Looking back at a classic: "Rear Window"

In his 1954 “Rear Window,” Alfred Hitchcock successfully draws audiences along with his leading man, James Stewart, into a world of compulsive obsession with the neighbors and the search for truth.

The movie begins as the curtains of Stewart’s rear window rise to reveal a Manhattan apartment complex full of windows and stories. Jeff (Stewart) is a famous photographer cooped up in his apartment with a mending broken leg. He spends his days staring out his window with binoculars and a camera.

What he sees, the audience sees. There is Miss Torso, the dancer who rehearses in skimpy attire by day and hosts parties by night, Miss Lonelyhearts, who is middle-aged and eats dinner alone, the newlywed couple who quickly pull the shades and a bickering couple.

Soon Stewart becomes obsessed with what he believes to be a murder.

He finds it suspicious that the wife of the bickering couple has disappeared even though she is sick and never leaves her room. Jeff also studies the husband closely and notices strange behavior: the night the wife goes missing her husband leaves the apartment in the middle of the night, the husband’s garden is slightly disturbed as if something is buried under his flowers and a large trunk with ropes appears in his wife’s room.

While Jeff spends most of the movie looking in on other people’s lives, he has issues committing to a life of his own. The audience sees that this is wearing on his girlfriend, Lisa Fremont. Grace Kelly makes Lisa elegant, sophisticated and caring. She wishes Jeff would settle down and get married.

At first Lisa is frustrated with Jeff’s interest in his neighbors' affairs, but eventually she joins in and even puts herself in harm’s way attempting to solve the mystery. Her efforts provide some of the movie’s most suspenseful moments because the audience, like Jeff, is confined to watching what happens from a window powerless to help should she get in trouble.

“Rear Window” deserves its status as a classic. The cast is convincing and the movie is skillfully made. Since 1954 it has been remade and inspired movies such as “Disturbia,” but none has matched the original.