Movie 149: Rear Window

Jeff (Jimmy Stewart) is a professional photographer who busted his leg taking a daring shot. He’s stuck in his apartment in a wheel chair while it heals, with nothing to do but look out the window at his neighbours. After 6 weeks he’s understandably a bit stir crazy. One night he sees Mr Thorwald (Raymond Burr) acting suspiciously and suspects he killed his with. With the help of his sort of girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) and his nurse (Thelma Ritter) he sets out to prove it to his doubting detective friend (Wendell Corey)

Named a lot of actors there. Not for any real reason, just felt like it.

So a guy in a wheel chair perving on his neighbours. The ultimate voyeur. In fact there’s a bit of an allegory (hope that’s the right word) to soap opera viewers going on here. While its real life people that Jeff is looking at, it’s like he has a half dozen little stories going on. A low tech form of flipping channels. I doubt this kind of comparison is all that relevant though.

The side stories help to add an extra layer to what could have been a kind of boring movie. There isn’t quite enough in the main story to hold up to nearly 2 hours. And the way that Jeff, Lisa and his nurse act they DO come across as a soap audience, all be it one that gets more involved than just water cooler talk.

Jimmy Stewart is one of those actors who basically got by playing himself. Comparatively I’d throw Humphrey Bogart and Sean Connery in there. They aren’t playing the same character over and over, but aspects of the same kind of guy. Here Stewart is a bit darker than normal. I have a bit of a hard time buying him as an action photographer really, but we don’t have to as we never see him doing anything of the sort. It’s a great role to land, you just sit on your ass all day.

Grace Kelly is absolutely stunning, and in a lesser actress’ (and to be fair, script and director) hands that would be all Lisa has going for her. Hell, it seems that’s all the character will have for much of the movie. But Lisa proves she’s got more spunk than people give her credit for.

And the nurse is the dark comedy relief really. Saying the nasty shit that works without Hitch showing it too us and letting the audience fill in the pictures themselves. Some delicious irony is added for any viewers post 1980 as Ironside is the guy being investigated by a detective in a wheel chair.

It’s a well paced if not wholly gripping for me thriller story, as you’d expected from the source and great cast. The side stories are a good touch and you find yourself caring for the nameless characters who all have their own little moments. And we’re giving a funny little ending that wraps the whole thing up. Which is nice.

Next up: Dragonball Evolution