Voyeurism, Suspicion & Murder

Rating: 9/10 (11 August 2016)

There can't have been many filmmakers who would have been excited by the prospect of making a movie about an immobile man who spends 99% of his story inside a single room where he's unable to see any further than the boundaries of his own small apartment complex. In the hands of Alfred Hitchcock however, the character's confinement is skilfully used to rationalise his unhealthy preoccupation with spying on his neighbours and to generate the kind of tension that's such an important component of this gripping murder mystery. Suspicion, voyeurism and obsession feature strongly and the presence of a cool blonde, a romantic subplot and some offbeat humour all add to the entertainment value of this fine movie which eventually became recognised as an all-time classic.
L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) is a top-class photojournalist who's been used to travelling extensively to get the great photographs that adorn the pages of his employer's magazine. When he suffers a broken leg as a result of an accident at a motor-racing track and becomes confined to a wheelchair in his modest Greenwich Village apartment, he soon becomes frustrated and very irritable. To relieve his boredom, he starts to gaze out of his window and watch what's going on in the other apartments that face his. Because New York is in the middle of a heatwave, his neighbours have their blinds up to keep cool and so there's plenty to watch. An attractive ballerina who he calls Miss Torso (Georgine Darcy) rehearses regularly and enjoys the attention of a collection of male admirers, whilst in another apartment close-by; a single lady, who Jeff calls Miss Lonely Hearts (Judith Evelyn) prepares a meal and entertains an imaginary boyfriend.
Stella (Thelma Ritter), the insurance company nurse who calls by to attend to him everyday doesn't approve of Jeff's pastime and advises that he should pay more attention to his girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) instead. Lisa's a fashion model and dress designer who's rich, beautiful and as Jeff readily admits, perfect in every way, but he's rather cool with her because he has doubts about their compatibility as they have such different lifestyles.
Jeff starts to take a particular interest in what's going on in the apartment of a jewellery salesman and when he notices that the man's invalid wife has disappeared, becomes convinced that she must've been murdered. Lisa and Stella are sceptical about his suspicions and even his old Army buddy Tom Doyle (Wendell Corey) who's now a NYPD detective, admits to sharing their scepticism after making his own unofficial investigations. As time passes, Lisa and Stella start to take his suspicions more seriously and eventually team up with him to try to find the evidence they need to prove that the missing woman has indeed been murdered.
In common with most Hitchcock movies, "Rear Window" boasts some great visual moments. Grace Kelly's introduction in a scene where she's initially seen leaning over Jeff is sensational and a short sequence in which the roaming camera focuses on a number of objects and photos in Jeff's apartment is exquisite in the way that it silently imparts so much information about him in such a short time. Hitchcock's skill in making, even the most mundane things seem sinister, is wonderfully displayed in a scene where the suspected murderer sits in his apartment in the dark with only the periodic glow of his cigarette providing a clue to his presence and again in a scene where the same man realises who's watching him. The gaze he directs back at Jeff is absolutely chilling because it suddenly turns the tables on the voyeur and carries the implicit threat that he could be the next invalid to be murdered.
The theme of confinement is also reinforced visually by the ways in which the lives of the neighbours seem to be framed by their windows, just as Jeff's outlook is framed by his own window and the apartment complex is itself, a closed-in entity.
The quality of the acting is consistently good with James Stewart, Grace Kelly and Thelma Ritter all standing out and the dialogue is exceptional because, although it's far from punchy, there doesn't seem to be a superfluous word in it. Thelma Ritter is the beneficiary of more good lines than anyone else because her marvellous character, whose nose for trouble is so well-developed that she predicted the Wall Street Crash, is full of no-nonsense advice that she dispenses very generously.