Classic Hitchcock Films: Rear Window

Rating: 10/10 (14 November 2009)

Rear Window (1954): James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey, Raymond Burr, Judith Evelyn, Ross Bagdasarian, Georgine Darcy, Sarah Berner, Frank Cady, Jesslyn Fax, Rand Harper, Irene Winston, Havis Davenport, Alan Lee, Anthony Warde, Benny Bartlett, Harry Landers, Iphigenie Castiglioni....Director Alfred Hitchcock, Writer/Screenplay John Michael Hayes, based on the short story "It Had To Be Murder" by Cornell Woolrich.
With "Rear Window" director Alfred Hitchcock began his greatest hits decade, the 1950's. A master of suspense and what was at the time considered thrillers, Hitchock created a successful franchise of movies that endured into the mid 1960's. He also had his own TV series with half-hour episodes full of suspense and intrigue. "Rear Window" released in '54, starred James Stewart, a veteran of Hollywood whose popularity had not yet diminished. Hitchcock would cast him again as a lead in the 1958 "Vertigo", which was also a hit. Opposite Stewart is the equally iconic Grace Kelly, who was for Hitchcock, the perfect Hitchcock film heroine - blonde, beautiful, cool and a damsel in distress. He would later cast his favorite leading lady in another classic winner Dial M for Murder released the same year. With two big names as Stewart and Kelly, Hitchcock took Hollywood by the horns.
Plot: Wheelchair bound Jeff Jefferies (Stewart) lives in a crowded tenement slum in New York City. His fiancée Lisa (Kelly) loves him despite her privileged background and distance. Having nothing else to do, Jeff becomes a voyeur at his window and observes the daily rituals and snippets of the lives of his neighbors, who just happen to leave their windows open all the time. It's a colorful cast: Miss Lonelyhearts (Judith Evelyn) a lonely, single middle-aged woman who longs for love and cannot seem to find it, the Songwriter (Ross Bagdasarian) who labors over the same tune and entertains party guests, "Miss Torso" the gorgeous ballerina who draws a lot of male attention, a newlywed couple, a couple that are NOT so newlywed and the main draw - Lars Thorwald (Burr) whose invalid, bed-ridden wife mysteriously disappears. Jeff is convinced Lars has murdered his wife but all he has are suspicions. There are nightly departures from his apartment, a missing wife whose whereabouts are not known, mysterious long distance phone calls and some other things that seem very odd such as the missing clothes and jewels of his wife. Before long, he gets his nurse involved (Thelma Ritter), his landlord and yes his girlfriend. Are Jeff's suspicious unfounded ? Has his voyeurism led him to some fantastic conclusions that are not real ? What really goes on behind closed doors ? What do people do when they think they are not being watched ? The voyeuristic slant of this film seems to be one of many of the "neurosis" or psychosis themed films with characters whose problems are on the inside but whose world we are sucked into with horrifying force. This film is not violent, nor is it even the least bit eerie. It's a mystery plain and simple with an A list cast and with Hitchcock doing his best early in his career as America's King of Suspense at a time when these types of films were quite new. It's interesting to note how there are besides Stewart and Kelly, 2 other big names - Raymond Burr and Ross Bagdasarian. Burr was a well known figure in Hollywood himself and became the iconic TV star "Perry Mason". Ross Bagdaarian went on to become a songwriter (much like his character in this film) who wrote successful hits in the early 60's via the animated cartoons The Chipmunks - "Witch Doctor", "Hurry Christmas" and other hit songs.