Over 50 years old and still one of the most tense thrillers ever made.

Rating: 9/10 (1 May 2006)

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window is, to this day, one of cinema's finest examples of a thriller. Considered by most film goers to be Hitchcock's greatest film, Rear Window is the most responsible for revolutionizing the way thrillers are told. Hitchcock's later films, such as Psycho, North By Northwest, and The Man Who Knew Too Much (all masterpieces in their own right) owe much to Rear Window, as it set the standard to which all thrillers are to be compared.
The film is told almost absolutely from our hero's, Mr. L.B. Jeffries' (another of Jimmy Stewart's expert performances), point of view, thus making us feel all of the emotions that he is subject to. We the audience are drawn into the lives of his fellow tenants with as much fascination as Jeffries and feel the tension of not being able to know what is going on behind the closed curtains of those who act suspiciously. When Mr. Thorwald's wife first goes missing, we, like Jeffries, are immediately worried and frightened. And when Stella (Thelma Ritter) and Lisa (the lovely Miss Grace Kelly) are snooping around his apartment looking for clues, it is the very definition of a nail-biter.
Besides the murder mystery, the film tells the story of two people in love. On one hand we have the restless shutterbug Jeff and on the other we have the New York socialite Lisa Fremont. Both have their own lives and value their independence (a nice surprise to see an independent woman in a 50's movie), yet both are drawn to each other out of mutual adoration. With their love story, Hitchcock is able to inject a bit of his trademark romantic passion into what would normally be a straight thriller. The introducing shot of Grace Kelly's Lisa is one of the most dreamlike and romantic shots of any that modern cinema can produce today. My only complaint of the film would have to be the frustration that arises from Jeff's unwillingness to settle down and commit (good God man, its Grace Kelly!).
While John Michael Hayes' script itself is brilliant, most of the credit for the film's perfection should be given to Alfred Hitchcock. The idea to construct the entire set on the soundstage and to make the apartments as livable as possible did much to add to the aura of realism in the film. Telling the story from one room was a very risky move and could have turned out to be mind-numbingly boring (and indeed lesser filmmakers have proved this), but Hitchcock was able to create one of the best films in history doing it. Having all the music come from the film-world sources was also a brilliant move, making it seem like we were truly experiencing the sights and sounds of a New York street.
This leads to the question of whether or not this is purely entertainment or if it is actually a form of voyeurism. When Rear Window first premiered (and even in present day, actually), this was what many viewers were wondering after watching the movie. In truth, all forms of stories are a type of voyeurism. We, the viewer (or listener), are completely wrapped up in the affairs of the characters involved in the story, whether it be a child's fairy tale, a classic stage drama, or an epic space opera. Their lives become our lives for those two hours we devote to watching a movie, reading a book, or simply listening to a tale around the campfire.