Rear Window: Great Hitchcock or Greatest Hitchcock?

Stella: 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. Yes sir. How's that for a bit of homespun philosophy?

Jeff: Readers Digest, April 1939.

Stella: Well, I only quote from the best.

Lisa: Where does a man get inspiration to write a song like that?
Jeff: He gets it from the landlady once a month.

It's just the best. It's the funniest, the most suspenseful, the most claustrophobic by a long shot, the most romantic and the most conflicted about being romantic. It's perfect.

i'm torn between this and north by northwest.

both great tho

Frank Cady was never better.

Ross Bagdasarian neither.

the stalker's favourite

Not only is Rear Window maybe the best Hitchcock, it's also one of those rare movies that are, while you're in the act of watching them, clearly the best movie ever made.

It's my favourite. And Grace never looked lovelier.

It's great, but too much about Man And Woman to be my favorite.

but you are teh gay.

^That hasn't stopped others!^

"too much about Man And Woman" could be an objection to 90% of hitchcock, though. I mean, if that's really your main problem with it.

The Birds will always have a special place in my heart, so i have to go with just Great

no, most of the others have less Man And Woman, with other sexual variants thrown in (Strangers on a Train, NxNW, Psycho, Rope etc)

Strangers on a Train and Rope are also teh gay, you're right

I don't just mean not "gay" but unassailably marriage-minded het, as in Shakespeare comedies (except for the gender masquerade ones).

I mean Stewart's got A BIG TELEPHOTO IN HIS LAP

(cf Robin Wood)

I don't know about "unassailably"... I think Rear Window starts with its sexual politics something that Vertigo finishes, which is the theme of manipulation, sometimes cruel manipulation.

hopefully het marriages aren't primarily about that!

*holds tongue*

actually, Rear Window doesn't start anything... Notorious is the nastiest of the bunch, worse even than Vertigo, if only because the "hero" isn't left totally devastated at the end of Notorious.

hopefully het marriages aren't primarily about that!

-- kenan, Monday, August 13, 2007 12:01 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

*holds tongue*

-- Dr Morbius, Monday, August 13, 2007 12:01 PM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Kinda with Morbs on this. Even the happiest relationships are power struggles. But we've had this discussion before.

I do very much like the way Jimmy Stewart holds her at arm's length at first because he's afraid that all she's good at is buying dresses, and then you can watch his face as he falls madly in love with her for taking risks and being a badass.

xxp: but he is! if you take my line that claude rains is actually the hero of "notorious."

I prefer Vertigo but it's excellent.

Vertigo & NxNW beat it, but only just. Definitely the best Grace ever tho'.

Shadow of a Doubt is the best of them.

I kindly disagree, I always felt SoaD was a false grail.

I find Vertigo's 'greatness' and darkness sort of tiresome. NxNW is the most entertaining movie of all time for the first 2/3 or so, but it eventually runs out of steam (unintentional). Rear Window is less overwrought than either - the best-balanced of the three.

"I kindly disagree, I always felt SoaD was a false grail."

Whatever that means.

Anyway Rear Window > North By Northwest >> Vertigo.

I'm saying that the tension and suspense of SoaD is completely transparent and pretictable from at most, 10 minutes in.

Vertigo was the misunderstood complex piece de resistance. It took 15 years before any critics revisited it and another 10 before it was heralded as a masterpiece.

And 30 before they disowned at again and then 14 before they rediscovered it again and 5 before it got a Criterion edition blah blah blah.

It goes on and on and on

I think SoaD is going for unsettling more than suspenseful anyway. I think revealing that Cotton is the Merry Widow Murderer in the first couple of minutes kind of gives the suspense part up.

strangely, i dont see Vertigo as of a piece with his other work much at all in terms of tone....there's zero humor, the music and mood are decidely somber. there's an almost european art filmish quality to it.

tho i guess it does signal the shift in his style away from the "balanced" stuff like rear window to more single minded, obviously "auteur" pieces like the birds, marnie, psycho, etc...

