Wednesday, 23 January 2008
10:35pm

Movie: Hitchcock Classic: Rear Window
In 1950-something New York, adventurous freelance photographer L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) finds himself with a broken leg and is confined to a wheelchair in his tiny apartment.

With only the occasional distraction of a visiting nurse and his frustrated love interest Lisa, a beautiful fashion consultant (Grace Kelly), his attention is naturally drawn to the courtyard outside his rear window and the occupants of the apartment buildings which surround it.

Soon he is consumed by the private dramas of his neighbours’ lives, which play themselves out before his eyes.

There is 'Miss Lonelyhearts', so desperate for her imaginary lover that she sets him a plate at the dinner table and feigns their ensuing chat. There is the frustrated composer banging on his piano, the sunbathing sculptress, the shapely dancer, the newlyweds who are concealed from their neighbours by a window shade, and a bungling middle-aged couple who sleep on the fire escape to avoid the sweltering heat of their apartment...

And then there is the mysterious salesman whose nagging, invalid wife's sudden absence from the scene leaves L.B. Jeffries wondering if she has been murdered...