Customer Reviews

Rear Window (Universal Legacy Series)

5 star:		(148)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Show of hands please --- Who here loves anything with Jimmy Stewart in it? How about the lovely Grace Kelly?

Results --- ** Entire world placing hands skyward. ** :)

Well that's not surprising. Put Jimmy and Grace together (in an Alfred Hitchcock flick no less!), and you can't help but to have a classic piece of motion picture entertainment.

One of the all-time great suspense films, "Rear Window" (1954) places us (the viewer) squarely in the shoes of L.B. Jefferies (Stewart), as he peers out his "rear window" at his courtyard neighbors. (BTW -- My spelling of "Jefferies" in this review IS correct. I've noticed "Jefferies" almost always being misspelled "Jeffries" (lacking an "E"). The spelling of Jeff's last name can easily be verified at the beginning of the movie, when the camera pans across his leg cast, revealing the words: "Here lie the broken bones of L.B. Jefferies". I assume that the filmmakers didn't deliberately have Jeff's last name misspelled on the cast. Of course, I suppose that's always *possible*; but I fail to see a reason WHY they'd do it.) :-)

Hitchcock lets the plot of the movie unfold in sections, building the suspense and drama with his usual superb efficiency and skill. But "Rear Window", when you stop and think about it for a minute, doesn't really follow the same "format" as many (or most) other Hitchcock pictures -- in that we (the audience) are just as much in the dark about this possible "murder" across the courtyard as L.B. Jefferies is. In many of the director's films, "Hitch" lets his viewing audience know, right up front, that there's a "bomb under the table" (to use Hitchcock's own example from his interviews). But in "Window", Mr. H. doesn't give us much up front, and lets us discover things as they happen, right along with Jefferies.

There is one particular part of this movie that has always left me scratching my head, wondering why nothing was done about it during the course of the film. .... Near the beginning of the picture, just after Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly) leaves Jeff's apartment, Mr. Jefferies hears a woman scream and hears glass breaking right after the scream. Now -- my question is: WHY didn't Jeff tell his detective friend (Thomas J. Doyle) about having heard this "scream and breaking glass" when he called Doyle into the "case" a short time later? Such evidence would surely have gone a long way toward convincing Jeff's skeptical pal that something HAD indeed occurred across the yard. But this "scream" is never once mentioned in the movie.

But, even with this little "hole" in the plot (IMO), "Rear Window" remains near the top of my list of "Best Hitchcock Films". Everything about it is impressive --- The small courtyard (which was actually custom-built right on the movie-studio's soundstage!); the kooky neighbors; the tension-filled storyline; Hitchcock's cameo in the "songwriter's" apartment; the radio playing in the background; the "street sounds"; "Miss Torso"; Jimmy Stewart's performance; Thelma Ritter as the sassy nurse; Grace Kelly for just being there; the mysterious trips with the suitcase; etc., etc.

This DVD comes under Universal's "Collector's Edition" label, and is packed with many first-rate extra features. Let's probe these, shall we? ..........

>> "Rear Window Ethics" is a 55-minute original documentary detailing the making of this Hitchcock classic and the restoration process undertaken to bring the film back to visual perfection for this first-ever DVD release. Very good documentary.

>> There is also a second featurette about the film, entitled "Screenwriter John Michael Hayes On Rear Window". This bonus lasts 13:10.

>> Photo Gallery. -- This gallery of production photos and advertising materials runs all by itself on its own timed track. Music from the film plays as you watch the images go by. The gallery CAN be paused for longer looks at each image. Running time (without pausing) is 3:07.

>> Original Theatrical Trailer.

>> Re-release Trailers for 5 different Hitchcock films. -- Narrated by James Stewart. Length: 6:15.

>> Text features with "Production Notes" and some biography pieces on the Cast & Crew.

Another small "mini-bonus" I kind of like is a video montage of Hitchcock movie clips when "Play" is selected from the Main Menu. This, however, can easily be bypassed quickly with an additional remote key stroke.

Video and Audio Specifications:

This color film is presented in an Anamorphic Widescreen format, and looks mighty fine thanks to the restoration efforts. The image is as clear and clean as we've ever seen it. The 2-channel Mono Dolby Digital soundtrack serves the material on screen adequately.

There is some confusion as to the film's aspect ratio. The packaging shows the ratio on this DVD is supposed to be 1.66:1. And evidently it IS that ratio. But, due to something inherent to the "anamorphic" transfer process with regard to this particular ratio (1.66:1), this DVD will display the image on your TV in a wider-looking ratio (closer to 1.85:1). That is, if your TV is a "standard" set (with a 4x3 shaped screen). If you're watching this DVD on a "Widescreen 16x9" set, then the image should fill the entire screen (except for small "pillarboxed" bars on the left and right sides of the screen). But on some 16x9 TVs, these "side bars" aren't visible due to the "overscan".

In any event, the anamorphic image on this disc looks quite good, no matter how it's ultimately formatted onto your screen.

A four-page booklet is included inside this DVD package, with a chapter listing on the back, plus some Production Notes and reproductions of five "Rear Window" lobby cards/posters.

Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" has stood the test of time for many decades, and will no doubt stand erect for many more to come. If you like this movie, there's no better way to re-visit it than by indulging in this picture-perfect "Collector's Edition" DVD.

