Rear Window

Jeff (Stewart) is an intrepid photographer who is immobilised in a wheelchair one hot summer. Confined to his apartment, his only visitors are his cynical masseuse Stella (Ritter) and his gorgeous girlfriend Lisa (Kelly). Driven by boredom - and a need to distract himself from qualms about commitment to Lisa - to spying on the apartments opposite, Jeff comes to suspect that one of the inhabitants has murdered their wife. Lisa and Stella are gradually convinced by Jeff's arguments, and with the help of Jeff's detective friend try to prove that the murder really took place. Their suspect realises that they are on his trail and tries to put a stop to it; the question is, will he reach Jeff before the police arrive?

Rear Window is by no means one of Hitchcock's darker films, and he gives us few insights into the human soul a la Vertigo. Rather than obsession, passion and madness, we get romance, witty banter and several surprisingly comic moments. The film is not so much a whodunnit as a how-did-he-do-it; for from the beginning we are caught up in Jeff's conviction that murder has occurred. This is largely due to the impressive set, composed of a constructed courtyard of thirty-two apartments, and Hitchcock's canny decision to film predominantly from Jeff's window, so that the audience sees only what Jeff does.

The fantastic script is complemented by an impressive cast giving highly enjoyable performances. All-round nice guy Stewart makes us forget that he is, really, nothing more than a Peeping Tom (as are, therefore, all of the audience members), while Kelly is sexy and spirited. The lingering shots of her suggest that Hitchcock was as much in love with her character as Jeff, but who can blame him?

Rear Window may have aged in parts; the suggestion that the unmarried Jeff and Lisa are spending the night together is hardly as risque as in the fifties. Yet overall the plot is still as fresh, the glimpses into the lives of Jeff's neighbours are still as amusing and poignant, and the characters as still as appealing. And for cynics out there who dismiss Rear Window as a piece of Hitchcock popcorn - well, there's always the fun of looking out for the ubiquitous shot of the chubby maestro himself.

Review by Jenny Jackson
Written for EUFS Programme Spring 2003

One of Hitchcock's most enduring and discussed works, Rear Window offers the viewer an apparently simple comedy-thriller. But with a masterful display of a meticulous interweaving of humour with the macabre, Hitchcock gives us a film which is as disturbing as it is entertaining.

A freelance photographer - L B Jeffries (James Stewart) - lies with a broken leg sweltering in a hear wave in his Greenwich Village apartment. Frustrated at his inability to get out and photograph and suffocated by the romantic concerns of Lisa Freemont (Grace Kelly) Jeffries' mind begins to wander. He casts his gaze through the windows of his neighbours and into their lives. His attentions concentrate on one neighbour - Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), whom Jeffries believes has murdered his wife.

The main theme involves a suspicious self-interest in other people's lives. Jeffries looks out from his own claustrophobic, dull world, and into the compartmentalised worlds of his neighbours. The effect of stagnancy and of a world made of a a series of other worlds is created by Hitchcock's bold move to restrict almost the entire film to Jeffries' apartment. From this vantage point the viewers become voyeurs because, like Jeffries, they have only a passing interest in the simplified, sanitised lives of others. All that matters is that which teases, tantalises and intrigues. The prospect of murder in this atmosphere fails to disgust - it merely brings the thrill of colour to a drab existence.

Review by Matthew Bull
Taken from EUFS Programme 1994-95