Rear Window (1954)

Synopsis:

An injured professional photographer (James Stewart, It’s A Wonderful Life) confined to a wheelchair spends his time watching his neighbors from his apartment window. He then begins to suspect that one of his neighbors has committed murder. 

Reaction & Thoughts:

“We’ve become a race of Peeping Toms!”

Rear Window holds a special place in my heart. It was my first Alfred Hitchcock movie, and it was the first “older film” I ever saw, apart from The Wizard of Oz (1939) and The Sound of Music (1965). I’m a Gen Xer, so I didn’t know that a ’50s movie could be as much fun as Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), or Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981).

This brilliant thriller changed the way I looked at movies, and immediately became one of my favorite films, and this latest re-watch only served to cement my love and admiration for it. Actually, I like the film more every time I watch it, and I believe this is due to a combination of a multi-layered narrative and superb craftsmanship.

“I felt very creative,” Hitchcock would later say about the movie. That’s an understatement if I’ve ever heard one. This is Hitchcock’s best constructed thriller bar none. It’s masterfully done at every technical aspect. Not only that, it’s one of those movies that are meant to be watched multiple times because it is crammed with ideas.

John Michael Hayes’s (Peyton Place) stellar script provides a narrative that deeply engages viewers, and makes us care about the characters. The story unfolds leisurely and carefully, but you never feel bored. It’s in fact one of Hitch’s most entertaining movies. And every tiny detail seems to contribute greatly to the film’s big themes.

Hitchcock proves here that he was not only good at manipulating the audience, but was also good at juggling many ideas at once. You have a murder mystery, you have a love story, you have the protagonist’s neighbors and their problems, etc. And everything is wrapped around the concept that voyeurism is similar to movie watching.

I think most viewers would agree that spying on your neighbors is a bad thing. But we can’t criticize the lead character’s snooping because we are doing the same thing: we are eager to see what’s going on across the backyard. And much like the movie’s main character, we end up behaving like a Peeping Tom without realizing it!

Most interesting is how each apartment window offers the protagonist a window — pun intended — into his future. And if you put all those subplots together, you end up with a pointed commentary on alienation and relationship anxiety in modern society. It’s definitely cool to see a ’50s movie that’s deeply preoccupied with the idea of lack of human connection, a hotly debated subject in the Digital Media Age.

And the acting is as good as it gets. James Stewart is superb here. He is great at acting with his face. And this is my favorite Grace Kelly performance — I loved how she slowly becomes obsessed with the murder investigation. Thelma Ritter (All About Eve) and Raymond Burr (TV’s Perry Mason) provide top-notch supporting work. Wendell Corey (The File on Thelma Jordon) plays Jimmy’s skeptical cop friend.

Finally, I can’t finish without mentioning costume designer extraordinaire Edith Head’s work. It took my many viewings for me to realize that Kelly’s gowns gradually get less formal. She is introduced wearing an eye-popping evening dress, and she is wearing slacks in the very last scene. It’s a clever way to enhance the character’s arc: she goes from aloof socialite to adventurous gal over the course of the story.

Conclusions & Final Thoughts:

It seems that Vertigo (1958) will always be my favorite Hitchcock movie, but Rear Window comes in a close second. I’ve seen the movie at least two dozen times, and with each viewing I always discover something I hadn’t noticed before. There is something interesting in each frame. Each segment has substance and significance. It’s a masterpiece, plain and simple. Color, 115 minutes, PG.

Hitch’s cameo

Theatrical Trailer: