Like the Greenwich Village courtyard view from its titular portal, Alfred Hitchcock's classic Rear Window is both confined and multileveled: both its story and visual perspective are dictated by its protagonist's imprisonment in his apartment, convalescing in a wheelchair, from which both he and the audience observe the lives of his neighbors. Cheerful voyeurism, as well as the behavior glimpsed among the various tenants, affords a droll comic atmosphere that gradually darkens when he sees clues to what may be a murder.

Photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) is, in fact, a voyeur by trade, a professional photographer sidelined by an accident while on assignment. His immersion in the human drama (and comedy) visible from his window is a by-product of boredom, underlined by the disapproval of his girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly), and a wisecracking visiting nurse (Thelma Ritter). Yet when the invalid wife of Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) disappears, Jeff enlists the two women to help him to determine whether she's really left town, as Thorwald insists, or been murdered.

Hitchcock scholar Donald Spoto convincingly argues that the crime at the center of this mystery is the MacGuffin--a mere pretext--in a film that's more interested in the implications of Jeff's sentinel perspective. We actually learn more about the lives of the other neighbors (given generic names by Jeff, even as he's drawn into their lives) he, and we, watch undetected than we do the putative murderer and his victim. Jeff's evident fear of intimacy and commitment with the elegant, adoring Lisa provides the other vital thread to the script, one woven not only into the couple's own relationship, but reflected and even commented upon through the various neighbors' lives.

At minimum, Hitchcock's skill at making us accomplices to Jeff's spying, coupled with an ingenious escalation of suspense as the teasingly vague evidence coalesces into ominous proof, deliver a superb thriller spiked with droll humor, right up to its nail-biting, nightmarish climax. At deeper levels, however, Rear Window plumbs issues of moral responsibility and emotional honesty, while offering further proof (were any needed) of the director's brilliance as a visual storyteller. --Sam Sutherland




Professional photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries breaks his leg while getting an action shot at an auto race. Confined to his New York apartment, he spends his time looking out of the rear window observing the neighbors. He begins to suspect that a man across the courtyard may have murdered his wife. Jeff enlists the help of his high society fashion-consultant girlfriend Lisa Freemont and his visiting nurse Stella to investigate.
- Written by Col Needham




Photagrapher L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries is confined to his small apartment with a broken leg. To pass the time, he watches the goings-on of his motley assortment of neighbors - a frustrated yet fun-loving composer, a middle-aged couple with a small dog, a dancer who seems to enjoy practicing her routines while scantily clad, a pair of reclusive newlyweds, a lonely woman who seems to live in a fantasy world, and a salesman and his invalid wife. One day the wife inexplicably disappears, and the salesman starts doing things that lead Jeff to suspect that he may have murdered her. Unfortunately, he has no proof and no one seems to believe him. Eventually, however, things start falling together in a way that make it look like Jeff might just be right after all. Finally, his girlfriend Lisa and his nurse Stella come up with a plan to catch the killer red-handed. But doing so could put all of their lives in danger.
- Written by LOTUS73




In 1950-something New York, an adventuresome free-lance photographer finds himself confined to a wheelchair in his tiny apartment while a broken leg mends. With only the occasional distraction of a visiting nurse and his frustrated love interest, a beautiful fashion consultant, his attention is naturally drawn to the courtyard outside his "rear window" and the occupants of the apartment buildings which surround it. Soon he is consumed by the private dramas of his neighbors lives which play themselves out before his eyes. There is "Miss Lonelyhearts," so desperate for her imaginary lover that she sits him a plate at the dinner table and feigns their ensuing chat. There is the frustrated composer banging on his piano, the sunbathing sculptress, the shapely dancer, the newlyweds who are concealed from their neighbors by a window shade, and a bungling middle-aged couple with a little yapping dog who sleep on the fire escape to avoid the sweltering heat of their apartment. ...And then there is the mysterious salesman whose nagging, invalid wife's sudden absence from the scene ominously coincides with middle-of-the-night forays into the dark, sleeping city with his sample case. Where did she go? What's in the trunk that the salesman ships away? What's he been doing with the knives and the saw that he cleans at the kitchen sink?
- Written by Mark Fleetwood




