Rear Window (1954)

Seventy years ago, Alfred Hitchcock....the Master of Suspense....gave us the ultimate low-key, low-stakes paranoia thriller focusing on laid-up photographer L.B. played by the late great James Stewart.  L.B. has a broken leg and is stuck in his non-air-conditioned New York apartment where he has apparently has nothing better to do than.....watch.  Watch his neighbors that is as he lives in the middle of a open courtyard surrounded on all sides by other apartments....especially one apartment across the way where he THINKS he might have witnessed a murder. :o And not only does he keep watching, he ropes in others into this pseudo-investigation including his caretaker played by Thelma Ritter and his girlfriend played by Grace Kelly.  What results is a highly influential masterpiece which remains one of Hitchcock's biggest successes....let's see how well it holds up!

Host: Geoff Gershon
Edited By Ella Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon

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Transcript

REAR WINDOW – 1954

Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Wendell Corey, Raymond Burr, Judith Evelyn, Ross Bagdasarian, Georgine Darcy, and Irene Winston

Genre: Domestic Thriller(Audio clip)

Seventy years ago, Alfred Hitchcock gave us the ultimate low-key, low-stakes paranoia thriller and it was a kick to be able to see it on the big screen. :) I'm fairly confident that television sets were being mass produced by '54 but not in this world inhabited by laid-up photographer L.B. Jeffries played by Jimmy Stewart. Nope not when he can just hang out in his living room all day staring out his window to an urban courtyard jam-packed with other occupants who are almost always home and always have their windows open....and mostly have ZERO window treatments. ;) 

To be fair, there are two places which have window shades: a newlywed couple AND the mysterious 2nd floor occupants whom LB cannot stop staring at....the Thorwalds played by Raymond Burr and Irene Winston, only one of them has seemingly just disappeared for unexplained reasons. 🤔 LB keeps peering out to watch Burr's Lars hanging out alone, always in and out carrying giant suitcases, and sometimes seen obsessively checking his flower bed....hmmm. 

Now a big part of the fun from this film's screenplay by John Michael Hayes and matter-of-fact, deep focus way in which Hitchcock (with help regular DP Robert Burks) presents all of this to us is that it becomes increasingly easy to judge LB for his obsessive voyeurism. This dude IS acting creepy - he's using binoculars, he's busting out the high-end photo equipment, he's keeping slides that he can revisit, he's enlisting a local detective to investigate, and he's even making prank phone calls to MANIPULATE Lars' behavior at one point. Whatever might be going on right outside of his apartment, it's seemingly irrelevant because at his core, LB is just bored and likes to watch....and don't we all? 😆

Hitch seemed to think so as I'm sure HE did....and this film captures the absorbing nature of this type of behavior SO well, it's no wonder not only how successful it was at the time (Either this or Psycho was his highest grossing film adjusted for inflation....depending on which web site you're checking) but just how influential it was? I mean rewatching this now, I could recall literally DECADES of movies with various riffs on this particular premise from the more obvert homages (Body Double, Disturbia, the more recent The Voyeurs) to the more indirect ones utilizing new technology (Sliver, The Conversation, Blue Thunder, Soderbergh's recent Kimi) all to way to going more absurd within different genres like The Burbs, Stakeout, The Bone Collector, or Fright Night. 

The desire to watch, peer into the lives of others....often strangers...is of course a universal one and another fun element of this story is watching others in LB's life find themselves getting sucked into this activity too. 😏 We have the legendary character actress Thema Ritter (All About Eve, Pillow Talk) doing what she does best as our protagonist's no-nonsense caretaker Stella...she's dishing out unsolicited advice over his life choices before she becomes an enthusiastic participant in his effort to smoke out Mr. Thorwald. And there there is the truly LUMINOUS Grace Kelly literally lighting up the screen as LB's beleaguered girlfriend Lisa....playing very much a '50's version of the manic pixie dreamgirl. :) 

I mean she's bringing him fancy dinners, dressed in the latest fashions, always with a beaming smile to brighten his day, and yeah....when it comes down to participating in LB's ongoing amateur surveillance rackets, she's MORE than game to get involved. I mean REALLY involved as it's Lisa who probably performs the film's most daring stunt as we get into the climax! Kelly was only 24 at the time of filming and sadly already halfway through her film career - she's such a winning presence here, it's no wonder that Hitch would cast her again twice more before the decade was over in Dial M for Murder and To Catch A Thief. 

