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Features: DVD, Collector's Edition, Widescreen
As a photographer with a broken leg, James Stewart takes up the fine art of spying on his Greenwich Village neighbors during a summer heat wave. But things really begin to get hot for Stewart, Grace Kelly and the unassuming audience when he suspects neighbor Raymond Burr of murdering his invalid wife and burying the body in a flower garden.
Editor's Note
The weather is getting hotter, and photographer L.B. Jefferies (Jimmy Stewart) is stuck in his apartment with a broken leg and nothing to do--that is, nothing to do but spy on his neighbors through their open windows across the way in the apartment complex. There's an attractive and scantily clad dancer, a songwriter, a lonely woman, and the Thorwalds (Raymond Burr and Irene Winston), a bickering couple, among others. But when Mrs. Thorwald disappears, Jefferies is sure that something's wrong. Soon, despite the warnings of his girlfriend, Lisa (Grace Kelly), and his motherly nurse, Stella (Thelma Ritter), Jefferies has out his binoculars and telephoto lens and is studying his neighbor "like a bug under glass." However, looking in from the outside might not be as safe as Jefferies assumes. REAR WINDOW is not only a gripping story of murder and suspense, it is a celebrated allegory on the nature of film itself, a story in which the audience watches Jefferies watch the story unfold. The different windows represent the various different stories that are often told on film and also can be seen as representing the coming of television, as Jefferies can watch a multitude of "shows" from the comfort of his own apartment.
Plot Summary
A photographer recovering from a broken leg enlivens his hours of convalescence by taking up voyeurism. Though it's initially Miss Torso, an attractive dancer, who gets his attention, he quickly becomes more fascinated by the Thorwalds, a bickering couple across the yard. When he thinks a murder has taken place, the suspense begins. REAR WINDOW is a true Hitchcock masterpiece.
| Features | Cast and Filmmaker Bios | | DVD-Rom Features | | Theatrical Trailer | | Production Notes |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (MCA) |
| Release Date: 5/5/2009 |
| Running Time: 113 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1954 | | Catalog ID: 20395 | | UPC: 00025192039522 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English, French Dubbed | | Available Subtitles: Spanish | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Total Film
"...Everything from the masterly opening sequence to the ambiguous final shot indicates that this is the work of a prodigiously talented director..." -- 5 out of 5 stars 03/01/2000 p.76Entertainment Weekly
"...[New print details] give the movie a sharpness that underscores the whole subtext..." -- Rating: A 01/21/2000 p.80 Chicago Sun-Times
"...Kelly is cool and elegant here....REAR WINDOW lovingly invests in suspense all through the film, banking it in our memory, so that when the final payoff arrives, the whole film has been the thriller equivalent of foreplay..." 02/20/2000 p.5 USA Today
"With its voyeuristic theme, witty screenplay and romantic star chemistry, the ever-popular James Stewart-Grace Kelly masterpiece may be the most prototypical Alfred Hitchcock movie..." 03/16/2001 p.4E Empire
"Hitchcock was a master of this space, his shots coordinated to the inch....Where VERTIGO sported it deviancy on the surface, the even better REAR WINDOW possesses a more wicked intent: we're all in this horrid game together." 07/01/2008 p.177 |
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