Rating: 
Summary: The best movie ever made!!!
Review: "Rear Window" is Hitchcock's masterpiece...at the same time delightfully funny and chillingly suspenseful...The chemistry between James Stewart, Grace Kelly, and the wonderfully droll Thelma Ritter has never been equalled in any film, not even any other Hitchcock movie! From the moment I saw this movie for the first time until this very day, I have been spellbound by this brilliant work, each viewing presents something new...some nuance that went undetected before. There is a scene where Grace Kelly goes over to the apartment in question to try and find telling evidence...just as she is about to leave, the tenant in question enters, trapping her...I thought I was going to lose my breath...Sheer brilliance unmatched by any film---EVER! Now, if you've never seen the film, I won't reveal whether this neighbor actually murdered his wife...but even if I did tell you, it really wouldn't make "Rear Window" any less enjoyable to watch. I've easily seen it 30 times, and I enjoy watching it more each time. The mood is set not by soundtrack music that says "you're supposed to be scared here" etc., but by the beautiful music wafting through the courtyard from the songwriter's apartment (watch for the cameo here) as he struggles to write that perfect song...The mystery begins with a sudden scream in the night, and deepens when Jimmy Stewart catches sight of the henpecked travelling salesman across the way making several mysterious trips in and out of the apartment at late hours during a thunderstorm...each time, carrying a suitcase. Then, the next day, the voyeuristic Stewart notices that the salesman's nagging, invalid wife is no longer in the apartment, and the salesman seems suddenly concerned that someone might be watching him...especially as he wraps up some rather suspicious objects in newspaper in his kitchen. Where is his wife? Did he murder her? These are things Stewart begins to wonder...and the viewer wonders right along with him. If you have never seen this movie, you have no idea what thorough enjoyment you are missing. The original "Rear Window" to which I am referring (not to be confused with the sharply inferior remake starring Christopher Reeve) is hard to find...but well worth the search. If you can, don't rent it---buy it! You will be sorry if you don't. The only reason I gave this movie five stars is that I can't give it 20!!! "Rear Window" is nothing short of the master's crowning achievement, a must for anyone, not just Hitchcock connoisseurs like myself. If you only see one Hitchcock movie in your life, let it be this one!!! You'll never forget it! And you'll want to watch it again and again!
Rating:
Summary: "Rear Window" is Hitchcock at his BEST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: This amazing director Alfred Hitchcock got the nod for 4 of AFI's (American Film Institute's) top 100 movies in 100 years (1998). This incredible feat showcases "Hitch" at his very best !!!! His greatest run began with his greatest movie "Rear Window" (1954), then Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959) and his most famous horror thriller, Psycho (1960) all on AFI's list.Rear Window's cast was meticulously chosen and performed perfectly and flawlessly. This movie is the perfect blend of story, cinematography, acting, music, drama, suspense and most of all COLOR. Digitally restored masterfully you now can enjoy the artist pallet at its best. In summary; An adventure magazine photographer (James Stewart) is in his 6th week being wheelchair bound from a broken leg in a 2 room apartment overlooking the courtyard of an apartment complex in New York. Socialite girlfriend (the most beautifully photographed closeup sequence of Grace Kelly) tries to persuade the reluctant Stewart to be allowed into his high adventure life. Along with his physical therapist (Thelma Ritter) the trio get involved in a peeping Tom scenario of the neighbors & the possibility of a husband (Raymond Burr) killing & disposing of his wife? The girlfriend and therapist become predators to find the body. Stewart becomes the victim of the husband & the rest is history. This the greatest movie and Grace Kelly is absolutely gorgeous!!! Plenty of backgound information and incites from "Hitch's" daughter Patricia Hitchcock. You've got to see "Rear Window" and then you will want to see more of this directors work. You can't lose with "Rear Window"!!!!!
Rating:
Summary: Look out the "Window"
Review: Alfred Hitchcock was in near-perfect form when he made "Rear Window," a stylish, minimalistic blend of mystery and dark comedy. This thriller explores "what you shouldn't see" skilfully, with a few funny bits thrown in. And having a cast that includes Grace Kelly and James Stewart doesn't hurt either.
Photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (Stewart) got run over during a shoot, and is crankily waiting for his cast to come off. While he does so, he spies on his neighbors -- some sleep on balconies, some argue, some weep alone, and some ("Miss Torso") dance in spandex. To make things worse, Jeff is having intimacy problems with his wealthy girlfriend Lisa (Kelly), because he fears settling down.
But then Jeff's window-watching clues him in to something -- sickly Mrs. Thorwald vanishes, and her husband Lars (Raymond Burr) is seen acting suspiciously with a saw, rope and metal case. Jeff becomes convinced that Thorwald has murdered his wife. He manages to convince Lisa and his down-to-earth nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter), but detectives won't believe him. So without moving from the room, Jeff uses the rear window to watch Thorwald -- and find out what really happened.
Okay, peeping on your neighbors is not just creepy, it's illegal. In the case of "Rear Window," that fact doesn't really matter. Watching the fellow tenants is as much fun as the mystery itself, whether it's the newlyweds, the pair that sleep on the balcony, the weepy Ms. Lonelyheart, or the buxom dancer Miss Torso. It makes the story even more chilling when you realize that one -- or maybe more than one -- of these seemingly harmless people is a murderer.
Hitchcock -- who appears as a musician -- kept his deft touch in a movie that could have sunk like a stone. All the action takes place in one room, but he keeps it from feeling confining. Instead, the minimalistic set takes away all distractions, and makes the interplay between the characters even brighter. And much of the humor is provided by Ritter -- she's not a comic character, but her homespun wisdom is delivered with tart humor.
Jeff is likable as only James Stewart could make him -- this guy is bored, crabby and in denial about his feelings for Lisa, but he's likable despite that. Kelly does an equally solid job as the "girl who is too good for him," who also proves that in a pinch she can rise beyond her uptown-girl roots. Back when many women were relegated to side roles, Lisa gets to be an equal detective to Stewart.
"Rear Window" gives a view into one of Hitchcock's best films, a taut thriller about how, if you watch other people, you might see something dangerous. A well-deserved classic.
Rating:
Summary: a great movie
Review: I saw this movie for the first time last weekend when it was on Turner Classic Movies. It is terrific! Sometimes it's hard for me to believe these people wouldn't put their blinds down, though they do at some points in the movie. Stewart's character is the ultimate "nosy neighbor". The plot is just so fascinating and well done. I also saw "Vertigo" for the first time recently, but I definitely like this classic Hitchcock movie better. The story in "Rear Window" held my attention; and the climax, for me at least, was much more suspenseful than the climax in "Vertigo". I highly recommend this movie!
I was curious if anyone else who has watched this movie saw someone who looks like Alfred Hitchcock himself in one scene. It's about 25 minutes into the movie, and this man is in the struggling songwriter's apartment. He has his back to the piano, then turns around. I just wondered if my eyes are playing tricks on me.
Rating:
Summary: Rear Window
Review: James Stewart and Grace Kelly make a wonderful couple in this film. The mystery keeps you guessing until the end. While the focus is out the rear window of Stewart's New York City apartment, his relationship with Grace Kelly's socialite progresses and changes. My favorite aspect about this movie is the juxtapostioning of Stewart learning about his neighbors as he watches them with him seeing new aspects of his girlfriend's adventurous spirit that he didn't know existed.
Rating:
Summary: "Its a secret private world out there...."
Review: On a hot summer night in NYC the windows and shades remain open, weary residents hoping to catch a breath of air. This makes it easy for Jimmy Stewart to observe his neighbors. Stewart, playing a photojournalist recovering from a broken leg, whittles away the hours observing the goings-on in the apartments that can be seen out this rear window and fending off marriage plans from his society girlfriend, played by Grace Kelly.
The appearance by Kelly, about 10 minutes into the film, is a startling, heart stopping tribute to the glory of Hitchcock's directing talents. As Kelly moves in for the kill to kiss her boyfriend, dozing in a wheel chair, the change in light over his face, caused by a shadow thrown by Kelly awakens him. Then we get a close-up of Kely and a brief speed up of the film as their lips connect, Kelly then backs off and inquires in a her East coast, upper crust whisper-purr, "Hows your love life?" Kelly argues with Stewart, who is scared of marriage, a girl that is too good for him, and extra surly from being stuck in a wheel chair. When Kelly suggests he give up globe-trotting and open up a portrait studio or photograph fashion shows he nearly spits up his pre-dinner wine.
