Rear Window is not Hitchcock\u2019s best film.\u00a0 There are any number of things to complain about.\u00a0 But it\u2019s my favorite summer Hitchcock film.\u00a0 It\u2019s possible to actually feel the heat and humidity even if you\u2019re watching it in New England February.\u00a0 But watching it in July or August just after the sun goes down on a sweltering humid day is absolutely perfect.\u00a0 The mid-century middle-class New York City apartment with all the adjoining backyards spread out in front of the panoramic rear windows of the protagonist Jimmy Stewart who sits in a wheelchair with his leg in a cast provides the correct claustrophobic and uncomfortably hot environment for an irritable murderer and the amateur sleuth stalking him.\u00a0 Sweat drips off the actors and overheated residents try to beat the heat by sleeping on fire escapes or drinking cold drinks.\u00a0 Even the torrential rain doesn\u2019t \u201ccool things off it just makes the heat wet.\u201d<\/p>\n
The set-up is Jimmy Stewart as L.B. ‘Jeff’ Jefferies, a famous magazine photographer who is convalescing with a broken leg that he earned by stepping in front of a racing car crash to get a great photo.\u00a0 Thelma Ritter is Stella, the nurse sent by his insurance company to watch over him.\u00a0 Grace Kelly is Jeff\u2019s upper class, Upper East Side girlfriend Lisa Fremont who wants Jeff to settle down to a sedentary existence with her.\u00a0 Jeff also has an old Air Force buddy, Police Detective Lt. Thomas J. Doyle (played by Wendell Corey) who comes in really handy once murder is suspected.\u00a0 And finally there is the murder suspect and neighbor across the yard, Lars Thorwald\u00a0 played with a minimum of spoken lines by Raymond Burr.<\/p>\n
The movie resembles a stage play with well-defined scenes and breaks.\u00a0 Each character is added to the mix in sequence and even the various parading neighbors are introduced and given their little scenes and acknowledgements.\u00a0 There\u2019s the newlywed couple, the married couple with the little dog who sleep on the fire escape, the dancer \u201cMiss Torso,\u201d \u201cMiss Lonely Hearts,\u201d the composer, and the slightly crazy old sculptress.\u00a0 We even briefly meet Mrs. Thorwald early on in the show, but that doesn\u2019t last.\u00a0 She\u2019s the alleged victim.<\/p>\n
The two plot elements that get twisted into a knot are Lisa attempting to solve the riddle of tying down Jeff and Jeff trying to prove that Thorwald killed his wife.\u00a0 In both of these endeavors Stella acts as a helper and Doyle seems to be a hindrance.\u00a0 Whenever the amateurs try to coax the real detective to bust in on Thorwald and gather up the evidence that they are sure must be \u201cknee deep,\u201d he reminds them of a silly house rule known as \u201cdue process\u201d and of the New York State penal code in all eleven volumes that a judge would throw at him if he attempted to get a search warrant based on Jeff\u2019s suspicions and Lisa\u2019 feminine intuition.<\/p>\n
I won\u2019t spoil the story because it\u2019s worth watching but I\u2019ll just comment that the story moves along in a pleasant fantasy of mid-century New York City life filled with urban stereotypes and tropes even while the main characters perform the Hitchcock detective pantomime.\u00a0 It\u2019s a lot of fun.\u00a0 And the actors are a pleasure to watch and listen to.\u00a0 I always especially enjoy Thelma Ritter’s quintessential working-class New York City accent and attitude.<\/p>\n
Now for the down side.\u00a0 Biggest problem with the movie is trying to pretend that Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly are close in age.\u00a0 At one point, Jimmy Stewart takes off his shirt for an alcohol rubdown from his nurse and destroys any illusion that he is a young man, whereas Grace Kelly was a remarkably beautiful twenty-five-year-old at that time.\u00a0 I guess if they\u2019d owned up to it in the story it wouldn\u2019t be so jarring but at one point, Stella actually calls him a young man and that just explodes the suspension of disbelief for me with a snide snort.\u00a0 The other story element that jars for me is the subplot with Miss Lonely Hearts.\u00a0 I won\u2019t go into the details but the whole subplot is a little too affected for my taste.\u00a0 And finally, there\u2019s a song that becomes kind of the background theme for the romance aspect of the film and is finally played over the end of the last scene.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s terrible.\u00a0 It\u2019s so saccharine sweet that it almost turns my stomach when it plays us out.\u00a0 But those are the only faults.\u00a0 And they don\u2019t amount to much compared to the fun that this movie provides.<\/p>\n
See Rear Window the first time on a hot summer night.\u00a0 That should be like some kind of multi-sense version of surround sound.\u00a0 Highly recommended.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Rear Window is not Hitchcock\u2019s best film.\u00a0 There are any number of things to complain about.\u00a0 But it\u2019s my favorite summer Hitchcock film.\u00a0 It\u2019s possible<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[239,238,701],"tags":[494,1229,1228,1234,1233,1231,1217,1230,1232],"class_list":["post-3747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","category-classic-movie-reviews","category-quote-of-the-day","tag-alfred-hitchcock","tag-grace-kelly","tag-jimmy-stewart","tag-mid-century-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city","tag-raymond-burr","tag-rear-window","tag-thelma-ritter","tag-wendell-corey"],"yoast_head":"\n