01 vertigo (masterpiece, can stand with any film ever made)
02 notorious (my personal fave)
03 rear window (for all the reasons kenan lists)
04 north by northwest (most entertaining film EVAH)
05 the lady vanishes (the best of the early ones, and still probably his drollest film)

shadow of a doubt disappointed me a little last time i saw it - i like j. cotten but i feel like he might've been a bit miscast in that role. i just don't buy him as a murderer. teresa wright is wonderful, tho.

I'll say it: North By Northwest is the most overrated of the unassailable Hitchcocks.

Great opening credits, tho.

Just checking in. Haven't read all the thread yet. Just wanted to say that I watched The Birds today for the first time since high school (?), and was blown away.

shadow of a doubt disappointed me a little last time i saw it - i like j. cotten but i feel like he might've been a bit miscast in that role. i just don't buy him as a murderer. teresa wright is wonderful, tho

I had the opposite reaction! Most of Teresa Wright's were played much too wet, while Cotten had the right kind of icy distance that he manipulated when he wanted something from his beloved niece (and it's in the movie's favor that you sense that the Uncle really DOES love his niece but has no problem manipulating her).

This is my least favorite "classic" Hitchcock. The little "folksy" moments of small-towners bullshitting feel canned (Thorton Wilder wrote it, no surprise).

The Trouble with Harry is prob my favourite.

That one seems ripe for a Coen Bros. remake.

you....

I think revealing that Cotton is the Merry Widow Murderer in the first couple of minutes kind of gives the suspense part up.

Not unless you are expecting a whodunit! AND, it isn't fully revealed then, is it?

strangely, i dont see Vertigo as of a piece with his other work much at all in terms of tone....there's zero humor

Oh, come now ... "A brassiere -- you know about those things, Johnny." "The gentleman certainly knows what he wants."

NxNW is a blast throughout.

The thing i love abouth Rope is the backgound city scape, that keeps changing throughout.

At a party a couple of weekends ago a gay pal discussed making a CD-R of Thelma Ritter's best screen moments.

The Trouble with Harry is prob my favourite.
-- Frogman Henry, Monday, August 13, 2007 10:21 PM (9 months ago) Bookmark Link

That one seems ripe for a Coen Bros. remake.
-- Rock Hardy, Monday, August 13, 2007 10:23 PM (9 months ago) Bookmark Link

Love ya, Hitch, no disrespect at all, but that's a pretty good idea.

I mean really!

I should have Tim Robbins' job in The Player with ideas like that!

I'd see it. That's all I know.

http://www.webwombat.com.au/entertainment/movies/images/the-ladykillers.JPG

Yeah, but The Trouble With Harry is only a middling movie with a truckload of potential. (Sorry Frogman.) With The Ladykillers, they kinda didn't have anywhere to go but down, right? (I haven't seen either version.)

xpost Ouch.

You can't hear it, but I'm making a sound like i'm looking at someone's bad sunburn.

time for a gay remake of Rear Window.

with a slightly amended title?

Back Door

And it would still be better than NxNW [ / gratuitous]

Being a softy, for me the only thing that stops Rear Window being his best is that the poor dog gets it.

Kenan OTM all over this thread (except for the recent encouragement of the Coens)

John Michael Hayes, Who Adapted ‘Rear Window,’ Is Dead at 89

By MARGALIT FOX

John Michael Hayes, a screenwriter who wrote some of Alfred Hitchcock’s best-known films before breaking with the director in a fight over screen credit, died on Wednesday in Hanover, N.H. He was 89 and lived in Hanover.

His daughter Rochelle Hayes Skala confirmed the death.

Mr. Hayes adapted four films for Hitchcock: “Rear Window” (1954), from a story by Cornell Woolrich; “To Catch a Thief” (1955), from a novel by David Dodge; “The Trouble With Harry” (1955), from a novel by Jack Trevor Story; and the 1956 remake of “The Man Who Knew Too Much.”

