An absolute classic film from the 'master of suspense'

Rating: 9/10 (18 January 2014)

L.B Jeffries is a photo journalist for a magazine who is temporarily signed off work due to an injury that he has received as a result of what can only be descried as an 'occupational hazard'. He was run over whilst taking pictures of an oncoming vehicle for his magazine company. As a result, his leg is in plaster for a period of around 7 weeks and he finds himself stuck in his apartment with nothing to do except look out of the window and see what happens;
The main thing about this film that hooks you in is the 'paranoia'- for the first 5-10 minutes of the film, Hitchcock pans the camera round the surrounding properties so immediately you are interested in the film and you want to know what happens next. The second thing is the trust that Hitchcock has in his audience; at the start we just have L.B Jeff Jeffries (James Stewart's) paranoia, but then we quickly find that Jeffries missus Lisa Carol Freemont (Grace Kelly), his masseuse/physiotherapist Stella (Thelma Ritter) and Detective Thomas Doyle (Wendell Corey) are all hooked into Jeffries' paranoia and we, the audience are all hooked in as well. I found that once the film got going, that I was totally hooked in. At the start, there are many characters that Hitchcock introduces that have no relevance to the plot, but the very fact that they are included in the film increases the suspense and the mystery - the audience are never quite sure what is going to happen next. This is where Hitchcock's strengths lie - his interaction with the audience and his way of involving them in his story. The final showdown between Jeffries and Thorwald was exceptional and proved to be a great finale to a great film.
This film is absolutely brilliant, there is no doubt about it, but I did have a couple of problems with it;
I'm sorry, but I'm a picky sod so here we go; First thing that bothered me was why did Jeffries keep his light on when spying on his neighbours? It would have (and clearly did) make it easier for him to be spotted. Why not just turn the lights out and observe his neighbours? With his high powered camera lens and binoculars, was all this necessary? Secondly, when Jeffries rings Thorwald and arranges a bogus meeting at the Albert Hotel and Thorwald full of paranoia agrees to meet him, why did Thorwald leave all his windows open knowing that there is an entry via ladder close to his top window? Even though Thorwald has been threatened (by an unknown assailant) at this stage, you would still have thought that Thorwald would have closed his windows - as a matter of basic precaution and more clearly common sense(this was clearly a plot device that was introduced to create tension, but it lacked plausibility).
Despite these gripes, this is a brilliant film from Hitchcock (with only arguably) Psycho being superior to this film (from Hitchcock's films that I've seen). I thoroughly enjoyed this film and would recommend this to everyone. If you love Hitchcock, watch this.