REAR WINDOW
Now this is the movie for which Grace Kelly owes much of her well-earned celebrity. Quite appropriately, many people have written about what an amazingly convincing job James Stewart did playing a debilitated photographer confined to a wheelchair. But let us not ignore the utter sexlessness of his character, at least until Kelly floats into the room. In this picture, she conveys a bright sensuality the intensity of which has escaped every other chanteuse with whom Hitchcock ever worked.
As any fan of director Brian DePalma can tell you, the premise of the movie is that Stewart, while working at home, becomes something of a peeper looking for camera shots through his house's rear window. Eventually he becomes convinced that he has witnessed a neighbor committing a murder. He attempts to convince the police, et cetera.
As with other films of Hitchcock's, the ploy has been used and abused by imitators, cretins and even by a few talented amateurs. You may decide for yourself which of these categories DePalma calls home. You could not have Body Double without this movie, nor could you have DePalma's Dressed to kill. Far more important, you could not have Psycho, although for very different reasons.
Easily one of Hitchcock's five best.
Now this is the movie for which Grace Kelly owes much of her well-earned celebrity. Quite appropriately, many people have written about what an amazingly convincing job James Stewart did playing a debilitated photographer confined to a wheelchair. But let us not ignore the utter sexlessness of his character, at least until Kelly floats into the room. In this picture, she conveys a bright sensuality the intensity of which has escaped every other chanteuse with whom Hitchcock ever worked.
As any fan of director Brian DePalma can tell you, the premise of the movie is that Stewart, while working at home, becomes something of a peeper looking for camera shots through his house's rear window. Eventually he becomes convinced that he has witnessed a neighbor committing a murder. He attempts to convince the police, et cetera.
As with other films of Hitchcock's, the ploy has been used and abused by imitators, cretins and even by a few talented amateurs. You may decide for yourself which of these categories DePalma calls home. You could not have Body Double without this movie, nor could you have DePalma's Dressed to kill. Far more important, you could not have Psycho, although for very different reasons.
Easily one of Hitchcock's five best.
