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Rear Window Review

What I liked: This is the moment we have all been waiting for. After mistakenly watching the Christopher Reeves version and a 2000's remake, I have finally watched Alfred Hitchcock's Rear Window. In some ways it really delivered. Others I felt like I had seen before. I really liked the girl friend's outfits. Granted she is a model, but I thought they looked like things I would like to wear when the vintage mood strikes. The crotchety nurse was funny and delivered some pretty sarcastic lines for the 1950's.The film is based on a book "It had to be murder" but the catchier title comes up when the nurse declares that she is not an expert in rear window ethics (I figured this out myself, take that internet).  I appreciated the creative use of flash photography and, true to form, Hitchcock really shone in the exceptional development of side characters we see only briefly. I liked the makeshift dog elevator and the flowerbed misdirection. I must also credit Hitchcock for creating the original which other two films drew on heavily, in some scenes shot for shot.

What I didn't: Each of the Rear Window retellings has it's own side plot. For the 2000's one it's a teenage romance, for Reeve's it's his enduring faith in stem cell therapy (sorry it's been 20 years and we are still waiting), for Hitchcock it's an ill fated love story. While I just dismissed the other side plots, I was actively rooting for Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly's the relationship to end because I thought he was a jerk. So, I was actively more annoyed every time we detoured from the mystery than I was with the other adaptations. I think due to the FCC regulations in the 50's Hitchcock's mystery gets tied up pretty tightly. Not as tight as Disturbia with the oh so subtle body lake, but certainly tighter than the Reeves version which leaves tantalizing loose ends.  I can't believe I'm saying it but the master of suspense gets out suspensed in the dramatic climax by the Reeves version. Maybe because of a more extensive set, maybe because I already knew what would happen by the time I got to Hitchcock, or maybe because of a 400% increase in non-functional limbs, I was more much more concerned about the fate of Reeves and his friends than I was about Jimmy Stewart. Last of all, I found out that the struggling song maker in the film was the musician in real life who went on to create Alvin and the Chipmunks. So all of you who dis like the high-pitched vocals of singing rodents, maybe you can blame the success of this Hitchcock version of Rear Window.

Who should watch this? People who love Hitchcock. People who like mysteries. Probably people who don't already know the ending.

Would I watch it again? I feel like I already have. Twice.

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