Which Hitchcock film was his first in color?

Rope was Alfred Hitchcock’s first film in color, using Technicolor for its 1948 release.

Adapted from Patrick Hamilton’s 1929 play, Rope follows two young men who murder a former classmate and conceal his body in a chest while hosting a dinner party. The confined Manhattan apartment setting gave Hitchcock an opportunity to experiment with time, staging and camera movement.

The film is famous for appearing to unfold in one continuous shot. In practice, each camera reel could run for only about ten minutes, so Hitchcock concealed cuts by moving the camera into darkness or behind a character’s back. The production also required a highly mobile set: walls and furniture were moved to let the bulky Technicolor camera pass through while filming continued.

Rope is sometimes confused with The Trouble with Harry, Rear Window or Vertigo because all are color Hitchcock films. Those came later: The Trouble with Harry in 1955, Rear Window in 1954 and Vertigo in 1958. Rope was the first, though its initial critical and commercial response was mixed.