Thursday, January 10, 2008

Rear Window (Paramount 1954)


We've all done it. Watched our neighbors. Just seeing what there up to today. But only the great Alfred Hitchcock could make a film that would take something so innocent...and turn it into something so deadly.

In 1950-something New York, an adventuresome free-lance photographer finds himself confined to a wheelchair in his tiny apartment while a broken leg mends. With only the occasional distraction of a visiting nurse and his frustrated love interest, a beautiful fashion consultant, his attention is naturally drawn to the courtyard outside his "rear window" and the occupants of the apartment buildings which surround it.

Soon he is consumed by the private dramas of his neighbors lives which play themselves out before his eyes. There is "Miss Lonely-hearts," so desperate for her imaginary lover that she sits him a plate at the dinner table and feigns their ensuing chat. There is the frustrated composer banging on his piano, the sunbathing sculptress, the shapely dancer, the newlyweds who are concealed from their neighbors by a window shade, and a bungling middle-aged couple with a little yapping dog who sleep on the fire escape to avoid the sweltering heat of their apartment.

...And then there is the mysterious salesman whose nagging, invalid wife's sudden absence from the scene ominously coincides with middle-of-the-night forays into the dark, sleeping city with his sample case. Where did she go? What's in the trunk that the salesman ships away? What's he been doing with the knives and the saw that he cleans at the kitchen sink?

Even if you don't like Jimmy Stewart (Brooke) this is a good movie with a GREAT conservative theme (especially when you consider today's climate with the War on Terror) ... keep your eyes and ears wide open for anything... because folks, you just never know.

The trailer from Rear Window.



A Documentary on Rear Window from Central Florida film students.

9 comments:

elmers brother said...

I just recorded this off of TCM

nanc said...

my favorite neighbor has to be "dan" - a fifty-something - he'd come out and clean his pool, lift weights and do his back yard work in ALL KINDS OF SPEEDOS!

my husband would come in and say, "hey, babe - dan's cleaning the pool...again."

i would find EVERY excuse to be in our back yard.

secretly, i think my husband was hoping dan's wife, kay, would come out in a pair of speedos...

God forgive us both - we were young.

this was a very good movie from my youth. scary back then.

Anonymous said...

Just watched it last night. Much better than Vertigo. Not quite as good as Dial M for Murder

EDGE said...

Elmer,

Cool! Check it out this weekend and let me know what you think.

Nanc,

I used to wear speedos back in my competitive swimming days. Never outside in the yard though.

YJM,

I liked Vertigo, it just takes so long for the plot to get going. I've never seen Dial M for Murder. I'll have to check that out. Thanks for the visit!

Brooke said...

Wasn't there just a remake of this under a different title?

EDGE said...

Yah, I think Christopher Reeve was in it... better stick to the original... Also Shia La Beouf starred in "Distubia" which I think was a remake also!

elmers brother said...

they also remastered a digital version

EDGE said...

Remastered a digital version? Huh! I guess I have (or did have) the old cruddy VHS version.

elmers brother said...

this is what I read at the end of the credits