Hitchcock's opening shot was with hesitation in Rope (6)
I believe the answer is:
hawser
'rope' is the definition.
(I know that hawser is a type of rope)
'hitchcock's opening shot was with hesitation' is the wordplay.
'opening' says to take the initial letters.
'shot' indicates an anagram.
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'hesitation' becomes 'er' (sound used when hesitating).
The initial letter of 'hitchcock' is 'h'.
'was' is an anagram of 'aws'.
'h'+'aws'+'er'='HAWSER'
'in' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for hawser that I've seen before include "Ship's large rope or small cable" , "tower" , "Large heavy rope" , "Thick mooring rope" , "Strong rope or cable for mooring ship" .)