The late, great Jimmy Stewart of course leads the show with aplomb. Off the bat, we can see his most enduring "All-American, aw-shucks" persona seeping through - he's vulnerable, relatable, and ingratiating.....who wouldn't want to fix a sandwich for this guy? :) However as he would even moreso just a few years later in the all-time classic Vertigo, Hitchcock also helps Stewart tap into a more shameless, obsessive side of himself here. He's kind of a dick to Grace's Lisa for most of the runtime....and to what end but just to be a less rakish Peeping Tom? 🙄 Stewart pulls off what only THE Best movie stars from this era (or any era) could.....completely grab your attention even when he's 100% sedentary. 

Best Needledrop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

There is actually very little music heard throughout the movie including a minimalist score from German composer Franz Waxman but one highlight is a lovely, romantic orchestral theme featuring lots of piano which plays at the very end of the movie as the camera pans around the courtyard ONE last time.  And it ends on the comforting image of Grace Kelly’s Lisa lying on a couch next to LB as he is fast asleep now sporting TWO casts, one on each leg.  She’s just kicking back, reading the latest issue of Harper’s – which I believe she works for – and you get the sense that she’s now here to stay.  This track is fittingly called, “Lisa.” (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

It’s honestly hard to pick out any particular talent involved here which might have been wasted but….small nitpick here regarding Raymond Burr.  I know Burr best from his excellent recurring role as Perry Mason on both the original ‘50’s mystery TV classic series AND the eventual ‘80’s/90’s reboot.  To be fair, he’s not given much to do here until the actual climax when he has a short but memorable interaction with Stewart’s LB.  But here’s the thing: Stewart was in his late ‘40’s during filming and looked it….and CLEARLY Burr’s Mr. Lars Thorward is meant to be older as presented throughout.  Only Burr was in his mid ‘30’s at the time of filming…..and apparently looked it too because he is sporting what has to be one of THE most unconvincing wigs of painted white hair I have ever seen on-screen sorry.  It’s not egregious but it’s distracting at points especially during the climax when the flash bulbs are going off….and it just looks REALLY garishy white.  Look I get it, this was seven decades ago, wig technology might not have been quite there and….as is the case with a lot of classic movies filmed all the way up to around 1990, HD picture quality will often make a visual flaw much more obvious.  But I just couldn’t not mention it…..

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

Within the overall structure of a paranoia or surveillance thriller like this, my favorite moments are often those scenes when the protagonist progresses to ONE key discovery of the person and/or people who are being surveilled…..and he or she does this by utilizing some key piece of technology which he or she has expertise with.  For instance in previous episode The Conversation, Hackman’s Harry had a unique sound box which could be used to separate sounds…..in the more recent Kimi, Zoe Kravitz’ Angela has an old-school amplifier that she jacks her laptop into to listen for background sounds….and in Rear Window, LB is a professional photographer so wouldn’t you know it…..he has not only is long lens camera to view more details through those windows across the courtyard but after snapping some pictures, he also has a few slides to peruse again and again…..I’m just a sucker for moments like these and they help make our protagonist’s journey more tangible. (Audio clip) 

One such moment occurs early one when LB is alone at night watching out at the Thorwalds’ window and he can sense that Mr. Thorwald MIGHT be alone. So while facing forward and ALMOST as if he’s trying to be stealth about this even though he’s in a completely different building….we watch Stewart delicately and QUIETLY fumble into one of is drawers, pulling out said camera and EXTREMELY long lense, silently assembling it, and then as he looks through…..there’s Mr. Thorwald alone, seemingly tired and sweaty…..wrapping up GIANT KNIVES within newspaper??  Stewart’s reaction is of course priceless and we’re off to the races! (Audio clip)  

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

Undoubtedly, Jimmy Stewart delivers here a GREAT movie star performance, one of his best especially given the challenge of doing so with less dialogue.  But at the end of the day, there can only be one…..the true ringmaster of this circus who managed to shoot ALL of this on one massive soundstage and help it feel like a real urban environment.  Hitch’ deft leadership manages to keep the overall tone sufficiently playful and light despite having some sneakily dark subject matter sprinkled throughout.  Of course, the MVP is Essex, England’s OWN….Alfred Joseph Hitchcock.  (Audio clip) 

Final Rating: 5 stars out of 5 

At the end of the day, this remains one of the most rewatchable films for all talent involved, most notably Hitchcock. Happy 70th Anniversary to one of the more influential master-works from the Master of Suspense! 

Streaming on The Criterion Channel, TCM, and Apple TV Plus

And that ends another PEEPING TOM review!