A genuine classic ...One of Hitchcock's best

Rating: 10/10 (28 August 2005)

Screen legend James Stewart plays L. B. Jefferies, a world famous photographer who is confined to his apartment after he breaks his leg. Bored, he spends his time watching the other occupants of the apartment building through the rear window, spying on them with the help of a long range camera lens. Across the way he watches the apartment of Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) who Stewart thinks might have murdered his wife. Stewart's girlfriend (Grace Kelly) is Lisa Carol Fremont, the beautiful socialite. Thelma Ritter plays Stella a nurse who comes in regularly to help him and Wendell Corey is Detective Tom Doyle, Stewart's friend.
Rear Window is not as good a film as Vertigo but if you let yourself go along with this film you'll be caught up in it. It's a mixture of light comedy and dark suspense. There are two scenes that are truly suspenseful and they both involve the Lars Thorwald character, one with Grace Kelly and one with Stewart.
If you like Grace Kelly you'll appreciate how beautiful she is filmed in this movie. Kelly retired from films two years after this movie. She was also in Hitchcock's To Catch A Thief with Cary Grant and Dial M For Murder with Ray Milland. The same year as Rear Window she won an Oscar for The Country Girl.
Rear Window is #42 on the American Film Institute's 100 greatest films list.