 Confined to his small courtyard apartment by a broken leg, photojournalist L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) passes the time between visits from his nurse (Thelma Ritter) and his girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly) by watching his neighbors with his binoculars through the rear window of his room. When Jeffries thinks he sees one of his neighbors murder his invalid wife and dispose of her body, he convinces Lisa to investigate. One of Alfred Hitchcock's greatest masterpieces of suspense. Storyline: Professional photographer L.B. "Jeff" Jeffries breaks his leg while getting an action shot at an auto race. Confined to his New York apartment, he spends his time looking out of the rear window observing the neighbors. He begins to suspect that a man across the courtyard may have murdered his wife. Jeff enlists the help of his high society fashion-consultant girlfriend Lisa Freemont and his visiting nurse Stella to investigate. Written by Col Needham Reviewer's Note: Reviewed by Kenneth Brown on November 1, 2012 -- A man confronts his accuser atop the Statue of Liberty, where one false move will spell death. A wolf in sheep's clothing allows the beast lurking within to bear its teeth. A housemaster slowly, oh so slowly, pieces together the heinous crime perpetrated by two former students. A woman searches for clues in a suspected murderer's apartment just as the man returns home. Four people work to keep the demise of a fellow smalltown resident a secret from a local deputy. An assassin's gun slides out from behind a curtain as an ordinary man races to thwart his plot. An airplane buzzes then roars past as a man dives for cover. The hiss of a shower masks the approach of a madman with a knife in his hand. Countless birds gather on a jungle gym as a woman smokes a cigarette nearby. A husband barges into his new wife's bedroom and has his way with her as she retreats into a near-catatonic state. A physicist discovers killing a man isn't as easy as it might seem, wrestling with his victim right up until the violent end. A purple dress billows out beneath a dying woman like spilled blood. A serial killer retrieves his pin from a woman's grasp, one dead finger at a time. A fake psychic tries to squirm out of a thief's vice-like grip as he pushes a syringe closer and closer. Be it drama, horror or comedy, psychological stunner, monster movie or international spy thriller, is it any mystery that filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock was known as the Master of Suspense? Is it any wonder his movies still hold hypnotic sway over filmfans all these years later? Rear Window might just be a perfect film. If not a perfect film, then perfect Hitchcock. It's impossible to draw a line between the mystery and the suspense, the story and the setting, or the performances and John Michael Hayes' dialogue. A melting pot of paranoia, isolation and the very real threat of murder most foul, it teases and toys, accelerates and tiptoes, delights and surprises, shocks and scares. It's Hitchcock at his peak. Hitchcock at his most playful. Hitchcock at his most devious. Grace Kelly's search of Raymond Burr's apartment is torture, even some sixty years after the fact; torture made all the more unbearable with the knowledge that Jimmy Stewart's wheelchair-bound L.B. Jeffries is helpless to do much of anything as Burr's suspected murderer, Lars Thorwald, returns and catches Kelly's Lisa in the act. Even then, his guilt or innocence is uncertain. Even then, we're forced to ask if Jeffries has it all wrong. The single, shocking image that follows shortly after -- of Thorwald craning his neck and staring directly at Jeffries -- is as brilliant a shot and sequence as any Hitchcock committed to film. It's also a testament to his prowess and punch as a filmmaker, not to mention his keen sense of pacing, plotting and mounting unease. The moment Thorwald makes eye contact with the audience, who's unwittingly become entangled in the story, the director's trap is sprung. All the distraction, all the pleasantries, all the characters, all the suspicion, all the suspense... all to form an inseparable bond between viewer and voyeur. Jeffries almost ceases to exist. It's us sitting in that apartment, watching as the door to our apartment swings open and a hulking madman steps through. Rear Window is without a doubt one of Hitchcock's best and an undisputed masterwork that belongs in any box set that dares call itself a Masterpiece Collection. Whether you purchase the Masterpiece Collection or hold out for a standalone release, Rear Window is a timeless piece of cinema that belongs in every filmfan's collection. Universal's Blu-ray edition features a solid restoration and video transfer, an excellent DTS-HD Master Audio Mono mix, and a generous selection of extras, among them an audio commentary, three documentaries and fifty-minutes of interviews with the director himself. Is it a perfect disc? Not quite. But it's perfect Hitchcock. Perhaps even the master filmmaker's best. Cameo: Rear Window - 1954 - 0:26:10 - Winding the clock in the songwriter's apartment (Some argue that Hitchcock breaks the fourth wall in this cameo, possibly turning to look at the audience in a "What are you looking at?" sort of manner, but is actually turning to speak (lips move) to Ross Bagdasarian, who clearly turns his head in response). IMDb Rating (07/25/14): 8.6/10 from 238,971 users Top 250: #33 IMDb Rating (11/12/12): 8.7/10 from 177,987 users Top 250: #28 IMDb Rating (10/15/07): 8.7/10 from 71,797 users Top 250: #14 IMDb Rating (05/01/01): 8.7/10 from 13,901 users Top 250: #13
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