Don't Make a Scene: Rope

The Story: Of course, there's always something "meta" about a Hitchcock movie. Those cameos he does...breaking the moment of suspense to take you out of the picture to see the man who made the movie take a figurative bow.*

And Rope, that's really something. There's always something theatrical about a Hitchcock movie. He staged things as if they had a proscenium arch around the edges. Rope even more so as it began as a stage play and Hitchcock decided to do it just like a stage play in one continuous take...to the audience's perspective, anyway. He set it up so that he could make an "invisible" transition whenever those 10 minute rolls of film ran out during production. And the film was a percursor to live television plays in that Hitchcock moved the camera (and the sets!) in order to focus attention on different corners of the room as conversations shift and his background city-scape edges through sunset into darkness.

At times, though, one is caught watching the camera moving than in what the actors are doing, so overt are the shifts. One really isn't supposed to be aware of the camera. Even star James Stewart groused that "Hitch" was "more concerned about directing the cameras than the actors!" I guess one doesn't worry about "breaking the fourth wall" when the camera is constantly threatening to plow through it!

 

But, for meta-"meta" how about this exchange in Rope where the guests are talking about movies (doesn't that happen at every party?). Of course, the movies are unidentifiable as nobody can remember the titles of them. It's the stars that people remember! And quite a few of Hitchcock's players are mentioned in passing: James Mason (North by Northwest), Cary Grant (North By Northwest again and Suspicion and...Notorious, which also starred...), Ingrid Bergman. It's Hitchcock having fun (as he would admonish Bergman: "Ingrid, it's only a movie!"). But, it's still surprising. And winking at the audience as he inevitably did.

The Set-up: A New York dinner party with the most tasteless centerpiece in the world. Brandon Shaw (John Dall) and Phillip Morgan (Farley Granger ) have just strangled a college chum for the thrill of it, and have invited friends and family of the victim over for a post-mortem party, never betraying that the person they're missing is right under their noses. Guest of honor, of course, is their old house-master Philip Cadell (James Stewart), who inadvertently inspired the horrendous act.

 

Action.

 

Mrs. Wilson appears with her tray and the wine. 

MRS. ATWATER Talking of skeletons, have you seen that new thing at the Strand? 

JANET: Yes. I adored it! 

MRS. ATWATER: Did you? Good! 

MRS. ATWATER: I didn't care for her much. That new girl. Definitely Scorpio.

JANET: No, I didn't like her either, but her clothes were fabulous.  

MRS. ATWATER: Simply divine! 

JANET: Absolutely heaven! 

RUPERT: I must see it. 

JANET: Of course, the man I have a passion for is James Mason. 

RUPERT: Is he good? 

JANET: Absolutely terrific. 

MRS. ATWATER: So attractively sinister. Taurus The Bull, you know. Very obstinate. 

RUPERT: Really? 

MRS. ATWATER: I have a confession, though. I think I like Mason as much as Errol Flynn. 

JANET: I'll take Cary Grant myself. 

MRS. ATWATER: Oh so will I!.. 

MRS. ATWATER: Capricorn The Goat. He leaps! Divine! So much...mmm... 

JANET: Oh yes! 

RUPERT: Oh absolutely! 

MRS. ATWATER: He was thrilling in that thing with Bergman. What was it called now? 

MRS. ATWATER: The Something and The Something. No, that was the other one. 

MRS. ATWATER: This was just plain Something. You know, It was.. oh, sort of...you know 

RUPERT: It's right on the tip of my tongue.**

JANET: Oh mine, too! It was just plain Something, I'm sure. I adored it. 

JANET: And Bergman! 

MRS. ATWATER: Well... She's the Virgo type, Like all these, you know. 

JANET: Oh, I think she's lovely. 

RUPERT: (announcing) I once went to the movies, (pause) 

RUPERT: I saw Mary Pickford...***

MRS. ATWATER: Oh, I was so mad about her. Didn't you love her?  

RUPERT: Oh, I don't know, Virgo type rather, like all these, you know. 

MRS. ATWATER: Yes but...what did you see her in? 

RUPERT: I can't quite recall. The Something Something. 

RUPERT: Or just plain Something. I think. 

RUPERT: Or something like that, (pause) Or very like it, anyway. 

JANET: I don't believe you ever went. 

MRS. WILSON: (sotto voce to Janet). If I were you, I'd go easy on the paté, dear. Calories. 

She nudges Rupert. 

Brandon has moved away from the chest to round up the others.

BRANDON: Come on, Kenneth. Don't be polite...Phillip, would you mind helping Mrs. Atwater? 

PHILLIP: I'd be glad to. 

MRS. ATWATER: Thank you, dear boy. 

The guests have begun to help themselves. Mrs. Wilson passes champagne around. They settle about the room and begin eating.