“Rear Window” starred James Stewart as a photographer who thinks his neighbor is a killer. Mr. Hayes was credited with much of the film’s tart dialogue and with creating the character of Mr. Stewart’s girlfriend, played by Grace Kelly. (Kelly’s character, a fashion model, was said to have been inspired by Mr. Hayes’s wife, Mildred, also a model.)

Mr. Hayes received an Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1955 for “Rear Window.”

Besides his work for Hitchcock, he was known for writing the screenplay for “Peyton Place” (1957) — no enviable task given the challenges of turning Grace Metalious’s novel of small-town scandals into Hollywood fare. His screenplays for “Peyton Place” and “Rear Window” were nominated for Academy Awards.

John Michael Hayes Jr. was born on May 11, 1919, in Worcester, Mass. As a youth, he contributed Boy Scout news to The Worcester Telegram at 10 cents an inch. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, in 1941, before serving in the Army in World War II.

Mr. Hayes began his career as a radio writer. His early film credits include “Thunder Bay” (1953), directed by Anthony Mann and starring Mr. Stewart.

Though not quite as celebrated as “Rear Window,” Mr. Hayes’s other films with Hitchcock — “To Catch a Thief,” starring Cary Grant as a debonair cat burglar, and “The Trouble With Harry,” a black comedy about a constantly reappearing body — were generally well received. So was “The Man Who Knew Too Much,” though it irreparably frayed the partnership between Mr. Hayes and Hitchcock.

According to news accounts, Hitchcock hired another writer, Angus MacPhail, to help with the screenplay. He insisted that Mr. MacPhail receive joint credit; Mr. Hayes demurred. After arbitration, the Writers Guild awarded sole credit to Mr. Hayes, who never worked with Hitchcock again.

Mr. Hayes’s later screenplays include adaptations of “Butterfield 8” (1960), in which Elizabeth Taylor won an Oscar for best actress and “The Children’s Hour” (1961). He also wrote television movies and in the 1980s and ’90s taught film at Dartmouth College.

Besides his daughter Ms. Skala, of Los Angeles, Mr. Hayes is survived by another daughter, Meredyth Hayes Badreau of Houston; two sons, Garrett Michael, of Atlanta, and Corey, of Jacksonville, Fla.; and four grandchildren. His wife, the former Mildred Hicks, known as Mel, died in 1989.

In interviews over the years, Mr. Hayes was forthright about what it was like to write for Mr. Hitchcock. “I enjoyed working with him professionally, but off the screen he wasn’t so likable,” he told The Worcester Telegram & Gazette in 1999. “He was egotistical to the point of madness.”

Copyright 2008 The New York Times Company

AMAZING FILM

in a movie where everything is completely amazing, probably the most amazing thing is Grace Kelly's transformation into vapid spoilt society icequeen into AWESOME INTREPID SUPERWOMAN

and the final shot is such such such lulz

haven't been this excited after seeing a movie for AGES

*FROM vapid spoilt etc

Not only is Rear Window maybe the best Hitchcock, it's also one of those rare movies that are, while you're in the act of watching them, clearly the best movie ever made.

― Eric H., Monday, 13 August 2007 16:17 (2 years ago) Bookmark

THIS

Nay, Rebecca is the greatest Hitchcock.

Bear in mind I've only seen like 3 Hitchcocks. But this was on any level a fabulous movie. FABULOUS! Although point taken that it is pro-couple, and pro-het couple at that (lonely lady hooking up w/ socially deluged but still lonely pianist being a typical emblem). DAMMIT THO IT'S JUST SO ROMANTIC

and the sculptress hasn't got a fella! she's artsy and single at the end! i think! it's just that love was RIGHT for the two leads. SQUEE

Just watch every Hitch you can get hold of and enjoy the ride :-)

hahaha oh my god

greatest hand-to-forehead moment of film-watching life so far: seeing North By Northwest and realising that James Bond movies were an irrelevance

and again, final shot actually had me rolling in tears of laughter. SUCH chutzpah

I'm trying to remember the whole final shot -- it's another long pan over the whole back courtyard landscape, right? Mirroring the first shot. Jeff has two broken legs. And when he's safely asleep in the chair, Leeza puts down her hardbound non-fiction about far corners of the world and picks up a fash mag.

