Rear Window

Rear Window is a mystery/thriller film that was directed by Alfred Hitchcock and released in 1954. It is widely considered one of the greatest films of all time. It stars James Stewart and Grace Kelly, both making their 2^nd appearance in a Hitchcock film with Wendell Corey, Thelma Ritter and Raymond Burr in supporting roles.

L.B. Jefferies (Stewart) is a professional photographer who has had his leg broken in an accident while taking pictures of a motor race at a racetrack. New York is currently experiencing a heatwave, which makes his life even more miserable. His cast is due to come off in one weeks’ time. His editor calls him up and offers him a job in Kashmir, mistakenly thinking Jefferies cast was due to come off this week. Jeff begs to get his editor to let him accept the offer as he is bored staring out into the courtyard of his apartment. He has spent the past six weeks spying on his neighbours. While looking out the window, he notices the travelling salesman (Burr) arguing with his wife in their apartment across the courtyard.

His nurse, Stella (Ritter), arrives and admonishes him for spying on his neighbours, warning him he could get six months in jail for being a peeping tom. In a foreshadowing of events to come, she warns him his voyeurism will get him into a lot of trouble. Discussion then turn towards Jeff’s girlfriend, Lisa (Kelly) and his reluctance to marry her, despite her clearly loving him. Jeff claims that Lisa is too perfect for him. While Stella is in the kitchen, Jeff notices a pair of newlyweds arriving in their apartment before shutting the blinds (they are the only ones to shut their apartment blinds in the whole film).

Later that night, while having a nap, Jeff is awakened by Lisa kissing him. She is a fashion model/journalist, and is wearing a $1000 dollar dress that was given to her for free through her work. She has also brought a lobster dinner that she cooked herself. While Lisa prepares the dinner, Jeff notices a lonely woman across the courtyard he has named Miss Lonelyhearts, pretending to act out a date before breaking down crying. Jeff then compares Lisa to another neighbour, Miss Torso who is entertaining three men in her apartment. They also notice another argument between the salesman and his wife. Lisa desperately try’s to distract Jeff from events outside and to get him to focus on just her. Eventually, Jeff makes one too many snide references about Lisa’s line of work which leads to Lisa leaving and saying she won’t be back until tomorrow night.

During the night while Jeff is sleeping next to the window, he hears a loud scream and a smash. Then during the thunderstorm, he sees the salesman leave the apartment with his suitcase multiple times. Then, after Jeff falls asleep again, we see the salesman leaving with an unidentified woman. The next day, Stella visits and she notices he hasn’t had much sleep. While discussing the missing wife, they notice a neighbour’s dog digging at a flowerbed in the courtyard before the salesman before it is shoed away. Before leaving, Jeff gets Stella to hand him his binoculars. Using it, he notices the salesman wrapping up a saw and large knife, while also packing items into his case. He also notices the bedridden wife is not there.

Later that day, while the temperature has risen to 82 degrees, Lisa and Jeff are passionately kissing, having made up after the previous night. However, yet again, Jeff begins to ignore Lisa and turns back to the courtyard. While telling Lisa about the salesman carrying a heavy rope into his wife’s bedroom, Lisa interrupts him and tells him off. She thinks he is wildly speculating and that there is nothing to see, while Jeff thinks there is. They then notice the salesman tie up a large crate with the rope while a rolled up mattress is on the floor of the bedroom. She begins to suspect Jeff may be correct and asks him to tell her everything, from the beginning. Later, Lisa runs around to the apartment and discovers his name is Lars Thorwald.

The next morning, Jeff phones his old buddy Thomas J. Doyle (Corey), who is a policeman, and asks him to come over and investigate. Doyle arrives and after some persuasion, agrees to look into the matter. Jeff then notices the dog digging at the flowerbed before Thorwald comes over and shoos it away. Later, Doyle reports back that the apartment superintendent saw Thorwald and his wife leave early in the morning before he put her on a train. Jeff demands further investigating, but Doyle is unconvinced. Doyle also states Thorwald received a postcard from his wife, from Meritsville, 80 miles north. Jeff is greatly disappointed by the news.

