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The Hollywood Classics (1954)

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The Hollywood Classics (1954)
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Directed by Alfred Hitchcock

Rear Window (1954)

PRoduction: Hitchcock, PARAMOUNT
Screenplay:John Michael Hayes from a story by CornellWoolrich
Camera: Robert Burks
Costumes: Edith Head
CAST: James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter,
Raymond Burr, Wendell Corey, Judith Evelyn,
Ross Bagdasarian, Georgina Darcy, Sara Berner

Stewart,Kelly

James Stewart, Grace Kelly

PLOT:
Stewart plays LB Jeffries, a globe-trotting magazine photographer, confined to his apartment by a broken leg during a smeltering New York heatwave. Bored and easily distracted, he finds his attention increasingly drawn to the apartment of Lars Thorwald (Burr) opposite.
Gradually,LB comes to believe that Thorwald has murdered his wife and disposed of her remains. He confides his theores to his daily nurse Stella (Ritter), a detective friend (Corey) and the elegant Lisa Fremont (Kelly) with whom LB is enjoying a sporadic romance.
All of them are initially skeptical, accusing him of being nothing but a peeping tom. The pieces slowly fall together and Thorwald is indeed revealed to be a murderer, trapping and nearly killing LB in his own apartment, before the police manage to rescue him after a cliff-hanging climax.

Fontaine,Olivier

Stewart,Kelly

Kelly, Stewart

54_Rear Window_CAMEO

Hitchcock as a clock repairman CAMEO,in the songwriter appartment in Rear Window

James Stewart

54_Ritter,Kelly,Stewart

Thelma Ritter, Grace Kelly, James Stewart

54_Raymond Burr

Murderer Raymond Burr stalking Stewart in his apartment in the climax of Rear Window

Rear Window is ultimately Hitchcock's most disturbing work. The question of morality and involvement,of voyeurism and responsability raised by the film lingers on long after the film has ended.It is a masterpiece of technical ability and remains an outstanding contribution to the language of cinema. When the film was revived in London in 1983, many critics felt that despite being 30 years old it was the film of the year. (Viewed today, after almost 50 years, it is still fresh and gripping as the first time Grace Kelly entered James Stewart's cluttered room)

Stewart,Kelly,Hitchcock on the set of rear Window

James Stewart, Grace Kelly and director Alfred Hitchcock on the set of Rear Window.

Edith Head designed Kelly's costumes in close collaboration with Hitchcock who wanted the actress to appear like a piece of Dresden china, something slightly untouchable.
It was the projection of Hitchcock's image of Grace as the epitome of what he called'sexual elegance'.
It is said that Hitchcock was ready to use Grace Kelly in the next ten pictures he made. (all the actresses he cast subsequently were actually attempts to retrieve the image and feeling that the director carried around so reverentially about Grace).

Kelly,Stewart

Stewart,Kelly

"Rear Window' received an Oscar nomination for: BestDirector: Alfred Hitchcock
BestCinematography(color): Robert Burks
Best Screenplay: John Michael Hayes
Best Sound(recording): Loren L. Ryder
Grace Kelly won the 1954 NBR (National Board of Review,USA) award for Best Actress (for her three 1954 films, Dial M for murder, Rear Window and The Country Girl)She also won the Oscar for Best actress in Country Girl.

54_RearWindow_the newlywed

James Stewart

Raymond Burr

54_Corey,Kelly, Stewart

54_Raymond Burr, Grace Kelly

54_rear17.jpg

After the brooding and Claustrophobic intensity of Rear Window, Hitchcock sought relief in the south of France with a lightweight piece, again with his favorite star, Unaware that it would be the last time they would work together and it would be during the filming of his movie that Grace Kelly and Prince Ranieri of Monaco met and Grace Kelly became Princess Grace of Monaco and never returned to act.

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