One of the neighbors Stewart has been keeping an eye on is a salesman with a nagging wife, who one day disappears. Stewart uses his power of observation and journalist instincts to put two and two together and comes up with murder. Stewart tries to convince his freinds, the most skeptical of which is a war-buddy police detective.
The suspense and pure terror (Raymond Burr as the suspect salesman probably utters no more than 20 words but is one of the most menacing characters ever) of Rear Window remain as heart pounding on the 10th viewing as the first. Truly one of the great American films, and on a hot evening it is without equal.
Rating: 
Summary: "Rear Window"
Review: "Rear Window" is an excellent thriller by the master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock. All throughout the film, the audience becomes a willing accomplice to a peeping tom. The audience watches the main character's nieghbors right alongside the main character.
L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries (Jimmy Stewart) is confined to a wheelchair due to a bad accident in which Jeffries nearly lost his life. It was a car accident, occuring as Jeffries tries to get a picture of a car racing, but the race car ends up coming apart just as Jeffries takes his picture.
Needless to say, Jeffries gets injured and his camera gets broken. He has broken his leg, preventing him from being able to get out of his apartment. These days, when that happens, someone might take to spending his time watching television. However, this film takes place in the 50's, when television was just coming into it's own. As a matter of fact, at the time, advertising companies generally were not agreeing with thier clents as to whether or not to advertise on television. The advertising companies thought television was doomed.
Hence we have the reason why Jeffries ends up spending his time watching the nieghbors. He has nothing else to do. He makes up his own name for each of them. There is a woman he calls Miss Torso, who dances all the time. There is Miss Lonelyhearts , who cries herself to sleep every night. Then there is the travelling salesman, who Jeffries becomes very concerned about.
Turns out the salesman's wife is bed-ridden. Then why is no one paying attention to her? Why is it the salesman is wrapping such bizarre things as knives, and in newspaper?
The film is certered around this mystery, and the audience becomes a peeping tom themselves as they try to unravel the mystery alongside Jeffries.
What I am trying to point out here is that the film is entertaining, but, like all Hitchcock films, it requires a different sort of attention span than a modern day film does. Sure, the film is about the same length as modern films usually are, but ;modern films have to have something exciting happen often, something usually in which the main character's life is threatened. Take for example "I Robot." The character played by Will Smith cannot go more than twenty minutes before he has problems with the androids in that movie.
Unlike "I Robot" "Rear Window" has the ability to just focus on the mystery and the development of the characters it has. This is not to say that the film is not interesting. Trying to unravel the mystery to "Rear Window" is fun, even though it means becoming a nieghborhood watchdog like Jeffries.
Also, considering the year the film was made, the portrayal of the woman in the film is somewhat sympathetic, like in other Hitchcock classics including "The Man Who Knew too Much." Films from around the time, such as"The Three Faces of Eve" have a tendency to look at all semi- strong woman as either loony or dangerous. "Rear Window," however, has a very sympathetic strong female character in the form of Lisa (Grace Kelly). She goes with the nurse to dig up the plot of ground Jeffries believes the wife is buried in. She is the one who goes and gives Mr. Thorwald's apartment (Raymond Burr, known to television audiences as Perry Mason) and even breaks intoThorwald's apartment, an event that becomes pivotal to the story in a way I will not mention, through a second story window while wearing high-heels.
In other words, the women of the story make up for Mr. Jeffries' weakness.
These are all reasons why "Rear Window" has stood the test of time. Although there are also other reasons, the film is fun to watch if you don't have to have something exciting happen every few minutes in order for the film to keep your attention. The mystery to the film makes watching "Rear Window" a lot of fun.
Rating:
Summary: On Rear Window ethics in a classic Hitch film.
Review: "Here lie the broken bones of L.B. Jeffries." That's what's been written on the plaster cast on the aforementioned Jeffries, an ace photographer who's been in a wheelchair for seven weeks because he got too close during a race car match.
