In my overinflated opinion, Rear Window is the third best of all the films directed by Alfred Hitchcock, following only Strangers on a Train (1951) and Rebecca (1940), although Suspicion (1941) and Psycho (1960) are close behind.
L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) is a photo journalist for a national magazine. His occupation is a hazardous one, and he has broken a leg while trying to take a great photo. He has spent the past several weeks holed up in his apartment with his leg in a cast. To occupy his time he looks out the window at his tenement neighbors, who rarely if ever pull down their blinds. Among them is a songwriter (Ross Bagdasarian), a lonely spinster (Judith Evelyn), an attractive socialite (Georgine Darcy), and a newlywed couple (Rand Harper and Havis Davenport). Bagdasarian was a real-life songwriter, although he would soon be better known as the creator of the harmony singing Chipmunks.
From his window, Jeffries can also see burly salesman Thorwald (Raymond Burr) and his henpecking wife (Irene Winston). They seem to do little but argue, but one night she is no longer there. Jeffries begins to suspect that the salesman has murdered his wife.
Jeffries' unlikely girlfriend is Lisa (Grace Kelly), a ravishing fashion model. His sarcastic, middle-aged nurse is Stella (Thelma Ritter). Along with highly reluctant Doyle (Wendell Corey), Jeffries' detective pal from the war, they try to prove Thorwald's guilt. But Thorwald gets wind of the their actions, and confronts both Lisa and Jeffries.
The film's quality is undeniable, but all the more impressive considering the obstacles that Hitchcock had to overcome. Nearly all of the film takes place in a cramped apartment. There is little real action. Some scenes have pages of dialogue. The age difference between Stewart and Kelly was over twenty years, with their odd coupling more apparent given their differing characters and level of interest in each other.
In lesser hands, the film could have been tedious. Fortunately, all of its apparent weaknesses are more than compensated for. While nearly all of the shots are taken from Jeffrey's apartment, he has a terrific view. It was the largest indoor set ever built up to that time, and its scale is sufficient to show the activities of a half dozen apartments.
We hear only snippets of conversation between the remote tenants. We do not even know their names. But we feel that we know them and their problems. We can commiserate with Miss Lonelyhearts as she dines alone, with the elderly woman whose dog has been hurt, with the songwriter struggling with his new composition, even with the newlywed man who is constantly called on to 'perform'. And although seen mostly from a distance, Thorwald is still a sinister, threatening character.
Hitchcock can hardly be blamed for the seeming miscast of Raymond Burr as a cold-blooded murderer. Burr would for many years play Perry Mason on television. Burr became stereotyped as Mason, who was a pillar of integrity and rectitude. "The Perry Mason Show" premiered in 1957, a few years after Rear Window.
Despite Paramount's outstanding set, the film could still have floundered. The dialogue between Stewart and Grace could easily have been suspect. Audiences could have rolled their eyes at the implausibility of Stewart rejecting the sexual advances of the much younger, more glamorous, and gorgeous Grace Kelly. Time has marginalized the shock of the plot breaking the taboos of the production code, with the unmarried Kelly staying 'all weekend' in Stewart's apartment.
But the dialogue (by John Michael Hayes) is so well written that it nearly transcends all the things that shouldn't work, including the Stewart-Kelly romance. Ritter gets the best lines, however, which are especially funny when delivered with her jaded deadpan. (92/100)
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