Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window

Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock(1954)

       One of Hitchcock's finest films and one that is so cleverly written and constructed that it still worked in a much stripped down version in the more recent film "Disturbia."  "Disturbia" is a good thriller and a movie I really enjoyed, but "Rear Window" is far more complex and rich.

       It stars James Stewart in a very fine performance as a man stuck in his apartment because of a broken leg.  He has nothing to do but watch his neighbors all day -- and eventually late into the night as well.  (To those of you familiar with "Disturbia" the set up should sound famililar with a younger hero and a different reason he is stuck at home.)

       The entire movie takes place in Stewart's apartment and most of the time we see what he sees as he watches several apartments in his apartment complex, one with a lonely musician struggling to write a love song, one with a couple of newlyweds (shades pulled much of the time!), one with a pathetic spinster longing for love, one with a young, often somewhat revealing dressed dancer who has men over to her apartment all the time, one with a childless couple who spend all their love on their dog, one a woman who pours her life into her not-very-good sculpture and in giving her neighbors unwanted advice, and last but far-from-least an unhappy married couple, the wife being an invalid.

       The reason I went into such detail here is that with only a little thought the reader or film viewer can see that all these "little movies" that Stewart watches from his rear window deal with love and relationships of all types.  And love is Stewart's central problem in the movie.  He is in love with a woman who he thinks is all wrong for him and can't decide whether to commit to her or not.

       NOW, before you begin to doubt if this could be a Hitchcock movie, let me promise you that a GRUESOME MURDER is at the center of the story and that the movie is full of suspense.

       Watch it!

Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock was reviewed by Kent 

Please review Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window directed by Alfred Hitchcock