Rear Window
1954, PG, 114 min.
Directed by Alfred Hitchcock, Narrated by , Voices by , Starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Thelma Ritter, Raymond Burr.

One of Hitchcock’s most accessible films is also one of his most gleefully deviant, dealing as it does with such fun urban pastimes as voyeurism and spousal mayhem. As wheelchair-bound maverick photographer L.B. Jeffries, Stewart is top notch, idling away his convalescence by peeping on the neighbors in his Manhattan courtyard flat. Along with socialite love interest Lisa Fremont (Kelly, looking positively diaphanous) and take-no-prisoners nursemaid Stella (Ritter), Jeffries spies what appears to be a murder committed by a gruff, pre-Perry Mason Burr. Based on a Cornell Woolrich short story, this is one of Hitchcock’s finest moments, full of subtle humor and nasty black turns, not to mention a wonderful score by Franz Waxman and gorgeous cinematography from longtime Hitchcock director of photography Robert Burks.

This article appears in July 21 • 2000.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.