To say that Alfred Hitchcock loved a gimmick is an understatement the size of claiming that Norman Bates is close to his mum; but in a filmography that positively revels in flipping traditional story telling tropes on their head, surely Rear Window is his most famous. I mean, Vertigo, North By Northwest and Psycho all go in the extra mile to confound, shock and dazzle in equal amounts, but Hitch’s story of a snooping housebound photographer who spots something rotten in his neighbourhood saw the great director placing some stringent rules upon his production when it came to visually telling the tale.
Still, if you have the likes of James Stewart, Grace Kelly and Raymond Burr backing you up, I guess it frees you up to spend that extra time crafting a style that’s nothing short of revolutionary. So pull out a pair of binoculars and prepare to indulge in a particularly intense spot of neighbourhood watch as Hitch points out the highs and lows of voyeurism.
Professional photographer L. B. Jefferies is enduring something of a frustrating period thanks to his leg being encased in plaster after sustaining an injury while on the job. Confined to a wheelchair during a sweltering heatwave, he’s also worried that his relationship with socialite girlfriend Lisa Fremont has no future considering that he’s usually zipping all around the world, snapping pics in dangerous scenarios and she’s constantly heading out to cocktail parties and buying extravagantly expensive dresses; but one way that he’s found to pass the boredom is to spy on the collection of people he can see from his window.
However, while spying on a lonely spinster he nicknames “Miss Lonelyhearts”, a flexible ballerina he’s dubbed “Miss Torso”, a newlywed couple or a frustrated pianist struggling with a composition, “Jeff” stumbles upon something potentially far more sinister than his own, slightly obsessive behaviour. After hearing a panicked, female scream of “Don’t” in the middle of the night, Jeff becomes fixated on travelling costume jewelry salesman, Lars Thorwald, whom he becomes convinced has murdered his bedridden wife thanks to a mountain of circumstantial evidence that looks fairly suspicious no matter which way you slice it.
As his fairly creepy hobby rapidly becomes a full blown obsession, the people in Jeff’s direct orbit soom get dragged into the mystery. However, while his police detective buddy, Tom, is fairly dismissive, Lisa seems to want to go balls out and help prove her boyfriend’s suspicions, even if that means putting herself in some worrying situations. But of course, this is only really dangerous if Thorwald is actually guilty of something – which he is… isn’t he?
Rear Window is one of those movies that’s somehow engrained itself into the public consciousness so much, people who haven’t even seen it are still aware of its existence on a higher plane of understanding that they’re probably privy to. Constantly referenced or homaged by other filmmakers, the most noticable example is probably the expert lampooning it got courtesy of the Bart Of Darkness episode of The Simpsons; but while such loving tributes can sometimes make you forget exactly how good the original was, a quick refresher of Hitch’s masterpiece (possibly from across the street through a telephoto lens) is all you need to get you back up to speed.
Obviously the main hook of Rear Window is that it’s essentially a whodunit where the person trying to figure the out is not only not a sleuth, but he’s not even in the same bloody building as the masterful setup is practically perfection in its fiendishness. With his nether reigons encased in plaster, our danger coursing photographer is desperate for some mental stimulation, and as he’s a guy who makes his living observing things while waiting for the perfect moment, he’s taken to gawping at the people he sees from his window as a form of entertainment. With such a rich scenario to play with, not even dear old Ed Wood could drop the ball, but in Hitchcock’s hands, he finds level of genius that are just too delicious to ignore.
Firstly, he set himself a rule that almost every shot we get of the plethora of neighbours that Jeff is giving the eyeball to is strictly only seen though our hero’s eyes, thus putting us squarely in the apartment with him as he either obsesses over Raymond Burr’s Thorwald, or ogles Miss Torso as she stretches her alarmingly limber limbs. However, while this is perfect for putting you right into the action (ironic, seeing as it’s happening across the street), Hitch is also making a commentary about the watching of movies themselves.
After all, sitting glued to his seat, getting invested in the morbid drama of others while safely watching from a safe distance – what else could Jeff possibly but a metaphor for Hitchcock’s own audience? He’s the perfect patsy too, as Jimmy Stewart’s performance makes Jeff perfectly relatable without bringing too much attention to how creepy he’s actually being and the actor really does draw out the fact that deep down, we’re all unrepentant voyeurs when it comes to a bit of nieghbour drama. Elsewhere, Grace Kelly is nothing short of beguiling as Lisa, another one of Hitchcock’s flighty blondes, who actually breaks the mold by being utterly adorable when she dives right in as starts helping her boo look for clues. Not only does it create a wonderful, banter-laced double act between them (witness the exact moment when her reckless acts of daring do makes Jeff realise there’s a future for them after all), but when the shit hits the fan, Stewart’s genuinely terrified reactions sell the danger so hard it’s amazing.
However, it’s Hitch’s sheer dedication to the bit that stands out the most as he manages to weave complete little sub-universes that reside in each of those windows that Jeff’s waving his big lens at. Be it the genuinely sad tale of Miss Lonelyhearts that almost ends in suicide, or the cheeky newlywed thread that sees an exhausted groom hanging out of his window after being physically tested by the energetic honeymoon period, they’re almost as gripping as the did he/didn’t he story of the suspicious Mr Thorwald.
Hitchcock turned out exemplary thrillers the way Stephen King churns out hard backs and most of them were out and out bangers, but when it comes to a nail biter that puts you right in the shoes – well… plastercast – of its snooping protagonist, there’s few that can match the vision of Rear Window.
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