Neighborhood Watch

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2006)

Murder is not one of the words that comes to mind when the talking about a neighborhood. A neighborhood is supposed to be a secure, warm, and inviting place that a person can come to after a hard days work and know everything will be alright. In the world of Alfred Hitchcock, it's everything but.
Rear Window is the story of L. B. Jeffries (Jimmy Stewart), a photographer who is currently incapacitated due to a broken leg. He must stay at home and wait until it fully heals to get back out into the world. The only pleasures he has is talking to his nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter), spending time with his girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly), and looking out his window into the courtyard of his apartment complex.
Even though Jeffries can be considered a "peeping Tom", his motives are simply out of boredom and curiosity. All he has are the lives of the other tenants and watching them play out. There is the dancer he dubs Miss Torso. There is also the ever depressing Miss Lonelyheart. The Songwriter and the Newlyweds also live their lives outside Jeffries window. The apartment that particularly catches his attention belongs to that of Lars Thorwald. He suspects that he has killed his wife.
All of his accusations are simply based on what he sees, not what he hears. Stella and Lisa both think he is crazy and should stop snooping before it consumes him entirely. Before long he has his friend Detective Thomas Doyle (Wendell Corey) investigate what is going on over at Thorwald's apartment. The stage is set for a thrill ride through a pair of binoculars.
Hitchcock's use of the camera is some of the most creative to date. Almost the entire movie is filmed in Jeffries's apartment. TO make the shots look like what Jeffries is seeing through the binoculars. This same type of shot is used in Roman Polanski's Chinatown. It's an excellent first person perspective. It gives a more realistic quality, like someone could actually be seeing this.
Hitchcock also uses a lot of sounds that would be heard in an urban area. The sounds of the street, the other tenants, and what elements of nature remain. The music is used to enhance a shot or a feeling that is trying to be given off.
Stewart and Kelly's performances are mirror images of what a couple would be like. They fight, love, and go through the motions of just everyday life. As Stewart's character gets more and more involved with what is going on, so do the other characters. Their mood changes from concerned for Stewart to concerned for Thorwald's wife.
This film takes a real setting, real people, in an extraordinary situation. Invasion of a person's privacy working towards the common good is a very peculiar subject to be shown, but Rear Window does it. It's a roller coaster of emotions where the suspense is enough to lift a person out of their seat. Each frame more engaging than the previous. Hitchcock proves that a fascinating story and a little imagination can go a long way.