Later that night, yet again spying on all his neighbours, Jeff notices Thorwald packing a suitcase and talking on the phone while going through his wife’s handbag, playing with the jewellery. Worried he is preparing to leave, Jeff leaves a message for Doyle to come over as soon as possible. Lisa then arrives, and after being briefed by Jeff on the latest, says that she has been having difficulty concentrating at work due to the mystery over Thorwald’s missing wife. She questions why the wife would leave her favourite handbag at home while going on a trip and suggests that Thorwald has had an affair with a mystery female accomplice in his wife’s murder. Jeff is pleased at this suggestion and for the first time begins to become truly attached to her. Lisa then announces she plans to spend the night with him.

Doyle arrives and Lisa says that they think that Thorwald’s guilty. Noticing that Lisa is planning to stay the night, Doyle is about to say something before being warned by Jeff to be careful about what he says. Doyle then concludes that after checking the wife’s whereabouts, Thorwald has not killed and dismembered her. Doyle also says that they checked Thorwald’s trunk and it just contained his wife’s clothes that he was sending to her. Jeff and Lisa are visibly disappointed.

Jeff and Lisa wonder whether they are becoming too involved in their neighbour’s lives. Lisa then goes to change and then reappears with a preview of coming attractions, a silk nightgown. As the pair settle down and close the blinds, they are interrupted by a loud scream from the courtyard. Opening the blinds, they see a dead dog and its owner crying. Everyone in the courtyard comes to their window except Thorwald, who sits in the dark smoking a cigarette. Lisa thinks it was killed because it knew too much.

The next day, Jeff, Lisa and Stella watch Thorwald scrub the walls of his bathroom. Stella is convinced as well and states that she thinks that Thorwald cut his wife up and dumped her body all over New York. Jeff writes Thorwald a note saying he knows what he did and Lisa runs over and delivers it under the door, narrowly escaping Thorwald. Stella thinks she notices Miss Lonelyhearts preparing to commit suicide but they are distracted by Lisa returning, while Jeff is obviously falling deeper in love with her. To get time to dig up the flowers where the dog was digging, Jeff phones Thorwald and sets up a meeting in a nearby bar. This allows Lisa and Stella to head down and dig at the flowerbed. They find nothing but Lisa climbs up the fire escape and sneaks into Thorwald’s apartment.

Lisa’s aim is to find the wife’s wedding ring and prove she has been murdered. Jeff and Stella are distracted by Miss Lonelyhearts and prepare to phone the police, distracting them from Lisa. They miss Thorwald returning and fail to warn to Lisa, who seems to have found something. While Lisa hides, Jeff phones the police to report a man attacking a woman. Just as it seems that Thorwald is going to kill Lisa, the police arrive and stop him just in time. While looking through his binoculars, Jeff notices Lisa has the wife’s wedding ring on her hand and is pointing it out to him (it is a symbolic proposal from Lisa to Jeff). Thorwald notices this and looks directly at Jeff, who for the first time in the film is noticed.

Jeff phones Doyle  and after telling Doyle what has happened, Doyle promises to look into it further. The police take Lisa away and Stella heads to the police station to bail Lisa. Jeff is left alone and when the phone rings, he thinks it is Doyle and urgently tells him about what happened but no-one responds. While hearing footsteps outside his apartment, he takes flashbulbs and puts them into his camera, his only method of defence. Thorwald enters and asks why Jeff did it, but he has no answer. As Thorwald advance, Jeff blinds him with the flashbulbs but eventually Thorwald reached him and tries to throw him out the window. Just in time, Lisa, Doyle and the police arrive as Jeff falls and they help to break his fall. The police arrest Thorwald, who agrees to take them on a tour of the East River. It is also confirmed that Thorwald killed the dog because it threatened to dig up some of his wife’s body parts which were buried there.

A final sweep of the courtyard ends the film. Miss Lonelyhearts didn’t commit suicide and has found a man in the composer on the other side of the courtyard, Miss Torso’s husband arrives home and the newlyweds begin to argue. Jeff has broken both his legs and while he sleeps Lisa puts down her travelling book and picks up a fashion one.