 

Rope

 

Words by Arthur Laurents and Ben Hecht (Adaptation by Hume Cronyn from the play by Patrick Hamilton)

 

Pictures by William V. Skall and Joseph A. Valentine and Alfred Hitchcock

 

Rope is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Universal Home Video. 

* There may be two Hitchcock cameos in Rope. Arthur Laurents claims he's walking down the New York street after the credits. But, for sure, he's there when the city lights come on and there's a flashing red neon of Hitchcock's signature profile blinking on and off in the background!

 

** Yeah, that would be Notorious.

*** My Father used to tell this type of "I-don't-get-out-much" joke: "Last movie I saw was (pause) Birth of a Nation.

Red River

The Story: Director Howard Hawks commenting that John Wayne could "carry" a picture: "No, he can’t. He needs opposition; and without opposition, it’s very difficult to make a picture with him. He blows the rest of ’em right off the screen."

"I was going to make Hatari! with another star [opposite Wayne], and the studio couldn’t afford it. So we had to hire—I hired a German boy and a French boy to play the parts, and Wayne just went [makes a quick shrugging gesture] and they were gone. I had to change the story. But when I put him with Bob Mitchum and Dean Martin and Montgomery Clift, we got a story."

Howard Hawks "You're Goddamn Right I Remember" Kathleen Murphy and Richard T. Jameson, originally published in Movietone News 54, June 1977

 

The best argument refuting the old "John Wayne couldn't act" trope is in that testimony of Howard Hawks (who directed him in five pictures). If you put up any old actor in the same shot with him, he'd blow them off the screen. Call it "screen presence" if you like. But, Wayne had to have a strong supporting cast, at least as versatile or magnetic (or as wily) as he was, or they'd shrink in significance on the screen... So, you'd have to have someone challenging—like the ones Hawks mentioned—or Maureen O'Hara or Kirk Douglas or Bruce Dern or Richard Boone or James Stewart or Lee Marvin or....somebody who would fill his sails and give the man something to work against.

Like Montgomery Clift in Red River.

 

This was Clift's first film role. Hawks spent a couple years editing Red River, and in the interim, the first released Clift performance was The Search. Clift was an "East Coast" actor, trained at The Actor's Studio, quite leftist politically, and, at least, bi-sexual. Wayne and co-star Walter Brennan had doubts that he could stand up to the bigger, stronger Wayne. But, Hawks had seen him on-stage and was already convinced that Clift could hold his own against the older actor (if Hawks had any doubts it was if Wayne could play "older" than his age of 39 at the time of filming). Hawks worked with Clift—he already knew how to ride and was comfortable on a horse—but, taught him how to shoot and how to fight.

After their first scene together, Wayne was impressed. So impressed that he "upped" his game a little, using a couple tricks he had up his sleeve from starring in so many B-movie Westerns, as well as the classic Stagecoach (directed by John Ford) and the The Big Trail (directed by Raoul Walsh). Things they don't teach at the Actors Studio.

 

Like using the camera.

 

During their confrontation scene—depicted here—when it came time to film Wayne's side of the conversation, Wayne stared straight ahead, like his character was watching his life's work being taken away, and only occasionally glanced at Clift...but he made sure that he was looking away from the actor when he delivers the "hammer-blow" line "I'm gonna kill ya, Matt."

 

This put Clift into a high dudgeon. "How am I going to play against that?" he was heard to be yelling at Hawks. Good question. The dismissal that Wayne puts into the line—the matter-of-factness, the coldness—makes it deadly and certain. It elevates Wayne's character from bad boss to villain and makes one dread the final confrontation between them. It was a brilliant choice. Simple and elegant.

After the release of Red River, fellow director John Ford marveled to Hawks "I didn't know the big son-of-a-bitch could act!" and began giving Wayne more complex roles in his own movies.

 

The Set-up: After 14 years of building up a herd of 10,000 cattle, Thomas Dunson (John Wayne), with his adopted son, Matthew Garth (Montgomery Clift) and their cook, Groot Nadine (Walter Brennan) have started a cattle run intending to take the massive herd to Missouri. But, along the way, complications like cattle and men and weather are wont to deliver have taken a toll. Dunson has started drinking and become a tyrant, administering harsh punishments for anything that goes wrong. Finally, three of the hands quit in the middle of the night, and Dunson has sent his fastest draw after them.

 

Action.

 

EXT. DAYTIME - DUNSON CAMP

Groot tends to Dunson's injured leg while he drinks, Matt watching warily.

Suddenly, there's a distant whistle.

It's Cherry returning with two of the deserters, Laredo and Teeler.

COWHERD 1: It's Cherry!

They cross the river...

and enter camp. 

TOM DUNSON: Get down off them horses. I don't favor looking up to the likes of you. 

They comply.

DUNSON: That's better. You should be crawling. 

DUNSON: Cherry, I sent you out after three of them. You brought back two. 

CHERRY: Bill Kelsey figured he'd rather fight. Made a good one of it for a while. 

