I think the secret of all film critics is that there’s always some small list of films we haven’t seen and know we need to see. It is impossible for everyone to have seen everything, especially now with things simply being hard to find or out of print. Thank God, when I first started showing in interest in film criticism, my mom got me a library card, and I was able to rent all these VHS classics. Free. It’s how I’ve seen a number of older titles, in addition to having her just rent specific titles she thought I would like. I used my library card to knock off classics like The Bridge On The River Kwai and Patton, odd choices for an 11-12 year old. but when you are trying to gain history and perspective, great choices, and those films still are carved into my brain. But, the library also had Alfred Hitchcock, and I previously was really only familiar with his Alfred Hitchcock Presents when it ran on Nick At Nite. But I quickly became familiar with several of his heavy hitters, Psycho, The Birds, North By Northwest, Vertigo, and Rear Window.
After getting to see the classic Rear Window in a phase where I still had my vision, I saw such expert craftsmanship as Hitchcock set up a Peeping Tom to be the central hero. he’s not creepy, he’s just trying to discover a murder. And casting Jimmy Stewart in the lead, an actor I became more familiar with around the same time through movies like Harvey, made him feel like comfort crime watch. Stewart was the Tom Hanks of his generation, an instantly likeable actor, pretty hard to believe could ever be a villain. If you need someone to spy through windows, he’s your guy.
Shortly after this, there was a remake with Christopher Reeve and Kim Cattrall (standing in for Grace Kelly), and that film had a different feel to it as Reeve was actually confined to a wheelchair at the time.
Since my first viewing, I’ve seen more Hitchcock titles, I’ve seen Rear Window more times, and I even had a class in film school that spent the entire semester on one director. My semester, the director was Alfred Hitchcock. I learned a lot about the man, the many ways he thumbed his nose at the Hayes Code, and changed the way movies were watched and enjoyed. Now, as a blind film critic, I have to look at Rear Window, which was available on Prime, with audio description.
A friend asked me “was it TTS?” Because the last time they watched it on Prime, it was obviously TTS. And Amazon absolutely has some awful, incredibly obvious tracks. If this is TTS, I would say it is elevated. it’s a less obvious voice, for sure, and whoever wrote the actual description did a solid job. There’s so much here to catch in the description, as Stewart watches the whole action from his window, rarely ever getting any useful sound. Sure, there are conversations in his apartment, but most of it is across the courtyard.
The one thing that really got me was the decision to label one of the neighbors as a pianist, because he was playing piano. Later in the film, it leads to a rather hilarious piece of description about the pianist playing violin. it would have made much more sense to call him a musician.
I enjoy Rear Window. I don’t need to watch it every single year, and it’s not my favorite of his works. It is effortlessly clever, and well acted, but a legend like Hitchcock hit a lot of Home Runs, but you really talk about the Grand Slams. For me, his trio of Psycho, North By Northwest, and Vertigo is the essential trio. Everything else is on a sliding scale of greatness, but Rear Window is right there at the top. I wouldn’t take it to the desert island, but it’s a perfect film, and a time honored classic worthy of having its 70th Anniversary celebrated.
And it’s got Grace freaking Kelly, before she gave up her acting career for a very different public life in Monaco. Kelly’s film career isn’t as long as Stewarts, so it is always a pleasure to see her pop up in literally anything. If I want Jimmy Stewart, I just need to check out the American Tail sequel.
Final Grade: A
