TeleTales #79…”The Rope” From Alfred Hitchcock, 1948
There are only 10 edits in this unusual film which was shot in scenes that lasted from 4 minutes to over 10 minutes. In order for the huge Technicolor camera to follow the action, set wall were suspended on rails so walls could open to let the camera pass through. Below left is Jimmy Stewart with Hitchcock just in front of him, but notice the gap above the camera where the set walls have opened for it to pass. Enjoy and share! -Bobby Ellerbee
Here, back to back, are two :60 second promo’s from NBC, touting their color abilities in the mid 1960s. You have to give them and RCA credit as the leaders in color. No one was better, but unfortunately, when these transfers were made from film to video a few years ago, the master prints had […]
The Final Days Of ‘Tonight’ With Johnny Carson… This clip ran in Johnny’s last week on the air. I have seen a version of this from the show and in his intro, he said what we all know to be true…that he allowed very little coverage of the backstage elements of the show, which makes […]
Orange Bowl Parade: December 31,1966 Thanks to David Zorning for this very interesting photo. In preparation for the CBS broadcast, two RCA TK1s are being set up. There were probably six cameras on the parade route and they had to belong to CBS as the first color cameras WTVJ had were Norelco and may have […]
The debut of the RCA TK30 Image Orthicon camera was live in half of the nation and on kinescope for the rest, so this better be good! And it was! This was trial by fire. RCA worked so fast to get six TK30s to NBC in New York for the Lewis-Conn rematch at Yankee Stadium, […]
Never tire of this film. Knowing the choreography involved and the pressure on the actors & crew.
The man standing behind Hitchcock is the 1st Assistant Cameraman. He is holding the Technicolor selsyn motor remote focus control. Note he is wearing a jacket and dress slacks which was de rigueur on a Hitchcock film for the higher rank technician’s.
Great documentation of how this film was made with a camera the size if a small car.
Why so big
This camera and dolly is huge.
I love this film
It’s one of his least seen by friends of mine.
I always promote it.
Is there a book of sorts describing “the making of”?
The 3 strip Technicolor camera is large on it’s own. The photo shows the additional huge sound “blimp” cover to mute the noise the camera makes when recording live sound during a scene.
The 3 strip Technicolor camera was large enough. However when the huge sound blimp was added to mute the camera motor noise, the camera became monstrous. Better photo of the camera with sound blimp. JACK CARDIFF D.P. (UNDER THE CAMERA) AND GEOFFREY UNSWORTH (OPERATING).