Still one of the best ever! Hitchcock in prime form.

Rating: Null/10 (29 December 2010)

Rating: **** out of 4.
Hitchcock is really at the top of his game in the 1950's and REAR WINDOW might as well be his most successful. Here is a genuine Alfred Hitchcock movie sprinkled with suspense, humor, and romance unlike any movie of its time, and in fact, any movie today. While it's not as deep, dark and personal as his 1958 masterpiece VERTIGO, this is nonetheless his ultimate triumph in establishing his title; "The Master of Suspense". Has there ever been a more suspenseful moment in film history than the scene where one of our plucky characters brakes in on the suspect's apartment, while the suspect is just about to come home? Well, if there were, then it would have owed a debt of gratitude to this Hitchcock masterpiece.
The story revolves around L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart, in a role that's pretty much James Stewart in character), a photographer who gets wheelchair-ridden when he caught himself in an accident (Hitchcock did a much better job at telling you about Jeff's background in an early scene where the camera pans through his works and his camera, and eventually the last picture he ever took before the accident; a rear that was about the crash into him). Jeff, with nothing to do, basically does what every neighbor would do: look out the window and watch his neighbors' everyday lifestyle. Be it the ballerina, dubbed Ms. Torso (Georgine Darcy), or the hopeless romantic old lady, dubbed Ms. Lonelyhearts (Judith Evelyn), Jeff has seen 'em all, including a man named Lars Throwald (pre-PERRY MASON Raymond Burr) who one day stops talking to his demanding, invalid wife in the bedroom and starts cleaning up what seemed to be blood stains in the bathroom. Did Jeff see a murder happening just right across the block, or was it just a case of a Peeping Tom having delusions? Hitchcock occasionally puts aside this story and explores what many see as the core of the film: The romance. Jeff and his relationship to his high-class but spunky and stubborn socialite girlfriend Lisa Freemont (the irreplaceable Grace Kelly in her irreplaceable role) is one of the reasons why REAR WINDOW is one of the best. In fact, Hitchcock himself knew the importance of the love story in the movie, that he made sure that the whole plot revolved around it. The neighbors around Jeff's apartment, from Ms Lonelyhearts to Ms. Torso and a couple of newlyweds next door all suggest what might happen to Jeff and Lisa as time went on with their relationship. The Thorwalds represent the darker side of their relationship: the possibility that they would hate each other as an old married couple.
This along with a dozen more elements (performances, music, atmosphere, direction, EVERYTHING) make REAR WINDOW the quintessential Alfred Hitchcock movie. It's funny, it's romantic, it's clever, and it's suspenseful as hell. That last act had me by the neck and it would never let go. Now that's suspense!