Jeffries is bored and listless, but at least his days in limbo gives him a view of life's passing parade through his binoculars, namely the other tenants whom he can see through his window. The show's starring attraction is Miss Torso, a blonde buxom ballet dancer who can be seen shaking her thing and wearing nice pink bikinis-Jeffries expression on seeing her is priceless. (Yes, she is nice, isn't she?) The songwriter who's lost his muse, a pair of newlyweds, a couple with a dog who fight the hot summer heat by sleeping on their balcony, and Miss Lonelyheart, a single woman who undergoes the being single blues. However, during a particularly sleepless night, he notices how Mr. Thorvald, a jewelry salesman with an invalid wife, goes in and out of his apartment three times during the late hours, returning once with a large saw. Why hasn't he been in his wife's bedroom all day? "Something's terribly wrong," he surmises.
Jeffries is also going through a bit of a crisis with his girlfriend Lisa Freemont, and they are quite a pair. He's more a rough action-type of guy, having served in the war, going on tough assignments on one suitcase, entering tough situations, while she's "too perfect," having that chic, ultrasophisticated, rarified Park Avenue ambience, never wearing the same dress twice. Jeffries is thinking that he wants someone too ordinary, someone who can bear up to his way of life if she wants to come along. He's the old-fashioned type who thinks that "nothing has caused the world more trouble than intelligence," and goes on to discuss how psychoanalysis and interpretation of different emotional levels as examples.
It takes the goings-on of the Thorwald apartment to draw the strained couple together, as Lisa uses her feminine intuition to realize that indeed a woman wouldn't leave such an expensive handbag, jewelry, and her wedding ring behind if she was going to leave on a long trip. However, feminine intuition and Jeffries' speculations don't convince his war buddy and now detective Tom Doyle, who does some digging around to humor Jeffries and finds out the wife isn't dead. And the final half hour, after a dramatic incident, when Lisa, Jeffries, and the latter's insurance-provided nurse Stella all join in and decide to brashly throw caution to the wind, that the excitement rises to a fever pitch.
Rear Window's also one of the many New York films, showing the apartment life of the tenants as seen through Jeffries, played superbly by James Stewart in his second Hitchcock film, the other being Rope (1948), the next one to be the tepid remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956), and later, another classic, Vertigo (1958).
Like Stewart, this was Grace Kelly's second of three Hitchcock films, the other two being Dial M For Murder and To Catch A Thief. As Lisa Fremont, she gives one of her cold ice princess roles. She looks elegant in her pink nightgown, and dresses well, but she provides a shot of audacity herself in the final half hour.
And Thelma Ritter does another great turn as Stella, giving her usual wisecracking schtick as a supplement to James Stewart's flippancy. She tells of her talent as a foreteller of bad things, saying of the Wall Street crash, "When GM has to go the bathroom ten times a day, the whole country has to let go." The other two players worth mentioning is Judith Evelyn as Miss Lonely Heart and as guilty pleasure/eye candy, Georgine Darcy as Miss Torso. And it's Raymond Burr (Perry Mason, Ironside) as Mr. Thorvald himself.
One of Hitchcock's all-time classics, and one of my favourite personal four, the others being Spellbound, Vertigo and The Birds.
Rating:
Summary: A classic
Review: What can I say? Rear Window is probably Hitchcock's best movie. Grace Kelly is even more fabulous than usual, and Jimmy Stewart is brilliant too. However, this can be a more demanding movie to watch than some may expect. Obviously, this film is largely psychological and thus requires effort to watch. And it is also really slow, although it is ingenious, precise, and somewhat formal in its development. For these reasons, viewers accustomed to different/new types of movies may find its value as pure entertainment to be diminished.
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic - leaves you wanting more...
Review: ...more of the characters, more of the neighborhood, more about how the movie was made. Genius, pure genius. Be sure to watch the "making of" documentary that is included - my admiration for Hithcock grew as I watched. Clever set and an even more clever director.
This movie was a pure joy. I had never seen it before (in fact it is only my second Hitchcock movie! Yes, I have been neglecting my education!) and this goes right into my personal top ten list!
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