-->

• Alfred Hitchcock's classic film Rear Window stars James Stewart as "Jeff" Jeffries, an adventurist photographer whose newly broken leg makes for a string of boring days alone in his apartment. When he begins casually looking in on his neighbors with binoculars, he soon becomes convinced he has witnessed a murder, and enlists his model girlfriend (played by Grace Kelly) to help investigate.

  Widely regarded as one of Hitchcock's best films, the movie garnered four Academy Award (Oscar) nominations though it did not win any.

• Fast Facts

  1. Filmed: 1954
  2. Starring: Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly
  3. Co-Starring: Raymond Burr and Thelma Ritter
  4. Received 4 Oscar nominations
  5. Grace Kelly's second of three appearances in a Hitchcock film
  6. No. 42 on the American Film Institute's Top 100 Films List
  7. 1998 remake starred Christopher Reeve three years removed from his paralyzing horseback riding accident
  8. Release Date: August 01, 1954
  9. Director: Alfred Hitchcock
  10. Writers: Cornell Woolrich and John Michael Hayes
  11. Editor: George Tomasini
  12. Production company: Paramount Pictures and Patron Inc.
  13. Studio: Paramount Studios
  14. Running Time: 112 minutes
  15. MPAA rating: PG - Parental Guidance Suggested (1983)
  16. Based on: Cornell Woolrich's story "It Had To Be Murder"
  17. Genre: Thriller, Mystery

• Another Hitchcock Cameo

  Director Alfred Hitchcock usually made fleeting cameo appearances in his films, and Rear Window was no exception. He managed to cast himself as a man winding a clock in the background of the apartment belonging to the songwriter who spends the film working on a recurring tune.

• Plot Synopsis

  Recovering from a broken leg, photographer L. B. "Jeff" Jeffries is confined to a wheelchair in his apartment. Jeffries passes the time by observing his neighbors from the rear window in his third floor apartment. As it is summer, most windows in the complex are open. He is visited by his nurse, Stella, and girlfriend, Lisa Carol Fremont. The nurse berates him for his voyeurism and reluctance to marry his girlfriend. Jeff fears that a sophisticated socialite like Lisa might not fit into his peripatetic existence. Lisa and Jeff argue about marrying; Lisa suggests that Jeff could give up his travel and work in New York, while Jeff refuses to compromise on the nature of his job and to believe that Lisa can accompany him on his travels.

  In between their visits and even during them, Jeff continues to watch events unfold in other apartments and the courtyard. He comes up with names for some neighbors (Miss Lonelyhearts for a middle-aged spinster who acts out fantasies of dinner with non-existent gentlemen callers, Miss Torso for a young dancer who entertains several suitors often) while others, who include a newly-wed couple, Thorwald - a costume-jewelry salesman with a nagging invalid wife - , and a musician, go about their daily lives.

  Later on that night, Jeff happens to overhear a woman scream and glass breaking in the complex. He also sees Thorwald exit the complex with a heavy case at 2 a.m. Thorwald returns with the case but leaves again with it.

  Jeff discusses Thorwald's movements with Stella and Lisa the next day. He has also noticed Thorwald filling up his case with samples, wrapping a saw and a knife in newspaper and that Thorwald's wife is absent. Initially sceptical, Lisa begins thinking something is wrong when she and Jeff find Thorwald tying up a large crate with rope.

  Jeff calls a friend, Detective Lieutenant Thomas Doyle, suggesting that there might be something amiss. A delivery truck picks the wooden crate up from Thorwald's apartment. Lisa tries to discover the name of the freight company from the truck, but is unsuccessful. Doyle comes over to Jeff's but thinks there is a simpler explanation for Thorwald's behavior. He however promises to find out where the Thorwald's wife is and starts to investigate the case.

• Reviews

  "Hitchcock confines all of the action to this single setting and draws the nerves to the snapping point in developing the thriller phases of the plot. He is just as skilled in making use of lighter touches in either dialog or situation to relieve the tension when it nears the unbearable. Interest never wavers during the 112 minutes of footage."— William Brogdon, Variety, July 1954http://www.variety.com/index.asp?layout=Variety100&reviewid=VE1117794347&content=jump&jump=review

  "There is never an instant, in fact, when Director Hitchcock is not in minute and masterly control of his material: script, camera, cutting, props, the handsome set constructed from his ideas, the stars he has Hitched to his vehicle."— Time, August 1954

  "What it has to say about people and human nature is superfical and glib. But it does expose many facets of the loneliness of city life and it tacitly demonstrates the impulse of morbid curiosity. The purpose of it is sensation, and that it generally provides in the colorfulness of its detail and in the flood of menace toward the end."— Bosley Crowther, The New York Times, August 1954http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?_r=1&res=9F0CE6DD113EE53BBC4D53DFBE66838F649EDE

  "Rear Window is perhaps the clearest example of a Hitchcock movie that functions on dual levels: It's both mousetrap and abyss."— Peter Rainer, New York Magazine, January 2000

• Related Mahalo Pages

  Jimmy Stewart | Grace Kelly | Alfred Hitchcock | Raymond Burr | Thelma Ritter | Academy Awards

• Cast

  • James Stewart as L. B. "Jeff" Jeffries
  • Grace Kelly as Lisa Carol Fremont
  • Wendell Corey as Detective Thomas J. Doyle
  • Thelma Ritter as Stella
  • Raymond Burr as Lars Thorwald
  • Judith Evelyn as Miss Lonelyhearts
  • Ross Bagdasarian as Songwriter
  • Georgine Darcy as Miss Torso

Categories

• View History
• Discuss on the Message Board
• Embed this Page
• Share this page