Another great notch in Hitchcock's belt

Rating: 9/10 (14 April 2016)

I love Hitchcock movies and this one is no different, I watched this last week so needless to say I am late to the party. However this is one of the hallmarks of a good film that it ages properly and is still relevant even though 60 plus years have passed since it's release. Since it's a Hitchcock film the less spoken about the plot it's better so that you guys can experience it for yourself. So the plot goes like this, an ace photographer (L.B. Jefferies played by James Stewart) injures himself in his previous assignment, now this curious mind who is on a wheelchair because of his cast has developed into a peeping tom because he is restless fellow to whom reading a book would be far less interesting than analyzing and judging his neighbors. While this starts out as a harmless pass time it soon devolves to murder or at least some suspicion of it. In the mix of it all is Jeff's girlfriend played by Grace Kelly who looks good, I mean so gorgeous I don't think anyone has ever looked as good as her in any movie. Other present are, Jeff's skeptic cop friend and his nurse who is his moral voice but eventually jumps in with both feet later on.
I have always believed Hitchcock makes complete entertaining films, and this one is no different, it's sexy, has romance, murder et al. It could even be argued that romance is perhaps the more dominant genre in Rear Window than the thriller and murder mystery aspect as Liza Jeff's girlfriend plays his detective partner when he is shunned by his therapist and cop friend. Does Liza believe the ludicrous stories of Jeff? Is she doing all this just to win Jeff's affection? The movie leaves this all in the air for the audience to think and ponder about and refuses to spoon feed it to us. Liza is opposite of Jeff, he craves adventure she loves fashion, he likes to keep moving from place to place and she likes to lay down roots the movie shows the audience how different they are and we wonder why did they hook up in the first place? The answer is there in the film, these two love each other and these are shallow differences and they are more compatible on a deeper level. The film also can be quite meta and talks about neighbors being selfish and not caring for one another and the loss of simpler times when people weren't so cold and isolated. All in all I really liked this movie but would still place it below the holy Hitchcock trinity of Vertigo (my favorite), Psycho and North by Northwest.