Rear Window (1954) [Universal Legacy Series]

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Rear Window (1954) [Universal Legacy Series]

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Rear Window (1954) [Universal Legacy Series]

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Rear Window (1954) [Universal Legacy Series]

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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.
~ Col Needham

In '54, I was seven years old and this is one of the first 'grown up' movies I remember seeing. I have seen it at least ten times since and realize seeing something different each time.

James Stewart is a photographer in a wheelchair recovering from an accident. He passes the time by watching his neighbors out his apartment window. He thinks that he witnessed a murder and has trouble convincing his girlfriend, Grace Kelly, to help prove a crime was committed.

Three scenes that always stuck with me:(1) Stewart fighting off his attacker with flashbulbs (2) the smoldering kiss (3) the glowing cigarette in the dark apartment.

Every bit a classic. I think this is THE BEST Hitchcock movie. No offense intended toward PSYCHO, but this movie has the more human aspects of fear and terror. This super cast includes Raymond Burr, Thelma Ritter and Wendell Corey.
~ Michael O'Keefe

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Rear Window (1954) [Universal Legacy Series]

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Rear Window (1954) [Universal Legacy Series]

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Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest movie, Rear Window, is as fresh as it was when it came out, in part, paradoxically, because of how profoundly it belongs to its own period. It’s set in Greenwich Village during a sweltering summer of open windows, and it reeks of 1954.

Peter Bogdanovich notes in Who the Devil Made It that Hitchcock “didn’t use a score” in the movie, “only source music and local sounds,” which isn’t exactly true. In fact, we get quite traditional theme music from Franz Waxman behind the opening credits, and, more important, the film subtly integrates hit tunes of the mid-50s into the ambient sound track, most noticeably “Mona Lisa” and “That’s Amore,” which was introduced the previous year by Dean Martin in another Paramount picture, The Caddy. The only serious flaw in Rear Window is the hokey use of a song to resolve a couple of subplots—which audiences in 1954 didn’t find convincing either.

When this romantic comedy-thriller was made, TV hadn’t yet posed a serious threat to radio, much less to movies, and there’s nary a TV set or TV screen in sight. The movie’s overall narrative form of scanning past windows in a courtyard seems to anticipate channel surfing, but it reflects the way one turns a radio knob, tuning in and out of frequencies while the station indicator moves horizontally or vertically along the dial. The same pattern is apparent in the beautifully calibrated camera movements as well as the brilliantly mixed and nuanced sound recording.

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Rear Window (1954) [Universal Legacy Series]

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Rear Window is one of Hitchcock's best films, not because it's unique, but because it embodies everything the auteur was all about. The film is the sum of every skill and technique Hitchcock had been using up until that point, and it started an incredible run of films that include North by Northwest, Vertigo, and, of course, Psycho. While each of those films are groundbreaking in their own right, the pure precision in which Rear Window was filmed is evidence enough that Hitchcock was a master.

The plot is simple (and has been spoofed, parodied, and copied ever since): Jefferies, through his own paranoid curiosity, thinks he has witnessed a murder. He's been voyeuristically watching all of his neighbors during the six weeks he's been wheelchair-bound, but only the hefty Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr, Perry Mason) seems to really be up to no good. For as much as Rear Window is a murder mystery, it's also a love story between a stubborn man and his loving girlfriend.

The original short story, aptly titled though it may be, didn't include much more than a man watching a murderer from a window. There was no love story, and certainly no one like Lisa. Hitchcock's decision to create Grace Kelly's character was a wise one, as it provides plenty of depth and conflict for James Stewart to work with. It seems crazy to see such a stubborn, over-the-hill photographer pass up a woman as beautiful and loving as Lisa, and yet Jeff does it without blinking. He comes off as quite the jerk, really. But his suspicions are contagious; soon he not only has Lisa on board, he also has his insurance-appointed nurse, Stella (Thelma Ritter, Birdman of Alcatraz), getting in on the act. The whole story unfolds at a slow boil that finally, and naturally, bubbles over in the excellent final act.

Rear Window is, in this humble reviewer's opinion, a perfectly paced and shot film. The story is communicated largely through imagery and editing, rather than exposition or description. At the opening of the film, as the camera glides from the courtyard into the window of L.B. Jefferies, we see his cast, the smashed camera, and the dangerous photographs that explain his current situation. Once the camera enters Jeff's apartment, it doesn't leave for the rest of the film. Hitchcock then uses a three-step camera angle sequence to let the story unfold: he first shows Stewart looking at something, then cuts to a wide angle from Stewart's POV facing the subject (in this case it's usually a neighbor), and then the camera cuts back to Stewart's face to show his reaction. The idea that the camera would never cut to anything closer than a wide angle outside the apartment is not only a daring stylistic choice, but it also reduces the audience to the same voyeuristic level as Jeff. The only occasion Hitchcock uses a close-up is to highlight the romance between Kelly and Stewart.

Hitchcock filmed the entire movie on one massive set: a recreated Greenwich apartment complex and courtyard. Doing so allowed him the flexibility to control the lighting, layout, and sound within the film moreso than if he had scouted a real location. And while there are times when the set does feel as if it's on a soundstage, the sound design he achieves in this film is incredible. With the exception of a few musical cues, the majority of the movie's sound effects and score are diegetic (meaning that they are all generated by something in the world of the film). So if there is a scream or a loud noise heard in the apartment across the way, it was actually made at that part of the set but recorded with microphones in Jeff's apartment. The sound instantly becomes more realistic and immersive.

