Rear Window (1954)

Kudos to good ol' Stella, Jimmy Stewart's amateur-sleuth nurse in 1954's "Rear Window." Even then, before the days of arranged marriage on national television, Cops and other popular forms

Friday, February 25th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Kudos to good ol' Stella, Jimmy Stewart's amateur-sleuth nurse in 1954's "Rear Window." Even then, before the days of arranged marriage on national television, Cops and other popular forms of American voyeurism, she had the prescience to label us "a race of Peeping Toms." If she only knew.
Her point of reference at the time was Mr. Stewart's L.B. Jeffries, the hobbled man behind the binoculars in Alfred Hitchcock's indelible tale of domestic conflict and open drapes. "Rear Window" is now open once again, thanks to a beautiful new print, giving us one more chance to peep the peeper and even cheer him on as he invades his neighbors' personal lives. Then again, if they really wanted privacy, they might have brought down the shades.

What still remains to be said about "Rear Window"? Who else could have staged such genius within the confines of an upper-level apartment unit? Who would have dared turn an all-American hero into a man more interested in checking out Miss Lonely Hearts than committing to Grace Kelly? After all these years, the pleasure of "Rear Window" derives from the naughty thrill of watching the watcher, and feeling the same pangs of guilt as we see what he sees.

By '54, Stewart had already begun trading on his nice-guy image to explore darker characters (check out his work in Anthony Mann's revisionist Westerns). But this is the one we remember, and for good reason. "Rear Window" is a clinic on matching cutting to camera movement, mixing close-ups of the curious, bored and ultimately endangered voyeur with the galaxy of beautifully mundane cavorters across the way.
In "Rear Window," spying on your neighbors isn't just a bad habit, or a mere avenue toward catching a murderer. It's a courtship ritual, the one activity that breaks the ice between the romance-phobic Jeffries and his immaculately glamorous girlfriend (Grace Kelly, looking better than any human being has a right to look). Romance on the rocks? Pop open that window and have a look. Like all the best of Hitchcock, "Rear Window" playfully rubs our nose in who we are and turns it all into brilliant entertainment.

Watching "Rear Window" is both exhilarating and a bit sad. Exhilarating, because it reminds us of how pure and artful the best Hollywood movies once were. Sad, for exactly the same reason. A new print is nice, but maybe it's time to start re-releasing the great ones simply because they're great.