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 
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. 



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

Thelma Ritter, Grace Kelly, James Stewart 
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) 
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). 

"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. 





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