Rear Window

The view from Jimmy Stewart's apartment window

The Fear

This is a phenomenal movie and probably the one that I've seen the most.  Strike that... it's definitely the one I've seen the most.  It was the first Hitchcock movie I ever saw as a child and it scared me to death.

Not because it is his most frightening, it's not, but because of the implied fright.  That's really what Hitchcock really is best at...implied fright.  With the exception of Psycho, he really doesn't show anything.  And he demonstrates this best in Rear Window.  The THOUGHT of what went on behind closed doors....Thorwald murdering his invalid wife, chopping her up into little pieces in her bathtub with the knives he sells for a living, and carrying her body parts out in a salesman case in the middle of the night, in the rain, to dump her in the river.  Ok, now I'm scared again.

Thorwald

Alfred Hitchcock noted in an interview that the 1910 case of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen  served as an inspiration for the film. Crippen, an American living in London, poisoned his wife and cut up her body, then told police that she had moved to Los Angeles. Crippen was eventually caught after his secretary, with whom he was having an affair, was seen wearing Mrs. Crippen's jewelry, and a family friend searched unsuccessfully for Mrs. Crippen in California. After Scotland Yard became involved, Crippen and his mistress fled England under false names and were apprehended on an ocean liner. Police found parts of Mrs. Crippen's body in her cellar.

The Set

The entire movie, takes place looking out the window of Jimmy Stewart's apartment building, as he spies on his neighbors.  It's not my style to re-cap the movie itself, so I'll skip that and get right to my thoughts on it.  Here is the set....

The entire picture was shot on one set, which required months of planning and construction. The apartment-courtyard set measured 98 feet wide, 185 feet long and 40 feet high, and consisted of 31 apartments, eight of which were completely furnished. The courtyard was set 20 to 30 feet below stage level, and some of the buildings were the equivalent of five or six stories high.  All the apartments in Thorwald's building had electricity and running water, and could be lived in.

While shooting, Alfred Hitchcock worked only in Jeff's  (Jimmy Stewart's) apartment. The actors in other apartments wore flesh-colored earpieces so that he could radio his directions to them.  And the actress that played "Miss Torso"?  She lived in her made for movie apartment the entire month long process of the movie's filming. 

One thousand arc lights were used to simulate sunlight. Thanks to extensive pre-lighting of the set, the crew could make the changeover from day to night in under forty-five minutes.

This is the only movie where Grace Kelly can be seen with a cigarette.  She refused to smoke on camera. 

 

 

Not all of Hitchcock's movies received rave reviews from critics, especially in the beginning.  But this one did.  It was acclaimed immediately as one of the best suspense movies ever made almost instantly after it's release.



Oh, gosh.....it's inevitable....next up is Psycho!