John Michael HayesBesprekingen

The story is good but not amazing, it's the performance which raises this into excellence. Hitch's direction (the credits & opening scene an example, both effective & hilarious) is not flashy, but far more substantive than meets a casual eye. The characters are fairly one-dimensional but all four leading actors render them lovable, believable, and so enjoyable to watch. Prime example: Kelly transforms her character, a stereotype at worst, into a character study for humanizing a self-centred youth as they gain humility and communal sensibility. The remaining cast is above average as well.

There are numerous asides doubling as commentary on actor's personal lives, amusing for those who catch them.

Alfred Hitchcock's glorious ode to pervy voyeurism. Jimmy Stewart gets kinky, Grace Kelly looks voluptuous and Thelma Ritter does the wise cracks.The dog digging in the dirt and Raymond Burr's menace are great.

C (Indifferent).

A tourist couple's son is kidnapped by international assassins. Anything that's close to good in it was done better in the original.

(Dec. 2023)½

This terrific classic focusing on our fear of intimacy and tendency toward voyeurism is one of Hitchcock's most entertaining films. There are no crop dusters or other devices to provide the tension this time and it works in the film's favor. Rear Window is a more character-driven film and the suspense builds slowly into a bonafide thriller. Hitchcock understood that most people are more comfortable looking at the lives of others from a distance and explores this area of our personalities in entertaining fashion.

Jeff (Jimmy Stewart) is a professional photographer, wheelchair bound after an accident while on assignment. Grace Kelly is his icily beautiful and doting girlfriend, Lisa. Hitchcock added her to the cast as a romantic interest, because in the Cornell Woolrich story upon which the film is based, there is no romantic interest. Though I adore Kelly, as a Woolrich fan I have often wondered how much more the tension could have been ratcheted up without the secondary romanic angle — Stewart alone, with no one to help…

Jeff is feeling claustrophobic, not only about his immobility but also about his relationship with Lisa, whose patience and elegant charm as she tends to his needs and waits for him to ask her to marry him are truly put to the test. The no-nonsense practicality of his nurse Stella, winningly portrayed by Thelma Ritter, makes a fine contrast to Kelly. Jeff, stationary and bored to tears, begins secretly watching his neighbors across the courtyard through the lens of his camera, becoming involved in their plight as if following a daily soap opera; taking to heart their loneliness and finding great pleasure in their finer moments. But something darker begins to take shape when Jeff pieces together witnessed events in one of the apartments across the courtyard and comes to believe he is spying on a killer.

Both Lisa and Jeff's policeman pal Lt. Doyle (Wendell Corey) think someone is letting their imagination run wild, at least in the beginning. Jeff's own disbelief and his girlfriend's early scorn begin to wane, morphing into an evermore dangerous pastime when Lisa becomes Jeff's legs. Hitchcock uses the camera lens to show highlight the voyeuristic inclination of us all, as Jeff's seemingly innocent means of passing the time from afar threatens to turn into a personal confrontation which he may not survive.

This film takes the viewer from its light and breezy beginning to a more concerned tone, and finally panic in style. Like most of Hitchcock’s films in Hollywood, it is a bit too detached, but much less so than others during this period, marking this as one of his finest. Raymond Burr as the possible murderer creates terror just by his glance across the courtyard at the spying Stewart, while Kelly and Ritter give this film its footing, making the events completely believable.

Jimmy Stewart gave one of his finest performances here, marvelously conveying the frustration of becoming suddenly immobile, which leads him to live vicariously through the lives of his neighbors. A terrific film classic, perfect for a dark and stormy night with a big bowl of popcorn.

2023 movie #54. 1958. David Niven won the Best Actor Oscar for his portrayal of a fake major living in a long term residence hotel on the English seashore. He comes to disgrace after being arrested for 'nudging' a young lady at the cinema. God performance by Lancaster as well.

Star power galore in enjoyable film about ex-thief trying to find out who is committing a series of copycat crimes. But it is the French Riviera that really steals the show. There isn't a whole lot of depth to the plot, but the surface elements do shine.

Der Mann, der zuviel wußte

Various residents of a small town don't know what to do with a body.

3/4 (Good).

Hitchcock might not have been good at comedy, but he was very good at getting things past the studio and the censors. This movie is weird and subversive and very naughty.

(Jan. 2022)½

2021 movie #160. 1955. Grant is an ex-jewel thief trying to find someone using his old MO before the cops arrest him. Great chemistry with Kelly. Mix in great story and locale, and stirred by Hitchcock makes a very enjoyable film.

A brave young man is thrust into adulthood as he and his courageous team of sled dogs embark on a grueling and treacherous cross-country marathon.
Rated PG for adventure action

I've viewed the Hitchcock adaptation many times but never yet read the Woolrich story on which it's based. In the film, we get almost nothing on the backstory of the murderer: when did he concoct the plan to murder his wife? Who was the woman he was seen leaving the apartment building with at 6AM? Was the person to whom he made long-distance calls the same person who feigned the postcard claiming to be his wife? Curious whether Woolrich provided any more of that detail, and any less detail on the various stories viewed through the window of Jeffries' apartment.

A reformed cat burglar's methods are imitated.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: C
Dialog: C
Pacing: C
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: C

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 2.3/4

Pssse, para pasar una o dos tardes no está mal, pero resulta un poquito insulsa e inocente. Entretenidilla sin más

A man with a broken leg takes an unhealthy interest in his neighbors.

I was never really with the characters; my prediction of how things would turn out tended to be the opposite of theirs at any given time, which means the suspense didn't work for me.

Concept: B
Story: B
Characters: A
Dialog: A
Pacing: B
Cinematography: A
Special effects/design: B
Acting: B
Music: B

Enjoyment: B

GPA: 3.3/4

(Sep. 2010)½

A kid accuses her teachers of being lesbians.

I don't know what to make of this movie. The filmmakers seem to have seen the story as being about the damage of cruel gossip, whereas now its turned into a story about bigotry. A lot of it doesn't work particularly well because of that disparity. But since the characters are done so well, it ultimately does still work. It doesn't try to condemn or redeem its characters to make the audience feel better about things; it's too obliviously of its time to even know where to start (or at least it was forced by the production code to appear to be oblivious). Consequently, it's probably more powerfully tragic than a modern adaptation could be. When Audrey's character holds her head high at the end and proudly walks away, what is that supposed to mean? Probably something very different to me than it meant to Audrey or Wyler. But maybe not.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: A
Dialog: C
Pacing: B
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: B
Acting: A
Music: B

Enjoyment: C plus

GPA: 2.8/4

A wheelchair bound photographer spies on his neighbours from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
Based on the short story by William Irish

A wheelchair-bound photographer spies on his neighbors from his apartment window and becomes convinced one of them has committed murder.
(source: TMDb)

99 minutos