Rear Window is the entirety of Hitchcock’s whole career in microcosm. It’s got the suspense and terror. It’s got morally-shaky characters. It’s got the voyeurism. It’s got the sex. It withholds information from its audience. It’s not just a nearly-perfect film, it’s a perfect Hitchcockian film. The fact that it’s so tightly contained – nothing in the film leaves the apartments facing the courtyard – means the excitement of the movie comes from what is not seen just as much as the seen. When characters are offscreen, the audience is left to wonder where they are. And even when they are onscreen, if they’re not visible from a window, it’s still suspicious.

Jeff is stuck inside his apartment with a broken leg. All the professional photographer can do to pass the time is roll around in his wheelchair and use the lens on his camera to spy on his neighbors, including Lars Thorwald, a traveling salesman with a bedridden wife. Jeff is cared for by a nurse named Stella and his girlfriend, Lisa. In the middle of the night, Jeff hears a woman scream and glass shatter. The next morning, Jeff notices Thorwald’s wife is gone and sees him cleaning a knife and handsaw, as well as prepping a large trunk to be taken by some movers. Jeff is convinced that Thorwald has killed his wife and tells Lisa and Stella. He also alerts his friend, Tom, who is a detective with the police, but Tom investigates and finds nothing suspicious about Thorwald. Later, a dog is found dead in the courtyard and its owner screams from the window, alerting everyone in the apartments to come to their windows…everyone, that is, except Thorwald. Jeff calls Thorwald to get him out of the apartment, and Lisa climbs in through his window to investigate. Thorwald returns and catches Lisa, but when the police question her, she signals to Jeff that she has Thorwald’s wife’s wedding ring. Thorwald sees this and is now aware that Jeff is watching him. Jeff calls Tom but Tom doesn’t answer. Stella goes to bail Lisa out of jail, leaving Jeff alone in his apartment. Thorwald finds him and attacks. Tom arrives just in time to grab Thorwald, but Jeff falls from his window, breaking his other leg.

The relationship between Jeff (James Stewart) and Lisa (Grace Kelly) receives a lot of criticism for the age gap between them. Stewart was 46 at the time of filming and looked even older because of his time in World War II, and Kelly was 25 and was the definition of youthful beauty. I don’t believe the relationship is supposed to sit right with the audience. In fact, Rear Window spends ample attention on the incompatibility of their relationship. And besides that, to hear Hitchcock himself tell it, the audience is supposed to see Jeff as a “good” guy by the end of it. He’s a voyeur and a menace and self-absorbed, but because Jimmy Stewart is in the role, we excuse a lot more than maybe we should. But then again, no one could manipulate an audience quite like Hitchcock.

Bonus Review: Psycho

Many would argue that Psycho is actually Hitchcock’s best film, and it’s hard to disagree. I do, but it’s still difficult. Psycho could just as easily be #15 as Rear Window. It’s just impossible to condense a thousand movies into a Top 100, and so the fat had to be trimmed somewhere. And here is where I did some cutting. I will argue that Psycho is perhaps more influential than Rear Window – I mean, how many times has that score alone been referenced elsewhere? What about the entirety of the famous shower scene? – but as I explained in my opening paragraph above, Rear Window is actually a good retrospective of Hitchcock’s entire career up to that point. Psycho is a fantastic film, but it’s certainly an outlier to the majority of his movies.

Look, if at this point you still haven’t seen Psycho, then just what are you doing with yourself? This is a movie that just about everyone knows or at least should know, and so perhaps there’s nothing wrong with me spoiling the plot or twists in the film at this juncture, but I will not do it. Hitchcock ran a marketing campaign where the movie had a warning at the end to not reveal what happens to anyone who hasn’t seen the movie and made movie theaters close off access to viewing the movie after a screening had started. So, to follow in his footsteps, and keeping to his passion for secrecy, I will not share a synopsis or any further information. Watch the movie for yourself or read a synopsis on Wikipedia or something. Just know that you have to watch this movie before you die, and it truly is better to go in as blind as possible.