Rear Window

Recently released on DVD, Rear Window is a classic Alfred Hitchcock treat that is offered up again after being out of print for a number of years now.

This film stars James Stewart as a magazine photographer, though not just any photographer.  He specializes in getting the shot that no one else can, or is willing to, get.  As the movie opens, we see him confined to a wheel chair in his apartment, with his left leg in a cast from his toes to his waist.  On his cast is inscribed his name, L.B. Jeffries, with additional comment.  The camera pans to a smashed camera, then onto an action shot of a speedway crash.  We can surmise this is what has landed Jeffries in this condition.  The camera further pans to photographs of exotic or dangerous locales, then onto a negative of a beautiful woman, then to the magazine cover that graces that same woman's photo.

Thus, Hitchcock has introduced us to the two principles in the story.  The woman is Grace Kelly and her character, Lisa Fremont, is Stewart's love interest, through where their relationship will lead is a subject where they find themselves at odds.  Jeffries is convinced they have no future, his being a life on the move in uncomfortable surroundings and dangerous situations.  Hers is Manhattan chic, pampered and elite.  Fremont pictures Jeffries as a future successful portrait maker for the rich and powerful.  She does her best to cultivate the relationship as a dutiful partner while Jeffries pushes her away, but not too far.

It's hot, and Jeffries apartment overlooks the courtyard of several other apartments, all tenants stacked one on top of another in a steamy New York summer.  The entire film is shot from the apartment, either within, looking in from the sill, or into the courtyard or apartments of others in longshot or closeup via Jeffries' view through binoculars or telephoto camera lens.  Only at the films climax is this perspective changed.

We meet the neighbors through the camera's lens, and later through Jeffries' observations.  Some are the lone songwriter in his studio apartment, Miss Torso (the dancer), Miss Lonely Hearts (the middle aged woman who has not yet given up on dreams of romance), the newleyweds, the sculptor, the couple with the puppy (the husband is Frank Cady -- Sam Drucker from Petticoat Junction), and a host of others we mostly only glimpse.  There is one other apartment just across the way, where a costume jewelry salesman (Raymond Burr) and his invalid wife live.  Theirs is not a happy relationship.

So, here he is, perched in his wheel chair day after day and night after night, Jeffries passes his time observing the dynamics of the courtyard dwellers and perhaps learning more than he should, paying perhaps a little too much attention to the goings on.

One night, he is momentarily startled by a quick scream, the sound of breaking glass, then nothing more.  Later, he wakes from his fitful sleep in his wheelchair, it's raining and he thinks it odd to see the salesman going out so late with his sample case in the rain.  He drifts off again, only to wake yet more again observing the salesman's comings and goings.

The next day, Jeffries relates a little of what he has seen to the nurse who visits him daily to aid in his comfort and recuperation.  He muses that perhaps something terrible has happened to the salesman's wife, because he notes significant changes in the husband's routine, and Jeffries surely knows his neighbors' routines.  His wonderings are met with the expected skepticism by both the nurse, and later Lisa.  Both believe his time in confinement and penchant for nosing into the lives of his neighbors has go the better of him.

However, Lisa begins to share in his suspicions when they observe that the wife in fact is no longer resident in the apartment across the way.  Her bed is packed up, her handbag and personal jewelry are still there, but where is she?

The rest of the film concerns the dogged pursuit for evidence even in the face of substantial evidence that the way has taken a trip to the country, the details of which have been confirmed through a police detective friend of Jeffries.  Confined to the wheelchair prohibits Jeffries from investigating the details, however, Lisa makes a bold move and provides the legs for the pair of sleuths, even venturing into the salesman's apartment for close inspection.

I will leave it to the reader to find out where the film takes one from here.

The impression this film leaves on the viewer is one of rich character and the intermingling of the lives of those that live in the courtyard apartments.  We feel the atmosphere of the New York summer.  As the characters sweat, we nearly sweat with them.  We feel the warmth that drives them to sleep on the fire escape at night in an attempt to escape the heat.  The rain pours down, but it only makes things hot and wet.

We also feel their individual isolation.  Though living in close quarters, there is little real interaction amongst them and the loneliness of many of the residents is palpable.

Jeffries the voyeur, though distant from them, is not unfeeling about all he sees and Lisa is bold, smart and adventurous herself despite her upbringing.

This film is a favorite of mine for the set, the characters, the moods, and the lives we see played out before us.  Watch it, and you will be favored with a rich film experience from a classic era.

3-18-2001