Hitchcock's Great, Witty, Sophisticated Entertainment
Starring James Stewart and Grace Kelly and directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Rear Window (1954) is a suspenseful murder mystery, but it's also a humorous rumination on the relationships between men and women. The protagonist is L.B. Jefferies (Stewart), a photographer who covers stories around the globe, often in inhospitable and dangerous places. When his elegant girlfriend Lisa (Kelly), a high-fashion model, comes over to his apartment to spend the night, she takes a flimsy nightgown out of a small bag and tells him it's a "preview of coming attractions." Throughout the film, she is trying to push him toward marriage, but he is reluctant.
Jefferies is temporarily confined to a wheelchair due to injuries received while taking photos at an auto race. From his Greenwich Village apartment, he can watch and overhear many of his neighbors, and that's how he spends his time. As his sharp-tongued nurse (Thelma Ritter) remarks, "We've become a race of Peeping Toms." At one point, he wonders aloud to Lisa if it's okay to watch someone through a telescopic lens, and she responds, "I'm not much on rear-window ethics."
But Jefferies observes things indicating a neighbor named Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) is a murderer, and with the aid of Lisa and his nurse, he tries to figure out what's going on. In the course of doing so, he gradually realizes that although Lisa has been pampered because of her rare beauty and refined manner, she is nonetheless adventurous and daring. In a brilliant stoke of Hitchcockian storytelling, she ends up wearing the murder victim's wedding ring.
The Special Edition DVD Set Contains New Bonus Materials
There have been previous DVD editions of Rear Window, but the Special Edition two-disc set provides new extras. The best of these is the informative audio commentary by John Fawell, author of Hitchcock's Rear Window: The Well-Made Film. Fawell is on the Boston University faculty, and he gives what amounts to a college-level analysis of the movie.
There's also the 25-minute "Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of the Master," which takes a look at some of Hitchcock's greatest visual sequences. Here various experts discuss what Hitchcock meant by the term "pure cinema," and the consensus seems to be that it's a catchall for achieving emotional impact in ways unique to moving pictures as opposed to stage plays, still photos, paintings, books, etc.
Another new extra is the 23-minute "Breaking Barriers: The Sound of Hitchcock," an examination of how the great director employed sound in his films. It is interesting that he sometimes used sound effects and music not to enhance the visuals, but as a complement or counterpoint. For example, as the visuals climax the suspense story in Rear Window, the music climaxes the love story at the same time.
Also, there's 16 minutes of François Truffaut interviewing Hitchcock in 1962. The French filmmaker notes that the point of view in Rear Window is always that of Jefferies, except Hitch changes to an objective POV for the dog's death sequence.
Finally, there's "Mr. Blanchard's Secret," a diverting half-hour TV episode from Season 2 of Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In it, a small-town resident fears her new neighbor has murdered his wife.
Bonus Materials Carried Over From Previous DVD Editions
The Universal Legacy Series Special Edition of Rear Window carries over the supplements from previous DVD editions. The major offering here is the so-so 55-minute documentary "Rear Window Ethics" made in the year 2000. It's essentially a making-of, but hardly anyone with first-hand knowledge was left to talk about the film. The only cast member heard from is Georgine Darcy, who played the minor role of the well-toned dancer Jefferies refers to as Miss Torso. A few old-timers appear in the documentary, and they testify to the fact that all the footage used in the movie's final cut was shot on a single large set at Paramount.
Another of the old extras is the 13-minute "Conversation With Screenwriter John Michael Hayes," where he describes his involvement with the project. The screenplay was based on the Cornell Woolrich short story "It Had to Be Murder," in which the protagonist had no girlfriend. Hayes says he based the character Lisa on his wife, who had been a professional model.
Other bonus materials carried over from previous DVD editions include production stills and notes.
DVD Details
Below I have listed all the details for the Universal Legacy Series two-disc Special Edition DVD set of Rear Window.
Release Date: October 7, 2008
Number of Discs: 2
Feature Film Runtime: 1 hour 54 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Anamorphic Widescreen (1.85:1), Color
English Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
French Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono
English Captions for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing
French Subtitles
Spanish Subtitles
Audio Commentary by Hitchcock Expert John Fawell
Pure Cinema: Through the Eyes of the Master (25 min.)
Breaking Barriers: The Sound of Hitchcock (23 min.)
François Truffaut Interviews Alfred Hitchcock (16 min.)
Alfred Hitchcock Presents "Mr. Blanchard's Secret" (26 min.)
Rear Window Ethics: An Original Documentary (55 min.)
A Conversation With Screenwriter John Michael Hayes (13 min.)
Production Photographs (stills)
Production Notes (text)
Trailers (2)
