Eye Spy(in 1954)

Rating: 9/10 (7 July 2016)

Actually I don't know why I put the "(1954)" up there. It's not like I ever want to see the remake.
In my fifth examination of Hitchcock, following Psycho, The Birds, North by Northwest and Vertigo, I would have to say this is probably my least favorite so far. And that said, it's still incredible work here. From the direction to the incredible script to the originality from back then and even today to the acting to the ultimate suspense, everything worked extremely well together.
Twenty years before another great director, Steven Spielberg, would achieve giving extras (the town folk in Jaws) living and breathing souls, Hitchcock already mastered it here in multiple and beautifully choreographed apartments and their tenants. Who could argue that Hitchcock wasn't just the master, but he was always decades ahead of everyone else?
A photographer on his last week of being in a cast witnesses what he thinks are clues to a murder that may or may not have happened across his courtyard and in an apartment their windows face. No one believes his suspicions at first, but then everyone's on board, with the exception his ex-war buddy turned detective. Was he right? Will he get the evidence he needs since he's wheelchair-bound? Will he ever be nice to his too-good-for-him girlfriend?
The movie is so contained and yet so interesting. Only one shot takes place outside of his small apartment and the camera doesn't range outside of the courtyard and into the view of the other apartments from the photographer's point of view. That alone is noteworthy, but Director Hitchcock (and writer John Michael Hayes) didn't stop there. The interactions were spot on, the mystery was believable and it was even fun being a peeping tom right along our "hero." Not to mention, I found myself laughing out loud at some of the appropriate comedic relief bantersfrom a movie more than 60 years old.
Also funny, maybe it was just me, but I've started and stopped this movie a few times over the past couple of decades. For reasons, I don't recall. But, once I finally allowed myself to carry through to the end, I was, of course, not disappointed. You shouldn't be either.
***
Final thoughts: Now, I wasn't around in the 50s, but I guess the only thing I didn't buy was how an incredible dame like Grace Kelly would fall for the 21-year-older (who looked even older than that) James Stewart. I guess, to each their own, but he was never really pleasant to her, in addition to the age difference and attractive-scale. Humph.