Will Miss Lonely Hearts ever find true love? Who will Miss Torso date next? Will the songwriter ever finish his composition? When will the honeymoon end for the newlyweds? Most interesting of all is Raymond Burr, whose nagging, invalid wife has left the Paramount sound stage. What became of her, and does that have anything to do with the trunks and suitcases that Burr keeps taking out of the apartment?
Proving that Burr used a saw on his wife has become the new occupation for daredevil photographer James Stewart. It also finally provides him something in common with his determined fashion model girlfriend, Grace Kelly, who is also eager to prove Burr's guilt. Thelma Ritter plays Stewart's straight talking nurse, and Wendell Corey is an acerbic private eye and Doubting Thomas.
Filmed in an age prior to commonplace air conditioning, the apartment tenants are obligated to open their windows even if it airs their dirty laundry. This makes it at least plausible that Burr would scrub the bathroom walls, case his wife's jewelry, and wrap large cutting instruments in full view of numerous apartment windows.
More dubious, in fact, is the relationship between Stewart and Kelly. Both actors were favorites of Alfred Hitchcock during the 1950s, starring in three films each for the legendary British director, although Rear Window was their only pairing. Kelly is gorgeous and clearly much younger than the graying Stewart. It is difficult to believe that she won't take no for an answer when Stewart tells her that he'd rather eat fish heads in Burma than be wed to her as a wealthy socialite photographer.
Grace Kelly is too good to be true, but her affection for a much older man was a rule throughout her brief career. Whether the film was High Noon (her first major role) or High Society (her last) she was paired with actors a generation older than her. Hitchcock thought so much of her than when she left Hollywood to become Princess Grace of Monaco, he continued to favor cool blonde actresses, such as Eve Marie Saint, Kim Novak, and Tippi Hedren.
It is ironic in retrospect that Raymond Burr was cast as a cold-blooded killer, because he is best known for his television roles on the other side of the law, as Perry Mason and Ironsides. Burr's character in Rear Window is too reckless and creepy to fool anyone other than Wendell Corey, who prefers to prove Stewart wrong.
Rear Window is the second best Hitchcock film from the 1950s. Only Strangers on a Train is superior. Rear Window benefits from its magnificent set, which simulates an apartment complex as seen from Stewart's window. The cast is first rate as well, and the dialogue is snappy for its Production Code era.
"In the old days, they used to put your eyes out with a red-hot poker," Ritter admonishes Stewart, referring to the punishment for Peeping Toms. "Any of those bikini bombshells you're always watching worth a red-hot poker?" Ritter is right, it's safer to heal a broken leg with a good book, or an old movie.