DUNSON: Hmm. Laredo, Teeler... you signed on for the drive, 

DUNSON: and you signed on to finish it. - 

LAREDO: That's right-- We did. -

TEELER: But we didn't..

DUNSON (interrupting): You stole beans, flour and cartridges. 

DUNSON: Besides being deserters, you're common thieves. - 

LAREDO: The law might see it different. - 

DUNSON: I'm the law. You're a thief! 

DUNSON: You too, Teeler. Anything more? 

TEELER: I know what you're gonna do to us, but first I want to tell you something. - 

DUNSON: Go ahead. - 

TEELER: You're crazy. 

TEELER: You've been drinking and not sleeping. If you ain't crazy, you're skin-close to it. - 

DUNSON: You through? - 

TEELER: No. 

TEELER: You want to get this herd to market. Well, so do all of us! There's a good way to Abilene, but you won't listen to that. 

TEELER: No, you want to drive them to Missouri, when you got the high-low and jack... 

TEELER: ...against you. 

TEELER: I ain't through...

TEELER: ...yet. This herd don't belong to you. 

TEELER: It belongs to every poor, hoping and praying cattleman in the state. 

TEELER: I shouldn't have run away. 

TEELER: I should have stayed and put a bullet in you. 

TEELER: I signed a pledge, sure, but you ain't the man I signed it with. - 

DUNSON: You finished? - 

TEELER: Yeah. 

TEELER: Now you can get your Bible and read over us after you shoot us.  

DUNSON: I'm gonna hang you. 

MATT: No. 

MATT: No, you're not. - 

DUNSON: What? - 

MATT: You're not going to hang them. 

DUNSON: Who'll stop me? 

MATT: I will. 

Dunson stands to face down his son.

Cherry shoots at Dunson's hand before it can happen.

Splinters from the rail smash into Dunson's hand.

Dunson reaches for his sidearm...

but fumbles it with his injured hand.

Enraged, Dunson tries reaching for the gun with the other hand

but Buster, one of the herd riders, shoots at Dunson's feet.

TEELER (to Cherry): Give me that gun. 

TEELER: Somebody give me-- I'll kill him! 

Others grab Teeler

TEELER: Let me go! He was gonna kill me. 

TEELER: He wasn't gonna give me a chance.

Matt steps over and backhands him.

MATT: Turn him loose. 

MATT: Cherry, give me that gun.

Cherry tosses it to Matt, 

who tosses it to Teeler.

MATT: Here's what you've been crying for. 

MATT: All right. Use it! Go on. You got what you wanted. 

MATT: What are you waiting for? 

He stalks Teeler, ready to fire.

MATT: If you don't want to live, 

MATT: all you have to do is-- 

Matt calms.

MATT: You're a lucky man, Teeler. 

MATT: That's how close it came. 

TEELER: Matt, we're getting as crazy as he is.

Teeler gives Matt the gun.

MATT: Keep it. You want to finish the drive? - 

TEELER: Where we going? - 

MATT: Abilene. - 

TEELER: Who's heading it? -

MATT: I am. 

BUSTER: What about Dunson? 

MATT: He stays here. 

MATT: We're taking the herd. - 

TEELER: That's good enough for me. - 

The others agree

COWHERD 2: I'm with you, Matt. 

COWHERD 3: I'll go along.

MATT: Groot? How about you? 

GROOT NADINE: You was wrong, Mr. Dunson. 

GROOT: I've been with you a lot of years. And up till now, right or wrong, I always done like you said. Got to be kinda a habit with me, I guess, 'cause that's why I'm staying with you. - 

DUNSON: Go on with them! - 

GROOT: Thanks. 

GROOT: Thanks for making it easy on me. 

GROOT: All right, men. I'll be coming with you. 

MATT: Throw them on the trail. Start driving. 

MATT: Buster...

MATT: ...you wait here till I get back. 

He rides off to help round up the herd.

CHERRY: You come looking for me, Mr. Dunson, I'll be in Abilene.

After the herd is moving, Matt walks over to Dunson.

MATT: All right, Groot. Get going. 

GROOT: Hyah! Hyah! [ Whistling ] 

MATT: If there's any chance at all, we'll get your herd to Abilene. 

DUNSON: Cherry was right. You're soft. 

DUNSON: You should have let them kill me, 'cause I'm going to kill you. 

DUNSON: I'll catch up with you. I don't know when, but I'll catch up. 

DUNSON: Every time you turn around, expect to see me. 

DUNSON: 'Cause one time you'll turn around, and I'll be there. 

DUNSON: I'm going to kill you, Matt.

 

Red River

 

Words by Borden Chase and Charles Schnee (and Howard Hawks)

 

Pictures by Russell Harlan and Howard Hawks 

Red River is available on DVD and Blu-Ray from M-G-M Home Entertainment and the Criterion Collection.