You feel like a «voyeur» watching with James Stewart and a beautiful Grace Kelly the lives of people through their windows. It is my all-time favorite Hitchcock!

Le film est tel que je me le rappelais. La livraison a été rapide et le film est arrivé sans heurts.

Ce film d'Hithcock est un de mes préféré, depuis longtemps.
Il faut le voir au moins une fois, et vous y reviendrez après c'est certain.

North By Northwest and Vertigo are spectacular cinematic achievements but, for me, Rear Window is the one Hitchcock movie everyone must see. It is as perfect as a Hitchcock movie can be. One of the greatest American movies ever made. Not one false note. It is the movie I would show to someone who hasn't seen a Hitchcock movie but wonders what they're all about and why he's so revered. The tremendous psychological drama and cat and mouse suspense are perfectly tuned. Stewart turns in a brillantly nuanced performance as a morally dubious peeping tom. The film is about him, of course. Not about an unseen murder or a pieced together amateur murder investigation. Listen to the dialogue and observe the interactions between Stewart and his guests. Subtext and more subtext. Just perfect.

I own both the older dvd release and the legacy version and i have to say the picture is only improved by a small margin..and heres the warning the audio on the legacy version is horrible!!Full of hiss and noise.I cant believe Universal released it this way.Buy the collectors edition dvd instead the audio is the way it should be.

Have you ever looked into a neighbour's home and caught sight of someone doing something he shouldn't? Have you immediately looked away, or have you lingered a little? If you have lingered a little, then Rear Window is for you. James Stewart plays L.B. Jeffries, a photographer whose broken leg has turned him into a voyeur. He is fascinated by the goings-on of his neighbours, none more so than the character portrayed by Raymond Burr, who would have gotten away with killing his wife if only he had invested in blinds.

Jimmy Stewart is L.B. Jeffries, an action photographer who is laid up with his leg in a cast to his waist after getting too close to an automobile racing accident. From the rear window of his New York apartment "Jeff" can see the going's on of many of his neighbors - "Miss Lonelyhearts", a middle-aged lady who seems unlucky in love, "The Songwriter" who plunks at his studio piano trying to come up with a hit, "Miss Torso" the dancer who entertains many men in between stretching her lithe body across the courtyard from our vantage-point.

Jeffries also has a girlfriend, a socialite named Lisa Fremont who is played by Grace Kelly, and the Princess never looked more beautiful or graceful than in this film. Her introduction into the movie is, in my humble opinion, the most beautiful "close-up" ever done, and when she kisses Jimmy Stewart how many men have wished that it were them?

OH! Did I mention there is a spine-tingling mystery story mixed in with all of the above? One of Jeffries neighbors is Lars Thorwald, played by Raymond Burr, who has an invalid wife who nags and belittles him. One day the wife is gone. Has she just gone on a visit? Or has Mr. Thorwald had enough and done her in? I won't answer that question, but I promise you'll be on the edge of your seat more than once as you find out. There is more than one scene where the suspense is almost unbearable.

Thelma Ritter is in several scenes as the home-health nurse who comes to look in after the immobilized Jeffries, and she steals all of her scenes with her witty and morbid sense of curiosity.

The restoration and transfer of the film to DVD looks great, and the extras are informative and probably about as much "extra material" as could be put together here 4 decades after the fact.

Hitchcock made dozens of films, and many of them are considered among the very best ever made. This is one of those. Only recommended for those who really want to be entertained.

It's a hot evening in attendance apartment complex. Evidently there is no air-conditioning or self-consciousness that open windows attracts voyeurs. L.B. 'Jeff' Jeffries (James Stewart) is wheelchair bound and board. So for entertainment he gets out his high-powered binoculars to see with the neighbors across the courtyard that conveniently leaves their blinds open are up to. Naturally he must make up scenarios as to what it is he thinks he seeing. The shocker is he believes he spotted a neighbor Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) dispatching and disposing of his spouse. He adamantly tells his girlfriend and eventually the authorities. Naturally there is no forthcoming evidence despite the incessant snooping of his girlfriend Lisa Carol Fremont (Grace Kelly.)

Could be he was wrong in his assumption. Or will Lars get Jeff and the little dog too?

This is a typical Alfred Hitchcock movie. That this atypical, is not to say that it isn't great, and lots of fun to watch. We see more than our share of great actors including the Princess of Monaco when she was just Grace Kelly and Raymond Burr in one of his few dark character personas.

I have three favourite Hitchcock movies. This is one of them and the other two are "I Confess" and "Dial M For Murder".

I love both James Stewart and Grace Kelly so this movie is the tops. It's exciting, suspenseful and has all the hallmarks of a true classic.

Anyone who doesn't think this is one of the greatest movies ever made doesn't know anything about film. Someone below complained that the movie has no substance: via the process of its meditating on the act of watching others, its substance is film itself. Someone else complained about its staginess: that, too, is integral to its greatness as a movie, as the immobility of Stewart's character is a reflection of the immobility of an audience watching him watching others. And on top of its various profundities, it's also immensely entertaining: the perfect combination of intellectually informed artistry and mass audience appeal which is what the medium of film, at its best, is all about.