Wonderful Hitchcock

Rating: 10/10 (18 May 2012)

A small, local cinema screened this film last night, out of doors, under the jet black, warm summer night's sky, making its use of ambient noises and sounds even more effective. When rain awakens Jeffries and his neighbours during the night, it sounded like it could very well have started pouring down with rain on us, the audience, sitting out there, just as it had 24 hours earlier. The sounds of cars passing by, and the noise of people walking around us just blended right in with the film.
A wheelchair-bound photographer, bored out of his mind in the seventh of eight weeks with his leg in a cast, spies on his neighbours to amuse himself. We learn of how Jeffries ended up with his leg in a cast by the photos on display on his desk. A clever exposition requiring no further dialogue. We learn in a matter of seconds what others might have devoted several minutes to. The film's first thirty to forty minutes are a comedy, with a bit of romance between wheelchair boy and his girlfriend added into the mix, but then the tone slowly changes as Jeffries realises that there is something not right in the apartment across from him. The more Jeffries spies on his various neighbours, the more he suspects that one man across the quad murdered his wife.
To reveal anything more about the plot of this film, one of my favourite of Hitchcock's, would be a crime. To witness this film anywhere else but on a big screen is also a crime against the film itself. (And I suppose it helps even more that I was with a sweet young lovely to help me enjoy rewatching this masterpiece)