Rear Window (1955)

Like the Greenwich Village courtyard view from its titular portal, Alfred Hitchcock's classic Rear Window is both confined and multileveled: both its story and visual perspective are dictated by its protagonist's imprisonment in his apartment, convalescing in a wheelchair, from which both he and the audience observe the lives of his neighbors. Cheerful voyeurism, as well as the behavior glimpsed among the various tenants, affords a droll comic atmosphere that gradually darkens when he sees clues to what may be a murder.

Photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) is, in fact, a voyeur by trade, a professional photographer sidelined by an accident while on assignment. His immersion in the human drama (and comedy) visible from his window is a by-product of boredom, underlined by the disapproval of his girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly), and a wisecracking visiting nurse (Thelma Ritter). Yet when the invalid wife of Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) disappears, Jeff enlists the two women to help him to determine whether she's really left town, as Thorwald insists, or been murdered.

Hitchcock scholar Donald Spoto convincingly argues that the crime at the center of this mystery is the MacGuffin--a mere pretext--in a film that's more interested in the implications of Jeff's sentinel perspective. We actually learn more about the lives of the other neighbors (given generic names by Jeff, even as he's drawn into their lives) he, and we, watch undetected than we do the putative murderer and his victim. Jeff's evident fear of intimacy and commitment with the elegant, adoring Lisa provides the other vital thread to the script, one woven not only into the couple's own relationship, but reflected and even commented upon through the various neighbors' lives.

At minimum, Hitchcock's skill at making us accomplices to Jeff's spying, coupled with an ingenious escalation of suspense as the teasingly vague evidence coalesces into ominous proof, deliver a superb thriller spiked with droll humor, right up to its nail-biting, nightmarish climax. At deeper levels, however, Rear Window plumbs issues of moral responsibility and emotional honesty, while offering further proof (were any needed) of the director's brilliance as a visual storyteller. --Sam Sutherland Amazon.com essential video

3 stars out of 4

The Bottom Line:

Though Rear Window is often acclaimed as one of Hitchcock's best, it comes up short in the suspense department (it's fairly obvious how things are going to proceed) and thus stands as a technically proficient thriller that embraces conventions instead of transcending them. December 20, 2008

Poor Casting for Kelly, Poor Writing for Hitch

I am a big fan of both Grace Kelly and Alfred Hitchcock, but I really think this film is ridiculous. We are made to believe that somehow this photographer (Stewart) is holed up in his shoddy back-alley apartment due to an injury, but his gorgeous socialite girlfriend (Kelly) is not at all averse to hanging out there constantly. She looks as out of place as a Tiffany lamp in a public restroom. There is also a ridiculous attempt at sexualizing Kelly, involving her showing Stewart a piece of not-so-revealing lingerie (not even wearing, just showing) as "a taste of things to come." Grace Kelly is just not right here, mainly because she seems simultaneously less uptight and more classy than her character.

I wish I could critique the writing, but since this is a suspense film it would be too much of a spoiler (not that there's much suspense here anyway). The ending is very obvious and lame as well, and there are some terribly contrived plot devices, such as the woman who keeps lowering her dog from a high window to the alleyway with a pulley, rope, and basket.

If you want to see the future princess of Monaco and Alfred Hitchcock work well together, check out To Catch a Thief. I think this one is heavily overrated. November 19, 2008

a completely original suspense masterpiece!

One of the most original films ever made! A man in a wheelchair, with a leg in a cast is trapped in his Greenwich Village one room apartment, watching his neighbours through the window onto a courtyard, during a heat wave in the summer. Sometimes what you see, you don't believe and what you believe you don't see and that can be murder. The set-up and premise of the film is outstanding and completely original. With excellent dialogue and excellently mounted scenes without dialogue, Hitchcock enters the dangerous world of the peeping tom and gives it his masterful twist. November 9, 2008

No Dream Sequence PLEASE

The Dream Sequence referred to in the last review was never part of the original film. It was inserted by local television stations in a lame attempt to recapitulate the plot for those who had tuned in late. Exactly the kind of butchering that should be prevented by copywright laws. The current restoration is completely faithful to the original film. October 16, 2008

Restorers' Error

Restorers' Error

What the restorers of Rear Window don't know is that there exist two dream sequences in the first part of the movie.

The first takes place after Grace Kelly leaves, and James Stewart has heard the scream from across the courtyard. Thelma Ritter, Grace Kelly, and the courtyard are shown while dialogue from Thelma Ritter's argument with Stewart about Lisa, and Lisa's argument with Stewart, are heard with an echo. The composer's new song is heard.

The second takes place after Stewart has waked up and noticed the salesman taking a suitcase out during the rain, coming back, and taking the suitcase out again. The composer's song is heard over the image which shows the salesman arguing with his wife, the artist neighbor telling the salesman he is giving the plants too much water, Thelma Ritter saying "I've got a nose for trouble, I can smell it ten miles away." Then Ritter says, "I can smell trouble right in this apartment. First you break your leg, then you start looking out the window, seeing things you shouldn't see," while we see the wife catching the salesman in the other room talking to his girlfriend on the phone, then Ritter saying "We've become a race of Peeping Toms, what we ought to do is get outside ourselves and look in once in a while. The New York sentence for a Peeping Tom is six months in the workhouse. There are no windows in the workhouse. You know, in the old days they used to put people's eyes out with a red-hot poker. Any of those worth a red-hot poker?" as we see the salesman carrying the suitcase out into the rain.

When Stewart wakes up the apartment complex is dark, the shades are drawn. He sees Miss Torso come home from her evening out. Then he sits up as he sees the salesman coming back for a second time with the suitcase.

Each sequence is introduced by a rippling of the image of Stewart's sleeping face, and his face is superimposed over the dream images.

These dream sequences articulate the major themes of the movie: the dubious morality of voyeurism, Stewart's sexual ambivalence about Grace Kelly and his interest in other women, the salesman's conflict with his wife, Thelma Ritter's attempts to persuade Stewart to come back to a normal way of living. The salesman's problems with his wife are an analog to Stewart's problems with Grace Kelly. The core of voyeurism is sexuality, and this is shown over and over again in the movie. The motive for the salesman's murder of his wife is another woman. Miss Lonelyhearts' attempted suicide is because of her failed relationships with men. Miss Torso is fighting off suitors and trying to save herself for her husband, who, in a comic moment at the end of the movie, returns from military service more interested in food than in his sensual wife. The newlyweds keep their shades drawn because they are making love.

The restorers should have researched the film more carefully. Neither restored transfer includes these dream sequences as "deleted scenes."
October 11, 2008

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