and there's also talk of why people wanted every bit of the homosexuality left out. There's talk of Cary Grant turning down the James Stewart role and then the screenwriters goes on to talk about why Stewart was bad in the part. Laurents also talks about his objection to Hitchcock showing the murder early on and how this killed all the suspense in the movie. Granger also talks about how difficult it was shooting in ten minute rounds as the cast had to remember their lines, watch their step and it appears the director was more interested in the technical side of things. No matter your opinion on the film you should find yourself entertained by this featurette. Again, it's good that the studio allowed the writer to speak his mind on issues that he had with the film even if I didn't agree with him. It's also fun hearing from Granger who gets to discuss what it was like working with the famed director.

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews This is the featurette on the DVD of Rope. It consists of interviews with one of the stars, the two writers and the daughter, as well as clips of the film(it spoils it, of course, in fact, it does so in the first of the 32 and a half minutes of the running time of this). The main subject here is that the movie was really clearly about homosexuality(as the two leads' roles are, and as Stewart's character was at least meant to be... once he was cast, it kind of went away, because, well, he was a boy scout, nearly anything you saw him in... R.I.P.), at the time referred to as "it", since no one could handle that it even existed(and that may be the main reason it bombed), and then various things where Laurent is refreshingly(for a Bouzereau documentary, those usually steer clear of controversy) honest about and critical of Hitchcock(R.I.P.), including his direction and, as he points out, some tension is lost because we know that there's a dead body in the chest, on account of the first thing we see after the opening credits. This is interesting and informational. There is disturbing content and a little violence in it. I recommend this to any fan of Alfred. 7/10