The same can be said of the film's jazzy score by Franz Waxman. The main theme of the film, titled "Lisa," is actually composed as the movie unfolds by a musician living in the apartment next door. When the film begins, and Lisa first appears at the apartment, the musician working in the loft apartment next door is simply messing with chord progression; however, by the end of the film, the completed song emerges just in time to save the life of a suicidal woman (known as Ms. LonelyHeart). All of these sound effects and musical cues are made all better by the excellent Dolby Digital Stereo track accompanying this re-release.

As is explained in the film's featurette about the restoration process, Rear Window (along with a number of other Hitchcock films) was in terrible shape a few years ago. The original negatives were missing up to 90 percent of their yellow film layer; thankfully, they were able to digitally replace the layer of yellow, making this the best transfer the film has ever had on home video.

Further enhancing this Universal Legacy Series release is a ton of well-produced special features spread across two discs. One the first disc, alongside the film, is a commentary track by John Fawell (author of Hitchcock's Rear Window: The Well-Made Film). The track is overloaded with details, stories, and technical notes; it's clear Mr. Fawell knows this movie inside and out, and he provides a meaty commentary track. There are also production photos and notes on the disc, as well as the original theatrical and re-release trailers.

The second disc contains a number of excellent documentaries on the film and Hitchcock's career. The biggest and best of the bunch is Rear Window Ethics, a 60-minute documentary created just for this release. The doc breaks down the film's style and technique, as well as the restoration process, with the help of experts and surviving crew members. As a small follow-up, there is a 13-minute conversation with screenwriter John Michael Hayes about his experience writing the film. Then there are two featurettes, seemingly created together, called Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of the Master and Breaking Barriers: The Sound of Hitchcock. Both featurettes present great insight into Hitchcock's film career, and include interviews by contemporary directors like Martin Scorsese, Guillermo Del Toro, and William Friedkin.

The final two special features are not as enjoyable, but their inclusion is certainly appreciated. First is an interview between Alfred Hitchcock and French filmmaker Francois Truffaut, which awkwardly includes Truffaut's translator. So essentially there are three people talking, two of which are speaking French, and all while the film is playing. It's pretty hard to sit through. There is also an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents called "Mr. Blanchard's Secret," which is essentially an early version of Rear Window. The episode kind of stinks, but Hitch's intro is pretty humorous.

Spread over both discs, this Special Edition includes all the extras from the 2001 Collector's Edition and adds a few for good measure. The original bonus features lead off with "Rear Window Ethics" (55:09, below left), featuring retrospective comments by Georgine Darcy ("Miss Torso"), assistant director Herbert Coleman, daughter Pat Hitchcock O'Connell and other directors including Peter Bogdanovich, Curtis Hansen and others. A portion of this documentary is devoted to the restoration done for the 2001 Collector's Edition; though the transfer quality shown is already dated, it's presented here for posterity's sake. Also returning is an Interview with Screenwriter John Michael Hayes (13:11) filmed in 2001, in which the writer shares a handful of interesting production stories. The returning extras conclude with a few pages of Production Notes, a slideshow of Behind-the-Scenes Photos and Promotional Material (3:08), the overly dramatic and long-winded Theatrical Trailer (2:42) and the Re-release Trailer (3:39) narrated by James Stewart.
The new bonus features start with a feature-length Audio Commentary by author John Falwell ("Hitchcock's Rear Window: The Well-Made Film"), who contributes an entertaining and informative track. This isn't so much a technical tour de force as a purely visual-minded discussion, in which the well-spoken author points out details carefully chosen by the celebrated director. Though this occasionally translates into "narrating the action" during a few segments, Falwell also incorporates plenty of details about the actors, original story and the enduring influence of Rear Window. Fans will certainly find this commentary track worth a listen; in short, it magnifies the film's strengths and entertains us while doing so.

Next up are two featurettes: "Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of the Master" (25:12) and "Breaking Barriers: The Sound of Hitchcock" (23:31), which serve as general overviews of Hitchcock's visual and sonic prowess. Featuring comments by the likes of Martin Scorsese, John Carpenter, William Friedkin, Guillermo Del Toro, Gary Rydstrom and many more, these new featurettes highlight the director's strength in editing, visual precision, use of montage, perspective, music placement, sound manipulation and many other cinematic techniques. Though they could've found homes on any of Universal's upcoming Hitchcock re-releases, both are certainly fitting partners for the intensely focused Rear Window.

Next up are Interview Excerpts with Hitchcock and director François Truffaut (16:16); recorded in 1962 and intermittently translated by Helen G. Scott, this back-and-forth conversation provides a general overview of the film's style and influence. It has a tendency to repeat both itself and some of the other bonus features included here, but classic film fans should certainly enjoy the pairing. The optional English subtitles will certainly come in handy here; Hitchcock's dry style of speaking is intensified by overlapping translation of the dialogue on both sides. In any case, this interview is worth digging through.

The final extra here is an episode of Alfred Hitchcock Presents: "Mr. Blanchard's Secret" (26:17, above right), originally broadcast on December 23, 1956 during the series' second season. This entertaining episode focuses on a mystery writer who becomes increasingly fixated on her next-door neighbors after spying out the window. It obviously owes a great deal thematically to Rear Window and fits in neatly here–-so unless you already own Season 2 on DVD, you'll appreciate having this extra on board.

All bonus features are presented in 1.33:1, letterboxed widescreen and 16x9 enhanced formats; again, each and every one includes optional English subtitles. Kudos to Universal for their consistency in this department!

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Rear Window (1954) [Universal Legacy Series]

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Rear Window (1954) [Universal Legacy Series]

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Rear Window (1954) [Universal Legacy Series]

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Rear Window (1954) [Universal Legacy Series]

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