The Secret Gay Love Affair Behind Alfred Hitchcock’s Rope
Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 film Rope is famous for how it was filmed: To look like one continuous scene playing out in real time with no cuts. But there’s something else that makes it an even more audacious film, which is the unstated fact that its main characters are a gay couple. Slipping queer characters past film censors in the 1940s was no easy task — and in fact, they nearly didn’t get away with it. And what Hitchcock didn’t know is that during the making of he film, the writer was secretly having an affair with the leading man. Their clandestine romance lent a whole new level of real-life-danger behind the scenes of this iconic thriller. Because if their secret was discovered, they’d face the end of their careers — or much, much worse.
Watch bonus videos here: http://patreon.com/mattbaume
Get my newsletter at http://mattbaume.com
Follow me for more pop culture history: http://twitter.com/mattbaume
@felineconsultant
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Great video. Love is Love.💜
@lbmusictchr
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Now do Martin Landau in North by Northwest.
@jodiburnett6211
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
I am an old professional musician and today I learned Copland was gay.
❤
@philipfritz-f8x
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
"Secret" gay couple! Not to anyone whose actually seen the movie!
@danielblatt2266
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Thanks for this wonderful video, pulling together a lot of stuff I had heard and read over the years plus adding a host of material that is new to me. Just delighted in this when they learned that they both had plans to see the same Ethel Merman show….. that was new to me and delightfully delicious…..
@APoetsCorner
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Love the “Choke the chicken” joke written in the original script 🤪😁👌👌😍
@marsha_melloww
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
We GOTTA remake it today. But add a spin to it, more of a comedy maybe. Make it more like that bunch of gays in White Lotus season 2. Like their perspective of trying to kill someone
@zachsbac
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Imagine having to pretend to be something you're not just to be able to support yourself and to prevent from being medically sterilized.
@shizumaakiyama3129
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
I glad to see they did end up with happy lives.
@ericakane8666erica
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
I have the movie rope, I never knew any information about this movie. Love this video ❤❤
@oldgysgt
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Hay Matt, what is wrong with your chin? You move right, then left, then right again. Is it an involuntary tic, or just your way of trying to appear "dramatic"? If it's a tic, get some help, if it's a "dramatic" ploy, stop it, it makes you look foolish.
@primaryesthethicinstincts4832
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
We still commiting genocide driven by superiority complex.
@Witchs_Brew12
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Steinbeck and Hitchcock use to bicker back and forth. I wonder….
@apollion888
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
I am grateful for content like yours.
@youbetcha6880
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
I watched this back in the '90s, when I was in high school on VHS. (Remember VHS?). I knew from write-ups that it had a gay subtext, but I had a hard time seeing it. I think it was because Jimmy Stewart's performance threw me off. I should go back in rewatch it to see if it's more apparent to me with my maturity.
@almaisaks
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
The Secret Gay Love Affair Behind Alfred Hitchcock's Rope
@jdsnyc
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
*The Hays Code is what it is called when they barred gay subtext from movies from the 1930’s-1960’s.
@rickdrais9737
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Choking a chicken? I get jokes
@Tom-j7x6u
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Enlightening video! Thank you! I didn't suspect anything when I watched Rope as a kid. As a gay man, I am surprised/not surprised at how strict the censors were back then.
@PaulDeland
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Arrogant elite gays picking on or murdering other weaker or poorer gays is nothing new. We have billionaire gay idiots in Silicon Valley picking on poor gay people to buy votes for the fascist MAGA regime. Its sickening & disgusting. Rich gays prey on gay sex workers & take advantage of them. Jeffrey Epstein used young women as bait so he could blackmail & make big money off of the wealthy people he ensnared in his web of deceit while paying the girls nothing. There are similar gay pimps doing the same evil crap. Democratic capitalism has laws to safeguard the rights of the weak against the rich. But Capitalist fascism has erased these rights & now we have a sick society that condones bizarre exploitation schemes on everything & everyone at all levels.
@naly202
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Side note, the actor singing "I am what i am" is the original Sweeney Todd.
@naly202
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
I disagree!
I think the flopping of ROPE has nothing to do with the actual violent scene or with homosexuality. I mean, come on! It was banned in FRANCE! in FRANCE of all places, where all sorts of love affairs went rampant.
I myself both love murder mysteries (villains are usually my favourites) and have a soft spot for gay men. YET i found this horribly disturbing.
WHY? Because the murder is without MOTIVE. A gentle innocent boy is murdered for NOTHING!
The two kill for PLEASURE and they revel in all that comes after. It makes you question the human condition as a whole , and the fact that someone sat down to write this is disturbing enough to make you fear.
It's psychological violence!
