Rear Window (1954)

Director:

Alfred Hitchcock

Writers:

John Michael Hayes (screenplay)
Cornell Woolrich (short story)

Release Date:

14 January 1955 (Japan)

Genre:

Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

The Essential Hitchcock

Plot:

A wheelchair bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.

Plot Keywords:

Apartment | Neighbor | Salesman | Photographer | Nurse

Awards:

Nominated for 4 Oscars. Another 6 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

James Stewart	...	L.B. 'Jeff' Jefferies
Grace Kelly	...	Lisa Carol Fremont
Wendell Corey	...	Det. Lt. Thomas J. Doyle
Thelma Ritter	...	Stella
Raymond Burr	...	Lars Thorwald
Judith Evelyn	...	Miss Lonelyhearts
Ross Bagdasarian	...	Songwriter
Georgine Darcy	...	Miss Torso
Sara Berner	...	Woman on Fire Escape
Frank Cady	...	Man on Fire Escape
Jesslyn Fax	...	Miss Hearing Aid
Rand Harper	...	Newlywed
Irene Winston	...	Mrs. Emma Thorwald
Havis Davenport	...	Newlywed
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jerry Antes	...	Dancer with Miss Torso (uncredited)
Barbara Bailey	...	Choreographer with Miss Torso (uncredited)
Benny Bartlett	...	Man with Miss Torso (uncredited)
Nick Borgani	...	(uncredited)
Sue Casey	...	Sunbather (uncredited)
Iphigenie Castiglioni	...	Woman with Bird (uncredited)
James Cornell	...	(uncredited)
Don Dunning	...	Detective (uncredited)
Marla English	...	Girl at Songwriter's Party (uncredited)
Bess Flowers	...	Songwriter's Party Guest with Poodle (uncredited)
Art Gilmore	...	Radio Announcer (voice) (uncredited)
Fred Graham	...	Detective (uncredited)
Kathryn Grant	...	Girl at Songwriter's Party (uncredited)
Charles Harvey	...	(uncredited)
Len Hendry	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Alfred Hitchcock	...	Clock-Winder in Songwriter's Apartment (uncredited)
Harry Landers	...	Man with Miss Lonelyhearts (uncredited)
Alan Lee	...	Newlyweds' Landlord (uncredited)
Mike Mahoney	...	Policeman (uncredited)
Jonni Paris	...	Sunbather (uncredited)
Eddie Parker	...	Detective (uncredited)
Robert Sherman	...	(uncredited)
Dick Simmons	...	Man with Miss Torso (uncredited)
Ralph Smiley	...	Carl (uncredited)
Jack Stoney	...	Ice Man (uncredited)
Anthony Warde	...	Detective (uncredited)
Gig Young	...	Jeff's Editor (voice) (uncredited)

Directed by
Alfred Hitchcock

Writing credits
John Michael Hayes		(screenplay)
Cornell Woolrich		(short story)

Produced by
Alfred Hitchcock	....	producer (uncredited)

Original Music by
Franz Waxman

Cinematography by
Robert Burks		(director of photography)

Film Editing by
George Tomasini

Art Direction by
J. McMillan Johnson		(as Joseph MacMillan Johnson)
Hal Pereira

Set Decoration by
Sam Comer
Ray Moyer

Costume Design by
Edith Head		(costumes)

Makeup Department
Wally Westmore	....	makeup supervisor

Production Management
C.O. Erickson	....	unit production manager (uncredited)

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Herbert Coleman	....	assistant director
Lloyd Allen	....	second assistant director (uncredited)

Art Department
Dorothea Holt	....	illustrator (uncredited)
Gene Lauritzen	....	construction coordinator (uncredited)

Sound Department
John Cope	....	sound recordist
Harry Lindgren	....	sound recordist
Howard Beals	....	sound editor (uncredited)
Loren L. Ryder	....	sound recording mixer (uncredited)

Visual Effects by
John P. Fulton	....	special photographic effects
Irmin Roberts	....	special visual effects (uncredited)

Stunts
Fred Graham	....	stunt detective (uncredited)
Ted Mapes	....	stunts (uncredited)
Eddie Parker	....	stunt detective (uncredited)

Camera and Electrical Department
William Schurr	....	camera operator (uncredited)
Leonard J. South	....	assistant camera (uncredited)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Joan Joseff	....	costume jeweller (uncredited)

Editorial Department
Steve Johnson	....	colorist (uncredited)

Music Department
Sidney Cutner	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Gus Levene	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leonid Raab	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Leo Shuken	....	orchestrator (uncredited)
Van Cleave	....	orchestrator (uncredited)

Other crew
Bob Landry	....	technical advisor
Richard Mueller	....	color consultant: Technicolor
Irene Ives	....	script supervisor (uncredited)

Production Companies

• Paramount Pictures
• Patron Inc.

