Rear Window (1954)

Title: Rear Window
Director: Alfred Hitchcock
Genre: Classic
Highs: Awesome set design out back window.
Lows: None
RhynoBot Grade: A

This movie is truly amazing. On paper if you were to read the plot - a man in a wheelchair can't leave his apartment, spies on his neighbors and is convinced the neighbor across the courtyard killed his wife - you would think this has to be the most boring movie of all time. But it's not! A large part of this movie's success is due to Jimmy Stewart (he could sell me anything, he is so convincing). The other part of this movie's success is Hitchcock's razor share creativity. Hitchcock could have easily built a few individual apartment sets, cutting scene to scene from set to set but instead he built the entire freak'in neighborhood as a set, including 12 fully furnished apartments. So instead of cutting from set to set he pans the camera from apartment to apartment just as a real person would if you were looking out your window, spying on the neighbors. Genius. This technique opens up a rich tapestry of options since everyone on set, which may have been a 100 people at one time, are constantly in motion doing something whether they are on screen or not. So a potentially stagnant movie all of a sudden becomes vibrant and fluid.

The casting was superb in this movie as well. Jimmy Stewart as the nosy shut in, Grace Kelly as the socialite girlfriend to Stewart, and Thelma Ritter as the physical therapist to Stewart that get into the act once convinced Stewart isn't imagining things. This movie is the obvious source material for element that appear time and time again in movies still being filmed today. I guess this is part of Hitchcock's legacy - genius will always be borrowed upon or plagiarized.

This is a great classic, if you have not seen it yet you should watch it.