It's funny, but I don't know that it's all that ballsy.

Not only is Grace Kelly maybe the best Hitchcock blonde, she's also one of those rare women that are, while you're in the act of watching them, clearly the best woman ever made.

^^ This. She's damn near perfect. I love this movie so.

no it's the final shot of NXNW that is all-time chutzpah-laden and that of RW that is slyly looooooool you can take the gal out of fashion but not the fashion outta the girl

The lady knows what she wants.

Stella: Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence.

The twilight apartment scene between Stewart, Kelly, and Wendell Corey exchanging barbs and warming their brandy snifters is the most relaxed, intimate conversation piece in all of Hitchcock.

I mentioned the great shot of Burr and the wedding ring on a different thread. My other favourite, one of the most dreamlike shots I can think of, is the slow-motion kiss:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gl0yPuI7EVs&p=79F609427884C4E3&playnext=1&index=37

It's like something out of Lynch; in fact, there's a bizarre slow-motion shot in Blue Velvet that may be an homage (not to mention Jeffrey hiding in the closet).

http://vimeo.com/37120554

pro-click

holy shit

Will click later.

Shadow of a Doubt hate on this thread is so rong.

The things these kids can do nowadays. I declare.

Loved seeing this in a crowded theatre tonight, except for the lady in front of me who knowingly "Aaahhhh"'ed every time the plot advanced and the light bulb went off in her head. James Stewart says "wrapped in newspaper" just like Jack Nance says "wrapped in plastic" in Twin Peaks.

Probably his best. It's definitely the best combo of cast/theme/technical stuff/fun/script, imo. Lots of even the best Hitch features most or many of these qualities, but few feature all. Like, NXNW is perfect but not deep. Vertigo is perfect but not exactly fun. Psycho is a masterpiece, save for the palaver at the end. And so on.

I love the huge fancy bags that she brings the take-out food in. What a world.

Seeing this in the theater would be fucking amazing

To get all Kael, the audience was very alive to it--such a funny film. (Favourite line, Grace Kelly to Wendell Corey: "We think Thorwald did it.") Lots of audible reaction to what I'll call the ring shot, and Burr looking up, on my short list of greatest shots ever.

It's close to a perfect film for me--there are a couple of clunky Thelma Ritter lines early on (she has lots of great ones later), especially the bit about spreading a little common sense on the sandwich. I was thinking tonight that the best performance comes from Grace Kelly; her exasperation and anguish with Stewart early on is very touching.

I love the huge fancy bags that she brings the take-out food in. What a world.

― El Tomboto, Friday, July 28, 2017 12:10 AM

"a preview of coming attractions"

Orson Welles, bizarrely, told Henry Jaglom in one of their final chats that he thought Stewart was horrible and a fraud in RW.

To be annoyingly technical, she didn't bring the food in--the guy from 21 brings it in. (The "preview of coming attractions"--great line--that's her multi-use handbag/overnight case with her nightgown.)

fraud is a weird accusation to level - what did he mean?

He shared many eccentric opinions during those sad years as he consumed poached fish in a second-tier French restaurant in Beverly Hills or whatever.

little did he know his best days were still ahead of him, in his career-defining role as unicron in transformers: the movie

I've never really gotten into this film, I think always seeing it on a tiny tv screen severely diminishes it. need to rectify

i'm still frequently amazed by remembering parts from this film, even though i haven't viewed it for years. just the set alone is amazing.

i'm still astonished sometimes looking at his filmography, both the quality and quantity.

My friend has been going through his entire filmography from start to finish, says it's been a remarkable journey.

Want:

https://www.davidminiatures.com/rear-window

Some pretty radical audio choices in this movie. Lots of incidental, intrusive noises in this. The CLACKING of Kelly’s bracelet in one scene kind of drove me to distraction. And raucous party going on during the brandy snifter scene!