Professional photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries is a prisoner of sorts in his own apartment sporting a hip cast from one of his adventures. He has little to do and spends much of the time observing his neighbors, including a newlywed couple, a middle-aged woman who lives alone and a ballerina who seems to attract men without much effort. He becomes particularly interested in one neighbor, Lars Thorwald, a traveling salesman whose invalid wife spends much of her time in bed. When he sees Thorwald make several trips out of his apartment on a particularly rainy night, he begins to wonder what may be going on. The disappearance of his wife makes him think he may have murdered her. Jeffries has few visitors, but the elegant and beautiful Lisa Fremont, who is madly in love with him, sees him daily and while she is at first skeptical, soon comes around to his way of thinking. In order to get proof however, it will be necessary for her to enter Thorwald's apartment.
- Written by garykmcd




In New York, the daring photographer L. B. Jefferies has been confined to his small apartment for five weeks in a wheelchair with one broken leg. He snoops his neighbors from his rear window to kill time and he is aware of the personal dramas of some of them. His fancy girlfriend Lisa Carol Fremont is pressing him to marry her but he believes she will not fit and feel comfortable with his brash lifestyle. When the invalid wife of the salesman Lars Thorwald vanishes, Jeff believes the man might have killed his wife. He tells his concerns to Lisa and to his nurse Stella and the women agree with his observations, but his friend Detective Thomas J. Doyle finds reasonable explanation for each remark. However, Lisa decides to go further in her investigation, getting closer to the suspect.
- Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil




SYNOPSIS

L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (James Stewart) recuperates from a broken leg during a sweltering New York summer. As a successful photographer, he's known for taking difficult pictures no one else can get, including the one of an out-of-control race car which smashed his camera and broke his leg an instant after it was snapped. Jeffries lives in a small apartment, and spends his time looking out the rear window into the courtyard of the building; he can also see into the lives of all his neighbors, catching glimpses of their daily routines. It's the sort of thing only an invalid might do, watching them eat, clean, sleep and argue. There's the girl who exercises in her underwear, the married couple who sleep on their small balcony to beat the heat, the struggling songwriter working at his piano; and there's the salesman who lives across the courtyard from Jeffries, the one with the nagging bedridden wife. They seem to fight all too often.

Every day a therapist comes to visit Jeff, dispensing her mature wisdom and berating him for sitting there all day spying on his neighbors. Stella (Thelma Ritter) tells him she can smell trouble coming. He should get his mind off his neighbors and think about marrying that beautiful girlfriend of his. Jeff replies that he's not ready for marriage. Sure, she's a wonderful girl, but she's also a rich, successful socialite, and Jeff lives the life of a war correspondent, always on the go, usually living out his suitcase and often in an unpleasant environment. It's not the life he wants to offer her. "Well" says Stella, "that girl is packed with love for you right down to her fingertips."

"That Girl" arrives shortly after Stella leaves. Lisa Carol Fremont (Grace Kelly) breezes in wearing a stunning satin dress, looking every inch the beautiful socialite she is, and obviously very much in love with Jeff. They have dinner, but soon enough the conversation turns to the future, and they quarrel. Jeff sees no way they can reconcile their different lifestyles, and she walks to the door, telling him goodbye. "When will I see you again?" asks Jeffries.

"Not for a long time," she replies sadly. "At least, not until tomorrow night."

The night drags by, and it's too hot for Jeffries to sleep. It starts to rain. He dozes in his wheelchair by the window, but notices activity across the yard. The salesman goes out carrying his heavy silver sample case, and Jeffries looks at his watch: it's 2:00am. The blinds in the bedroom are drawn, so Jeffries can't see the wife. Later, the salesman returns, lifting the case easily, as if it were empty. Twice more he goes out in the rain in the middle of the night, lugging the heavy case, but coming home with it lighter. Intrigued, Jeffries wonders what the salesman is doing, but he finally dozes off around daybreak.

Discussing the incident with Stella, and then later with Lisa, they all begin to watch the salesman. With the blinds now open, they can see that the wife is gone. Jeffries pulls out his binoculars, and then a large telephoto lens to get a better look. They watch as he goes into the kitchen and cleans a large knife and saw. Later, he ties a large packing crate with heavy rope, and has moving men come and haul the crate away. Stella runs around the front of the building to catch the name of the moving company, but misses the truck. By now they're all thinking the same thing; there's foul play going on, and the missing wife has been murdered by the salesman. They check his name on the front of the building: Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr).

