Review of Rear Window (1954) by Bailey D — 17 Apr 2012

Rear Window is a fantastic film written by John Michael Hays and directed by the one and only Alfred Hitchcock. It is a suspenseful film with an interesting plot, great scenery, thematic elements, and characters. I would highly recommend this movie to mystery lovers.

The film is set in New York in the 1950's. L.B. Jeffries, "Jeff" is a professional photographer that broke his leg while attempting to get a dramatic shot for an assignment. This injury confines him in a cast and he is trapped in his apartment for 7 weeks. After being cooped up for so long with nothing to do, he begins taking an interest in observing the activities of his neighbors. Curiosity turns to obsession when he notices that his neighbor, Lars Thorwald, leaves his apartment in the stormy late night several times. After this odd behavior, he notices that he has not seen Thorwald's nagging wife recently. Suspicions of her murder start to unveil as Jeff continues to spy on his neighbor, devising theories of what occurred. He must try to convince his girlfriend Lisa, his nurse Stella, and the detective that Lars Thorwald has committed a brutal murder. They say curiosity killed the cat, how will this end for Jeff?

The plot is intriguing, a bit slow to start as Hayes and Hitchcock introduce the characters and their situation. The action starts to pick up when Jeff begins noticing strange things afoot at Lars Thorwald's loft. Little clues are revealed throughout the film, making continuous suspense and mystery possible. Whether or not Lars Thorwald murdered his wife and the clues that Jeff, Lisa, and Stella pick up along the way make for a fantastic plot.

Alfred Hitchcock managed to create beautiful, engaging scenery with just a number of apartment lofts. The entire film is set in Jeff's apartment, where he looks around at his neighbor's and watches what they do. The audience only has one perspective of what is going on. The scenery and composition of every shot are very beautiful and full, giving the audience a lot to look at and notice. The camera angles are used effectively to capture an interesting composition and perspective of each neighbor and what is going on. Who would have thought a movie set in one place the entire time could be this engaging? Not often is it that the crime scene is right across from the protagonist's home.

Certain elements in this film, the suspense, music choice, and voyeurism all make this it very enthralling and different. Alfred Hitchcock is the master of suspense, and he created it well in this film. For example, the audience has a limited knowledge of what has truly happened. While watching the movie, I just couldn't wait to find out what was going on. The audience is just as clueless as Jeff, Lisa, and everyone else. The suspense is kept by slowly informing the audience along with the characters throughout the movie. Also, the music choice in the movie is excellent. Every song related to the characters and what was going on in the movie. This helped tell the stories of Jeff's neighbors and what emotions to feel. Often the music played came from Jeff's composer neighbor, who played beautiful, dreamy music to fun, party tunes. The music choices added a little spice to the film as a whole, not that the film needed a whole lot. Voyeurism, the sexual interest in or practice of spying on people engaged in intimate behaviors, is a major theme in this film. Jeff is stuck in his apartment from the injury and has nothing better to do than look out the the window at his neighbors. He even gives lots of them nicknames after watching them so much, such as "Miss Lonely-Heart" and "Miss Torso" He watches Miss Torso dance around in her underwear and get undressed and watches Miss Lonely Heart have imaginary dates in her apartment. He peers in on the private matters of his neighbors, and that is how he suspects Lars Thorwald to be a murderer. The whole plot and action of the film are inspired by voyeurism. The neighbors have no idea that Jeff is watching them, and they think they have privacy when there is actually none. Not many films have the idea of voyeruism* play a part.

The characters were fabulous in this movie. Grace Kelly plays Lisa, a beautiful, successful, socialite. The audience along with Jeff will be falling in love with her stellar performance as the courageous girlfriend who is just as curious to find out what happened to Mrs. Thorwald. Her success and independence in the business world make her so different from many women today. Stella provides perfect comic relief of the dark undertones of the murderous plot. Her lines are humorous as well as the delivery she gives. Jeff can be a smart aleck at times, however he is witty and interesting to watch. As the film progresses, so do his obsessions. It is captivating to see him get increasingly obsessed about Lars Thorwald. Not to mention all of the neighbors have significance and tie into the film somehow. Even though the majority of the characters have very little dialogue, they give a lot to the film and make the plot of the movie much more interesting and stronger. The characters are just wonderful!

Overall, this is an outstanding film and I would highly recommend it to all mystery lovers or fans of Alfred Hithcock's. If you are not a fan of Hitchcock or thrillers, you will be after the viewing of this movie.