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 reallifedanger 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.

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