It has nothing to do with gayness. Nothing! (Doing gay people a disservice, even… it'd flaunt the idea that gay men are a menace to society. They are so hopelessly depraved that, once they've exhausted sexual pleasures, they'll seek new ones, fill in anything disgusting, then ultimately find murder as the grand arouser…. that would have been horrible publicity….
I'm glad the censorship prevented those 2 monsters from being associated with being gay.
@naly202
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
I haven't seen the film, but listened to a radio adaptation, while driving at night through forrests and small villages. I found the two dudes horribly disturbing, i hated the whole premise. But those two… yuck!!! The electric chair is too gentle a punishment for them… (i didn't sense the gay dynamic though, i usually have a soft spot for them, but even that wouldn't have helped those self absorbed monsters).
To make matters worse, as i was driving, i stopped to give lift to an old man. He turned out to be drunk and was asking me all sorts of questions and laughing dimly. He was creepy. After i left him at his destination i SWORE to never : 1 give lifts
2 listen to Hitchcock while driving at night.
I'm lucky i wasn't listening to Psycho!
@TadChanning-c7d
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Robert Calhoun was one of the best producers in the golden era of daytime television drama
@darklylit595
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Sterilizing people for engaging in conduct pretty much guaranteed to never result in children is a decision only a government could make.
@gersendedupont1654
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Incredibly well-researched story, and a gripping top notch commentary, I was hooked! I remember the Alfred Hitchcock presents back in France when I was little… fascinating! Never realised about the queer innuendos until now 😂 though I remember my mum commenting on it! Super happy it ends well too. Really enjoyed this, thanks.
@Ant-m-g1o
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Queer 🤨
@kathrynbeetham5308
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Wow, thank you for this. Really interesting.
@Bojack727
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
I saw this film (on a rented VHS) in the late 90s. I was a young clueless teen and never picked up on the subtext because I was only 14-15, but I did pick up on the ruthless social Darwinism being carried out by the two main characters. It came across to me at the time as more of a cautionary tale about applying hypothetical concepts to real life. Back then, it just seemed like the story of two amoral people. Thanks for the new insight.
@wayneking2090
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
This should always appear on every "Best example of…" list in multiple genres for obvious reasons…. I challenge any theatre queen to disagree!!!!! 😉
@bettyboohadapoo
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
I knew a lot about the content of Rope, but boy you made the entire story sing, well done darl, love from Oz x
@lowe-quay-shush
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Add another family member/actor of "Samantha's' in 'Bewitched' who's gay. Add her Mother & Uncle. Says here the actor playing her Dad.(Plus 2nd Darren & Aunt Esmeralda!)
@stardresser1
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Fantastic, thank you so very very well much!!!❤
@r.lewisblake7793
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Really great job Matt!
@SioMeo
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
Really disappointed that you didn't talk about how this was Hitchcock's first colored featured film. But apparently it wasn't about the film itself versus the lore around it.
@Nick-f4w2n
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
20:02 that dude sounds exactly like Patrick Bateman from American Psycho. I mean the fake concern over societal things.
Also I love the woman's smile. She smiles then switches to a neutral face. As he starts talking, she smiles again and nods. She's really into this guy's theory 😀
@vleldaddio210
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
James Stewart was an awful Homophobic and Racist but also loved " MONEY 😮!" SO TO TOP HIS WHITE SUPREMACIST ATTITUDE HE WAS ALSO A HYPOCRITE ! HE IS AND BELOVED BY THE VERY PEOPLE HE DESPISED BECAUSE HIS TRUE CHARACTER WAS NOT WIDELY PUBLIZED BY STUDIOS AND SURPRESSED BY TOUGH PAID "FIXERS!!" IN THE MOVIE " THE MAN WHO SHOT LIBERTY VALANCE "BLACK ACTOR WOODY STRODE FINALLY HAD ENOUGH OF N THIS N THAT HE WAS GOING TO BEAT THE TALL BO
NY RACIST TO A PULP HAD TO BE RESTRAINED BY JOHN WAYNE A FELLOW RACIST BUT A PROFESSIONAL THAT MAKING THE MOVIE WAS MOST IM PORTANT WOULD TOLERANT FRICTION ON THE SET !!! AS DIDHITHCOCKWHO BATTED BOTHWAYS COVFEFE REST WITH THE DEMONS ALL😮😊
@MistyFreshblehhhh
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
6:27 off topic but this gag is really funny
@michaelhenicker
August 7, 2026 at 2:57 am
I LOVED WATCHING THAT MOVIE AS A TEENAGER. KNOWING THAT THERE WERE GAY CHARACTERS IN AN HITCHCOCK MOVIE.