Rear Window
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. US. 1954. NR. 112 min.
- Sun, Nov 8, 2:00 pm
In his first pairing with Alfred Hitchcock, Stewart is a news photographer who, wheel-chair bound with a broken leg in his Greenwich Village apartment, watches his neighbors through his bedroom window and comes to believe that one of them (a pre-Perry Mason Raymond Burr) has murdered his wife. The suspense mounts as Stewart, Grace Kelly (as his glamorous and adventurous fashion model girlfriend), and his delightfully funny and macabre nurse, Thelma Ritter, seek to unearth the truth. Filled with moments of almost unbearable tension as well as sly gallows humor, this was one of Hitchcock’s personal favorites. An exercise in voyeurism and terror, the entire movie takes place within the setting of Stewart’s room, as we watch the lives of Stewart’s unsuspecting neighbors through his eyes (and, sometimes, through his binoculars). (Bill Roth)