Rear Window (1954)

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

Cornell Woolrich (short story "It Had to be Murder")
John Michael Hayes (screenplay)

Release Date:

14 January 1955 (Japan)

Genre:

Crime | Drama | Mystery | Romance | Thriller

Tagline:

Through his rear window and the eye of his powerful camera he watched a great city tell on itself, expose its cheating ways...and Murder!

Plot:

A wheelchair bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Plot Keywords:

Anonymous Phone Call | Male Female Relationship | Handbag | Spinster | New York City New York

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 4 wins & 5 nominations

Cast

James Stewart	...	L. B. Jefferies
Grace Kelly	...	Lisa Carol Fremont
Wendell Corey	...	Det. Lt. Thomas J. Doyle
Thelma Ritter	...	Stella
Raymond Burr	...	Lars Thorwald
Judith Evelyn	...	Miss Lonelyheart
Ross Bagdasarian	...	Songwriter
Georgine Darcy	...	Miss Torso
Sara Berner	...	Wife living above Thorwalds
Frank Cady	...	Husband living above Thorwalds
Jesslyn Fax	...	Sculpting neighbor with hearing aid
Rand Harper	...	Newlywed man
Irene Winston	...	Mrs. Anna Thorwald
Havis Davenport	...	Newlywed woman
Marla English	...	Girl at songwriter's party

Also Known As:

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window (USA) (complete title)

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) (negative) | Color (Technicolor) (prints)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (1983) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:L | Germany:12 | West Germany:16 (f) | Portugal:M/12 | USA:PG (re-rating) (1983) (cerfiticate no. 27069) | USA:Approved (PCA #16938) | Brazil:14 | Spain:T | Canada:G (Quebec) (1983) | Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-8 | France:U (2000 re-release) | Netherlands:AL | Norway:16 | South Korea:15 | UK:PG | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The film was unavailable for decades because its rights (together with four other pictures of the same period) were bought back by Alfred Hitchcock and left as part of his legacy to his daughter. They've been known for long as the infamous "Five Lost Hitchcocks" among film buffs, and were re-released in theatres around 1984 after a 30-year absence. The others are The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), Rope (1948), The Trouble with Harry (1955), and Vertigo (1958). However, prior to the theatrical re-releases in the 1980's, "Rear Window" was televised once, in 1971, on ABC, although the network technically did not have the legal right to do so.

Goofs:

Continuity: When Lisa goes to Jeff's house to celebrate his last week with his cast, she places two candles onto the table next to him, the candles are not lit. A little later in the same scene, Lisa walks into the kitchen, and when she returns, the candles are lit.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Voice on radio: Men, are you over 40? When you wake up in the morning, do you feel tired and rundown? Do you have that listless feeling...
[the camera pans around the courtyard; cut to later in the day]
Jeff: [answering phone] Jefferies.
Gunnison: Congratulations, Jeff!
Jeff: For what?
Gunnison: For getting rid of that cast!
Jeff: Who said I was getting rid of it?
Gunnison: This is Wednesday; seven weeks from the day you broke your leg. Yes or no?
Jeff: Gunnison, how did you ever get to be such a big editor with such a small memory?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in "SexTV: On Blondes/Walter Kundzicz/The Art of Flirting (#6.13)" (2004)

Soundtrack:

To See You (Is to Love You)

In the mid-fifties, Hitchcock brought remarkable suspense by reverting to the logic of a silent film (with an observer behind the lens as the hero)

Many reviewers and critics have commented on Alfred Hitchcock's theme of the voyeur in Rear Window (the mere thought of a voyeur in a suspense film conjures up images from other classic Hitchcock films), and I felt that voyeuristic bug as well. But I realized something that I hadn't thought of as I watched it for the first time- this is a return for Hitchcock to his skills as a master of silent-film chills. As L.B. Jeffries (Jimmy Stewart in one of his most infamous performances) is in his wheelchair viewing out one perspective to other inhabitants in the apartment, the audience views right along-side him. So, for more or less 50 percent of the film, the only sounds we hear are the sounds of mere realism, as Hitch's camera keeps a close eye on things.

As the thrills build in the second hour of the film there is considerably more dialog than the first hour. This could, and occasionally does, present a challenge for the audience member that could either be accepted & payed off or resented- can one sit back and just watch things unfold as in a film from the 20's? Personally, the experience of seeing these events unfold and increase was near electrifying. Along with Stewart's performance, which ranges from amusing to terrified, compelling to frightened (i.e. Hitch's 'everyday man'), there's Grace Kelly as Lisa, who carries her own beauty & inner conflicts, and Raymond Burr as Thorvold, who could have things going a little better with his wife.

If we empathize with Jeff, it's because we become as much apart of his mind-set/POV as he already is, and that's the ticket to the film's true success. Not only is there a magnetic kind of skill to which Hitchcock (and cinematographer Robert Burks) presents us with the apartments' supporting and minor characters and how their fates are played out against the enclosed backdrop, but the psychology of Jeff becomes parallel, or against, to the audience's. This is the story of one man's temptation and compulsion to be involved with those he can see (much like movie-goers have with any given film), and how perception of the realities around him become ours. Rear Window may have become dated for some movie-goers, particularly since the theme has been played on by other movies and TV shows (like The Simpsons for example). Yet there is a certain effectiveness to it all, even in the earlier scenes, that holds an edge over imitators. A+