Peeping Tom and a Bombshell Blonde

Rating: 7/10 (5 February 2018)

Doyle! I think my neighbor across the courtyard murder his wife! What evidence do I have? I can answer that for Jefferies - a dead dog and a purse.
When it comes to being the best amatuer detective in the block, Jeffries is the first thing that comes to mind, if you need someone to watch your neighbor day in and day out, he is your guy.
Jeff (James Stewart) also known as L.B. Jefferies. An amazing photographer turned sleuth when he breaks his leg getting into the middle of a racetrack to take a picture. Stuck in a full leg cast and bound to a wheelchair for several weeks, Jeff finds many ways to entertain himself, like scratching itches on his leg, taking pictures of others while they are unaware, and also watching those same people. He watches his neighbors argue, a pianist play his music, a dancer dance in her underwear, a newlywed couple moving in, and a husband taking care of his bedridden wife. He gets the occasional visit from his nurse/caretaker Stella (Thelma Ritter) a sassy older woman who is a hard worker and tries to convince Jefferies that watching his neighbors is pretty creepy, but he still continues to do so. Stella also talks to Jeff about his girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly) a fashionista socialite, who Stella believes is just the right girl for Jeff and is very much in love with him and that Jeff should marry her. However, Jeff believes he has too much of a rough and tough lifestyle, where you can only have one suitcase, and that's not the life he would want to give Lisa. Sorry to break it to you Jefferies, but Lisa isn't the only one who can change themself *cough Jefferies cough*. Moving on in the movie, we see Jefferies neighbor, Mr. Thorwald (Raymond Burr) across the way acting somewhat somewhat suspicious one night, and Jefferies decides to make Thorwald his next person to peep on, after the girl who dances in her underwear everyday. Jefferies then uses his old timey war connections to get his friend Detective Doyle (Wendell Corey) to help him with this case, even though Doyle does not see much of a case, he still entertains Jefferies by checking out Mr. Thorwald and his suspicious behavior, while our peeping tom continues to peep his eyes away. After seeing other suspicious behavior from Mr. Thorwald like wrapping up large knives, packing up all of his wife's belongings, wrapping up his mattress, and the straw that broke the camel's back (or should we say Jefferies leg) a dead dog near Mr. Thorwald's garden. After noticing this Jefferies decides to send his small army of Lisa and Stella to harass Mr.Thorwald and snoop around to find some hard and tangible evidence. During this time Lisa sees an opportunity to sneak into Mr. Thorwald's home to grab some more hard evidence, and she does it alone because she's a risk taker. In the end, Lisa almost gets assaulted, gets arrested, but gets out of jail in the end. Mr. Thorwald realizes that Jefferies has been watching him the whole time, and decides to give Jefferies what he deserves, after all he is a peeping tom. In the end Mr. Thorwald confesses to murdering his wife and everyone lives happily ever after.
This movie is filled a lot of suspense but not a lot of twists and turns. This movie didn't really wow me, it was good, but not the best movie I have ever seen. When I hear the name Alfred Hitchcock I expect a lot and I was kind of disappointed. This movie came of to me as a peeping tom who gets caught up in something bigger than him, but it alls works out in his favor. His girlfriend has to change herself (unknowingly) so that in the end he realizes she's the one and he's ready to settle down. Maybe it's because I'm from a different generation, but this movie did not really have me on the edge of my seat, it had me laughing. All the cliches of movies from that era shined through, and I think Hitchcock could have done better.