Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1948. French first-release of Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope," featuring James Stewart and Farley Granger at center, surmounted by a large hand holding a length of rope. Printed by Cinémato, Paris, France, with imprint to the lower right. Approx. 23 5/16 x 31 1/2, matted and framed to 26 x 34 in.

The printed "visa ministériel" number in the lower-left margin indicates that the film was formally reviewed by French censorship authorities. From World War II through 1981, every film distributed in France required state approval, and Rope was ultimately banned there, as well as in Italy and the Netherlands. Upon its domestic release in the United States, local censor boards in cities including Seattle, Spokane, Atlanta, and Memphis similarly banned the picture, citing excessive alcohol consumption, graphic violence, and underlying queer subtext. Hitchcock had intentionally embedded these themes into the production, hiring openly gay screenwriter Arthur Laurents and casting Farley Granger, Laurents’s then-partner, in a lead role opposite James Stewart.

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