"I can smell trouble right here in this apartment."

Rating: 8/10 (19 December 2007)

The great thing about "Rear Window" is how Hitchcock puts the viewer in the point of view of Jimmy Stewart's lead character L.B. Jeffries. It's a bit weird actually how you find yourself anticipating Jeffries' reactions because you're thinking the way he does as he scans his neighbors' apartments in an almost lurid act of voyeurism. What's problematic though, and what comes across as unrealistic today is how so many apartment dwellers can live without ever worrying that their activities ought to be concealed. Forget about the murderer for a minute and consider every other tenant featured in their mini-vignettes - Miss Lonelyhearts, Miss Torso, the Songwriter, the newlyweds, the doggy elevator couple. It seems to be a precarious way to live, like being in a glass enclosure or a cage in a zoo.
That's why Jeffries' solution of Mrs. Thorwald's murder is just a little too pat. He's got all the twists and turns worked out in the face of conflicting evidence to the contrary, mostly supplied by his detective friend Doyle (Wendell Corey). Yet it's important to be in on the identity of the murderer to keep the tension building to a dramatic conclusion. Jeffries has ample support in building the case with the help of fiancée Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) and his temporary caregiver Stella (Thelma Ritter). Stella is the perfect character to inject needed comic relief as Hitchcock layers the film with increasing levels of mystery and suspense. In fact, she's got the best line in the movie - "... just where do you suppose he cut her up?"
One of the neat things I learned about the film is how Hitchcock got around Paramount's limited set to replicate a city apartment complex. The building used in the film was only two stories high, so to get the illusion of a much larger unit, Hitchcock got the studio to cut into the basement. Jimmy Stewart's apartment was really at ground level on the actual set, thereby creating the impression that he was spying on apartments above, below and across from his own.
One of the other cool tricks used in the story revolved around the Songwriter, and how the music emanating from his apartment served as a sound track for those scenes. It's where the director appeared in one of his trademark cameo appearances. If you were paying attention, you also learned that the writer got the inspiration for his songs from the landlady once a month!
For anyone new to the films of Alfred Hitchcock, this might be the best example of his American pictures, as it combines all the elements that he came to be noted for - mystery, intrigue, murder, an everyman character one can identify with, and the clever insertion of wit and humor to pace the film to an exciting finale. It's also one of the best examples of Hitchcock's pure cinema technique, replete with sophisticated use of camera angles, composition, lighting and perspective.