Rear Window (1954)

The Classic Alfred Hitchcock film, "Rear Window," is about a wheel chair bound man named Jeff (Jimmy Stewart) who is so bored in his apartment, he finds himself spying on his neighbors in the apartment building across his rear window. It's mentioned in the beginning that he isn't ready for marriage, and thinks his girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) is too 'perfect' and perhaps artificial to him. Aside from an assistant named Stella visiting him to help nurse his leg, he spends his hours alone, and looks through his rear window as if it is a television, and he can't stop spying. He sees a number of characters per apartment building: an attractive ballerina he calls 'miss torso', a childless couple with a scottie dog, a lonely middle aged woman who has dinner at her mom with an imaginary date, an old lady who spends her time sunbathing, a single male pianist, and a middle aged couple. His attention is focused on the middle aged couple, and he sees them have confrontations. He seems to hear sounds from all the separate homes in the complex, except for theirs. He can only examine their stressful body language. The different windows serve as different channels on a television being Jeff's rear window. Jeff falls asleep at nightfall and is suddenly awakened by a womans scream. He looks out the window onto the dark night to see it's raining, and suddenly spots the husband of the couple leave his apartment with a giant suitcase. Jeff immediately suspects that he has murdered his wife. Instead of being frightened and calling the police, he only consults a detective, who seems to think Jeff is jumping to conclusions. Jeff tries to tell his girlfriend what's going on, and is surprised to know shes interested when usually she is only interested in herself: fame, beauty and money. Jeff keeps seeing suspicious activity happen: the husband washing the suitcase, staying up late in the dark smoking a cigar, and no sign of the woman. The scottie dog belonging to the childless couple sniffs around a nearby garden patch as if something was recently buried there. The dog is later strangled to death, and Jeff assumes it was the murdering husband. Jeff finally convinces his girlfriend Lisa to sneak into the murdering husbands apartment to find any clue to the supposed murder. Jeff watches in fear, but does nothing to save his girlfriend. It's as if he is watching the windows of the apartments like it's the climax of a movie. The murderer eventually finds Jeffs girlfriend and beats her, until the police arrive and arrest him. It is through this experience of watching Lisa step out of her 'perfect world' to visit a forbidden territory, that Jeff falls in love with her, and decides to marry her. She is somewhat of a hero to him now, instead of just an object of luxery. I found this movie to be predictable, and not very frightening. It's interesting that Jeffs point of view is usually seen through his rear window, as he sees the lives of the other tenants while his is on hold. There aren't many surprises though, perhaps because this film was parodied in many television shows (i.e. the simpsons) and made in 1954. The only eerie parts were when the soundtrack played a roll. During the rainstorm where the murdered wife screams, there is a muttered fog horn in the distance, perhaps signaling a warning. Other than that, I found the film dull for a Hitchcock film, and underdeveloped.