Thrill as a man in a wheelchair stares out the window all day and night! Yup, that's what's he does, but that's not all this is - Here we have the best of Hitchcock's "confined spaces" stories - which is a gripping murder mystery married to a clever study of human nature (I love that it's the all-American good guy Jimmy Stewart, peeping on his neighbors, this probably tickled Alfred to no end).
Based on Cornell Woolrich's It Had to Be Murder (published in Dime Detective, February 1942), which was itself based on H.G. Wells' short story Through a Window - The Oscar nominated script, the inventive idea of it all is brought to life by the superb cast and a stellar directorial hand - he with his wicked manipulations (I enjoy the twist of how Raymond Burr as the baddie, Thorwald, comes off kind of sympathetic. It's like, "poor bastard being harassed by this nosy neighbor" - then you realize that this poor bastard has chopped up his wife in little pieces!)
While the director was renowned for carefully mapping out his movies with storyboards and miniatures, and was hailed as a visionary for his development of an auteur language (via the camera), it's a shame that cinematographer Robert Burks is often the forgotten man in these pictures. For Hitch, the movie was already completed in his mind, but it was Burks who had to translate it onto film. Let's give him his due, because despite the limited spaces, this picture moves.
From the outset you're guided by his wandering camera, which leads you out of a room to explore the surrounding apartment complex. It pauses briefly to snoop in on the lives of the residents, before returning to our protagonist, where we are supplied with his backstory - who he is, what he does, and how he came to be in this state he's in. All of that is furnished without a word of exposition being spoken.
It's so damned clever that I always get a charge watching it unfold - see for yourself what I mean.
Whenever I watch this movie I think of a maestro conducting his orchestra, highlighting all the players, and manipulating them, manipulating us, without any of us protesting that he's doing so - in fact, were happy to go along with him - just take us wherever you want, lead us to Thorwald's apartment and sneak around a bit, going from one room to the next and back - it makes us tense, anxious, don't let him see us, don't let her be caught! Gah, I'm biting my nails at the memory of it.
Memorable Scenes: James Stewart looks through his camera lens and catches Raymond Burr staring right at him. Stewart realizes that the killer now knows who and where he is.
Memorable Quote: "We've become a race of Peeping Toms. What people ought to do is get outside their own house and look in for a change." - Stella
Hitchcock Cameo: He is seen in the songwriter's apartment, winding a clock
Other Thoughts: Critic Roger Ebert: "The film develops such a clean, uncluttered line from beginning to end that we're drawn through it (and into it) effortlessly. The experience is not so much like watching a movie, as like ... well, like spying on your neighbors. Hitchcock traps us right from the first....And because Hitchcock makes us accomplices in Stewart's voyeurism, we're along for the ride. When an enraged man comes bursting through the door to kill Stewart, we can't detach ourselves, because we looked too, and so we share the guilt and in a way we deserve what's coming to him."
