ABSTRACT

This chapter deals with the construction of cinematic space in Hitchcock’s first experiments with color:Rope(1948),Under Capricorn(1949), andDial M for Murder(1953). These films are characterized by a rather restrained palette contributing to the creation of a claustrophobic interior, which is central to the plot of these films. Unmistakably in line with the contemporaneous “low key” genres of the Gothic melodrama and film noir, Hitchcock’s earliest color films clearly differ from the glaring colors of his later films that established him as one of the great colorists of film history although only fifteen of his fifty-three films are in color.