Rear Window

There are multiple ingenious aspects to Alfred Hitchcock’s classic–based on the Cornell Woolrich novel–which seem so simple on the outside. Just as Jimmy Stewart’s character is trapped in a single room for the vast majority of the film with a limited view of his neighbors’ apartments, so we feel similarly confined in this claustrophobic thriller, only able to see what he does. Stewart’s character L.B. Jeffries (or “Jeff”) is a famous photographer, a man of action who has unfortunately suffered a broken leg and now sits at his apartment window, wheelchair-bound with a cast on his leg. He never has any visitors besides his nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter), and his fiancée Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly), a fashion model and dress designer.

Stella warns him of trouble (“the New York State sentence for a Peeping Tom is six months in the workhouse”), and also imparts an important bit of wisdom to him that becomes increasingly clear: “What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change.” Despite her warnings and sage advice, he watches his neighbors from his confinement. There is Miss Torso, the woman who throws parties for multiple guys at once; Miss Lonelyhearts, who courts imaginary suitors; a man who fears his career playing the piano will fail; and a couple who lower their dog into the courtyard in a basket. Finally, there is Thorvald (Raymond Burr), whose wife makes his marriage miserable day after day. One day, she disappears, and Jeff–who has been, of course, watching all these people from his window–begins to suspect him of murdering his wife. But convincing Stella and Lisa; the police are even more difficult to deal with, claiming that he just imagined things.

But there is more here than a simple murder mystery; another brilliant layer of Rear Window is that Hitchcock uses this mystery to disguise the love story at its core. Kelly’s Lisa is in love with Jeff, but he keeps her at arm’s length, saying that a fashion model wouldn’t hold up in a jungle. He becomes absorbed into his voyeuristic obsessions with the camera, especially drawn into his suspicions of Thorvald, but also speculating about the fates of his other neighbors, such as Miss Lonelyhearts and Miss Torso. What is interesting is how very wrong his predictions are about these characters, proving the importance of his need of communication with others, most importantly his fiancée. The performances of Stewart and Kelly are wonderful here.

As already alluded to, voyeurism clearly plays a role in this film, as is typical of the director. Here, Stewart’s character breaks his leg and then is tended to by Kelly. However, he would rather watch strangers who do not want to be watched rather than the one person who has loved him all along. This provides a rather fascinating insight to the characters, and a critique of the film itself.

Hitchcock effectively builds suspense throughout Rear Window with a rule he explained in 1954, which still works today. It is the difference between surprise and suspense. If a bomb goes off under a table, that’s surprise. But if the audience knows the bomb is under the table, but not when it will go off, that is suspense. This film does a masterful job of following that rule, while giving us a well-realized relationship between Stewart’s and Kelly’s leading characters. When the bomb finally goes off, it is satisfying indeed.

111 minutes