Jeffries calls in an old Army buddy - Thomas J. Doyle (Wendell Corey) who's now a detective, and explains the situation to him. Naturally he doesn't believe a word of it, and tells Jeffries to stick to photography. After further checking, the detective finds that Mrs. Thorwald is in the country, has sent a postcard to her husband, and the packing crate they had seen was full of her clothes. Chastened, they all admit to being a little ghoulish, even disappointed when they find out there wasn't a murder after all. Jeffries and Lisa settle down for an evening alone, but soon a scream pierces the courtyard. One of the neighbors had a little dog they would let roam around the yard, and now it's dead with it's neck is broken. It had been digging in Thorwald's small flower garden. All of the neighbors rush to their windows to see what's happened, except for one. Jeffries notices that Thorwald sits unmoving in his dark apartment, with only the tip of his cigarette glowing.

Shortly after the dog is found dead, Jeff notices a change in Thorwald's small flower garden in the courtyard: using a slide he'd taken about two weeks before he discovers that the zinnia that the dog had been digging around is now a few inches shorter. Jeff suspects that Thorwald had buried something there & had dug it up after murdering the dog. Convinced that Thorwald is guilty after all, they slip a letter under his door asking "What have you done with her?" and then watch his reaction. Lisa delivers the note and slips away before Thorwald can find her. When she returns to the apartment, excited, Jeff has a look of excitement on his face as well, realizing that Lisa is a courageous woman who likely could accompany him in his adventurous life.

Calling Thorwald's apartment, Jeffries tells Thorwald to meet him at a bar down the street, as a pretext to getting him out of the apartment. When Thorwald leaves, Lisa and Stella grab a shovel and start digging, but after a few minutes, they find nothing.

Refusing to give up, Lisa climbs the fire escape to Thorwald's apartment and squeezes in an open window, much to Jeffries' alarm. Rummaging around the apartment, Lisa finds Mrs. Thorwald's purse and wedding ring, things she surely would never have left behind on a trip. She holds them up for Jeffries to see, but he can only watch in terror as Thorwald comes back up the stairs to the apartment. Lisa is trapped.

Calling the police as Thorwald goes in, he and Stella watch helplessly as Lisa tries to hide, but is found by Thorwald moments later. They see her try to talk her way out, but Thorwald grabs and begins to assault her. Terrified by their helplessness, they can only watch as he turns out the lights and listen as Lisa screams for help. The police arrive and beat on Thorwald's door, saving Lisa just in time.

Jeffries watches from across the courtyard as the police question Lisa, then arrest her. Her back is to him, and he see her hands behind her back pointing to Mrs. Thorwald's ring, which is now on her finger. Thorwald sees this as well, and realizing that she's signaling to someone across the way, looks up directly at Jeffries with murderous understanding.

Pulling back into the dark, Jeffries calls his detective friend, who agrees to help get Lisa out of jail, and is now convinced that Thorwald is guilty of something. Stella takes all the cash they have for bail and heads for the police station. Jeffries is left alone, and looking back over to Thorwald's apartment, he see all the lights are off. Down below, he hears the door to his own building slam shut, then slow footsteps begin climbing the stairs. Thorwald is coming for him, and he's trapped in his wheelchair.

Looking for a weapon, he can find only the flash for his camera. He grabs a box of flashbulbs, and under his door he watches the hall lights go off. Footsteps stop outside his door, then it slowly opens. Thorwald stands in the dark looking at Jeffries. "Who are you?" he says heavily. "What do you want from me?" Jeffries doesn't answer, but as Thorwald comes for him he sets off the flash, blinding Thorwald for a few seconds.

He is slowed but not stopped, and Jeffries keeps setting off flashbulbs in Thorwald's face, but he finally fumbles his way to Jeffries' wheelchair, then grabs him and pushes him towards the open window. Fighting to stay alive, Jeffries cannot stop Thorwald, and is pushed out. Hanging onto the ledge, yelling for help, he sees Lisa, the detective and the police all rush in. Thorwald is pulled back, but it's too late; Jeffries slips and falls just as the police run up beneath him. Luckily, they break his fall, and Lisa sweeps him up in her arms. Thorwald confesses to the murder of his wife, and the police take him away.

A few days later the heat has lifted, and Jeffries sleeps peacefully in his wheelchair, now with two broken legs from the fall. Lisa reclines happily next to him, now wearing blue jeans and a simple blouse, and reading a camping book. She smiles at him as he sleeps, but pulls out a hidden fashion magazine from under the cushion.