Rear Window (1954)
James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr, Themla Ritter; d. Alfred Hitchcock; A+

"We’ve become a race of peeping toms. What people should do is go out and look inside of their own homes once a while."

These are the words uttered by Themla Ritter to James Stewart, who plays the voyeuristic L.B. Jeffries, that sets up one of the many themes of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. You can interpret it two, or more ways. I see it as a film about Hollywood as well as a film about marriage. It’s a popular theory that Rear Window is a study about the voyueristic tendancies of the film audience as well as the director, but Rear Window is still very much about the relationship between the film’s two main characters.

The movie begins with several long shots showing a neighborhood in New York City’s Greenwich Village. This is the neighborhood of L.B. Jeffries, a photographer whose leg has been broken because of an accident that occurred while he was taking a picture. L.B. Jeffries, or "Jeff," is a man who enjoys adventure so much that he’s willing to sacrafice his perfect relationship with the perfect woman, Lisa Freemont (Grace Kelley). Jeff, who’s bored out of his wits being paralyised and without adventure, spends his time spying on his neighbors outside of his appartment rear window. Jeff doesn’t think much about the possibilities of spying on his neighbors, but his nurse, Stella (Thelma Ritter), does, and she predicts trouble. Her predictions come true when one night, after having an argument with Lisa about their lifestyles clashing, focuses in on a neighbor of his, Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), after hearing a scream come from his appartment. Jeff becomes even more suspsicious about Thorwald after seeing him walk in and out of his appartment, with his briefcase, in the wee hours of the morning, which leads Jeff to believe that Thorwald has killed his invalid wife. Later that day Jeff tells Stella about the incident, but finds Stella uninterested, but the case still occupies his time. As the story goes on, though, it becomes more obvious to Jeff that the murder has occurred. However, not only does it become more obvious to Jeff but to Lisa and Stella, who begin to notice the suspsicious actions of Thorwald. To their dismay, though, Thorwald has, on the outside, created an elaborite cover-up plot that leads the police, including Jeff’s friend Thomas Doyle (Wendell Corey), to believe that Jeff is lying. It is then up to Jeff to come up with the perfect scare to make Thorwald admit to his crime, which might frighten more than just the murderer.

One may dismiss Rear Window as being "boring" because of the fact that it builds its suspsense through the advancement of the plot instead of at various parts in the story. The true suspense really does not come until its climax near the end, where Thorwald discovers he is being watched. However, the story itself, as well as the movie, is just as interesting as the suspense generated from the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. This is one of his films that perfectly show how well he was at meshing entertainment and art. On the outset we have an entertaining story with three major stars, and a heart-jumping climax. Beneith the surface we have a study on the cinema and marriage.

Of course, the marriage theme focuses mainly on Jeff and Lisa. At the begenning of the movie, Jeff is contemplating the future of his relationship with Lisa. He does not believe that there actually is a future for them, seeing how he is the adventure-hungry cameraman and she is the high-glamour columnist. Their worlds are at the opposite sides of the universe, and it’s impossible for Jeff to imagine Lisa ever fitting into his world, or vise versa. Lisa, on the other hand, does believe there is a future and desperately tries to convice Jeff that there is a way for them to live on together as husband and wife. Jeff, though, is undeinably cruel to Lisa at the start of the film, as he rejects Lisa’s lifestyle, being more concerened about his own, and taunts Lisa over her knowledge of fashion, a knowledge that Jeff deems unimortant for his lifestyle. He also rejects the idea of getting married, and almost always finds a way to shoot down the idea in Lisa’s head, yet another cruel put down to a woman who loves him unconditionally. It’s obvious to see why he’s against the idea of marriage, as all aspects of it are staring him right in the face, in the windows of all of his neighbors, like clothes on a display window of a department store. There is the newlyweds, who can do nothing but, let’s say, express their love for each other all day (at the request of the new wife). There are the two single women: One, Miss Lonelyhearts, a middle-aged woman whose lovelife is unsuccessful, who lives alone, and who’s so lonely, so depressed that she almost commits suicide. The other, "Miss Torso", is a young dancer who lives alone in a small appartment, but is constantly bombareded by men, either in her appartment, or admiring her from a distance. There is a musician, who is hard at work writing a new hit song, getting his clock fixed by the director himself, and throwing parties. There is a happily married couple who sleep every night on their balcony because of the heat, and have a beloved dog. Then, of course, there are the Thorwalds, unhappily married, with Mrs. Thorwald being a nagging invalid, and her husband, of course, being so fed up to the point of murder. The rear window spying is pratically like window shopping, with Jeff and Lisa being able to look at different types of romance. Of course, at the end, it is obvious they chose the more happier, unlonely part of romance.