Distributors

• Paramount Pictures (1954) (USA) (theatrical)
• Les Films Paramount (1955) (France) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures International (1955) (Japan) (theatrical)
• Paramount (1955) (West Germany) (theatrical)
• Paramount Pictures (1962) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1966) (USA) (TV) (original airing)
• Universal Pictures (1983-2000) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Cinema International Corporation (C.I.C.) (1984) (Japan) (theatrical)
• MCA Home Video (1984) (USA) (VHS)
• Universal Pictures (1999) (Germany) (VHS)
• USA Films (2000) (USA) (theatrical) (re-release)
• Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (2003) (Germany) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (2006) (Germany) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (2008) (Germany) (DVD) (2 DVD's)
• Universal Pictures Home Entertainment (2012) (Germany) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures (2001) (Germany) (DVD)
• Victor Entertainment (2001) (Japan) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures (2002) (Japan) (DVD)
• Universal Pictures Benelux (2007) (Netherlands) (DVD)
• Seven Films (2008) (Greece) (theatrical) (reissue)
• Paramount (1955) (Austria) (theatrical)
• CIC Vídeo (Brazil) (VHS)
• MCA Home Video (video)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (USA) (VHS)
• MCA/Universal Home Video (USA) (laserdisc)
• Universal Home Entertainment (USA) (DVD)
• Universal Home Video (Brazil) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Film Archive, The  special thanks (1998 restoration) (as The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Film Archive)
• Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Margaret Herrick Library  special thanks (1998 restoration) (as The Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences Margaret Herrick Library)
• Cinesite  'THE KISS' digitally restored at (1998 restoration) (as Cinesite, an Eastman Kodak Company)
• Pacific Title/Mirage  additional score digitally restored at (1998 restoration) (as Pacific Title/Mirage Digital)
• Pacific Title/Mirage  optical internegative (1998 restoration)
• Superior Film Service  negative cutting (1998 restoration) (as Superior Film Service, Inc.)
• Technicolor  dye transfer prints by (1998 restoration)
• Universal Studios Sound Facilities  sound editing and re-recording at (1998 restoration) (as Universal Studios Sound Facility)
• Universal Studios Sound Restoration Department  special thanks (1998 restoration) (as Universal Studios Restoration Department)
• YCM Laboratories  master interpositives (1998 restoration)

Also Known As:

"Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window" - UK (complete title), USA (complete title)

Runtime:

112 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor) (negative) | Color (Technicolor) (prints)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Recording)

Certification:

Argentina:13 | Australia:PG | Chile:14 | Finland:K-8 | France:U (2000 re-release) | Netherlands:AL | Norway:16 | South Korea:15 | UK:PG | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG | USA:PG (re-rating) (1983) (cerfiticate no. 27069) | Canada:A (Nova Scotia) (1983) | Canada:G (Quebec) (1983) | Canada:PG (Manitoba/Ontario) | USA:Approved (PCA #16938) | Portugal:M/12 | Spain:T | Iceland:L | Germany:12 | West Germany:16 (f) | Brazil:12 | Sweden:11 (re-rating) (1984) | Sweden:15 (original rating) (1955) | New Zealand:PG | Italy:T | Japan:G (2009) | Australia:M (TV rating) | USA:Approved (PCA #27069: 1998 restoration) | USA:TV-G (TV rating)

Filming Locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

The 35mm camera that James Stewart holds with the huge telephoto lens attached is an early 1950s Exakta VX (also known as the "Varex" outside the USA) manufactured in Dresden, (east) Germany. The lens is a 400mm Kilfitt. The Paramount property department purposely covered over the name with black masking tape.

Goofs:

Continuity: The location and angle of the shadows of the "sun" are in the same place in the morning and at night.

Quotes:

[first lines]
Voice on radio:Men, are you over 40? When you wake up in the morning, do you feel tired and rundown? Do you have that listless feeling...
[the camera pans around the courtyard; cut to later in the day]
Jeff:[answering phone] Jefferies.
L.B. Jefferies' Editor:Congratulations, Jeff!
Jeff:For what?
L.B. Jefferies' Editor:For getting rid of that cast!
Jeff:Who said I was getting rid of it?
L.B. Jefferies' Editor:This is Wednesday; seven weeks from the day you broke your leg. Yes or no?
Jeff:Gunnison, how did you ever get to be such a big editor with such a small memory?
[...]

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Biography: Grace Kelly: Hollywood Princess" (1998)

Soundtrack:

Lisa

In the mid-fifties, Hitchcock brought remarkable suspense by reverting to the logic of a silent film (with an observer behind the lens as the hero)

Many reviewers and critics have commented on Alfred Hitchcock's theme of the voyeur in Rear Window (the mere thought of a voyeur in a suspense film conjures up images from other classic Hitchcock films), and I felt that voyeuristic bug as well. But I realized something that I hadn't thought of as I watched it for the first time- this is a return for Hitchcock to his skills as a master of silent-film chills. As L.B. Jeffries (Jimmy Stewart in one of his most infamous performances) is in his wheelchair viewing out one perspective to other inhabitants in the apartment, the audience views right along-side him. So, for more or less 50 percent of the film, the only sounds we hear are the sounds of mere realism, as Hitch's camera keeps a close eye on things.

As the thrills build in the second hour of the film there is considerably more dialog than the first hour. This could, and occasionally does, present a challenge for the audience member that could either be accepted & payed off or resented- can one sit back and just watch things unfold as in a film from the 20's? Personally, the experience of seeing these events unfold and increase was near electrifying. Along with Stewart's performance, which ranges from amusing to terrified, compelling to frightened (i.e. Hitch's 'everyday man'), there's Grace Kelly as Lisa, who carries her own beauty & inner conflicts, and Raymond Burr as Thorvold, who could have things going a little better with his wife.

If we empathize with Jeff, it's because we become as much apart of his mind-set/POV as he already is, and that's the ticket to the film's true success. Not only is there a magnetic kind of skill to which Hitchcock (and cinematographer Robert Burks) presents us with the apartments' supporting and minor characters and how their fates are played out against the enclosed backdrop, but the psychology of Jeff becomes parallel, or against, to the audience's. This is the story of one man's temptation and compulsion to be involved with those he can see (much like movie-goers have with any given film), and how perception of the realities around him become ours. Rear Window may have become dated for some movie-goers, particularly since the theme has been played on by other movies and TV shows (like The Simpsons for example). Yet there is a certain effectiveness to it all, even in the earlier scenes, that holds an edge over imitators. A+