The other most popular theory about Rear Window that it is of course a film about cinema. Jeff represents the audience, and his neighbors the movie screen. Jeff sits secure in his appartment, the movie house, feeling completely comfortable on spying on what are things that simpy are not his buisness. He also takes the liberty in assuming that not only do these people not know that he’s spying on them, but that they don’t mind. His friends object, however, just like the biggest fans of cinema, Jeff’s able to draw them into the show. Now it’s not usual for a character in a movie to turn around and say "Hey, mind your own buisness," so Jeff’s assumptions are pretty valid. However, this is a movie, particuarly a Hitchckcock movie, and anything can, and does happen. This occurs when the character, Lars Thorwald, sees he’s being watched and enjoyed, doesn’t like it, and comes to the audience to give them a piece of his mind. Thus the audience (Jeff) are pulled more into the movie than they expected they would. Another characteristic of audiences that is studied is the audience’s hunger for the biggest, most exciting story, while overlooking something that might be more important. Case in point with Rear Window: Jeff, Lisa, and Stella overlook Miss Lonelyheart’s near-suicide to pay attention to Thorwald. It’s also interesting to see how the "follow-ups" to the "movies" watched by Jeff and Lisa are ignored at the end as they decide to stay together. Also, Rear Window may be a study of the relationship between a director and a producer, namely Alfred Hitchcock and his former producer, David O. Selznick. It’s said that Raymond Burr was hired because he could be easily made to look like Selznick, a producer who Hitchcock loathed, at least professionally. Selznick was a controlling producer who desired control over everything he was involved with. This could be irritating to directors, especially directors like Hitchcock who were the exact same way. In this movie, Jeff could represent Hitchcock, and of course Burr is Selznick. The movie Jeff is trying to make is a story about his neighbors. Thorwald inturrupts and makes his movie about a murder, so Jeff decides he wants it to be about a murder investigation. Thorwald interrupts again, by covering up his crime, and tries to get rid of the murder investigation part. However, just like Hitchcock insisted on plots of his movies, Jeff insists on the investigation, and gets around it until finally Thorwald has to come over and request otherwise. Of course, at the end, Jeff gets his way, and is now free of Thorwald, just like at the end of the 40’s, Hitchcock was free of Selznick.

Rear Window is definatley one of Hitchcock’s best, because it is one of his cinematically richest films yet. It offers a solid cast, with its highlights being James Stewart (giving one of his best performances of his career, playing a character, like Vertigo’s Scottie, that differs from the ones that are normally associated with him), Grace Kelley, Thelma Ritter, and Raymond Burr (great considering that he pratically has no lines and is mostly seen from a distance). It has some of the best scenes in Hitchcock’s films, including the climax (where Raymond Burr gives, probably, the single most chilling look in Hitchcock cinema history after discovering he’s being watch), the discovery of the murdered dog, and Grace Kelley’s first appearance in the film. The script is great, especially the thought-provoking dialouge that questions the ethics of neighborly spying. The music is also great, its "score" written by Franz Waxman. The score is unconventional in that there is no true score, it is merely just music being played from Jeff’s neighbors and is heard as such. The use of the music is brilliant, especially the use of the love theme, played to emphasise important parts in the advancement of the relationship between Jeff and Lisa. The set also helps a big deal, adding to a claustrophobic feel to the film, which makes it feel more like a movie house. Also great are Edith Head’s costumes which perfectly accent Grace Kelley’s character’s glamour, as well as the actress herself.

The movie is one of cinema’s best, and should not be missed. Definatley reccomended by me.

© Vert A Go Go Reviews 2001