Rear Window

After watching many Alfred Hitchcock movies, I finally found one that actually fooled me. Now most people would be fooled by this movie solely for the purpose of seeing the murderer exit the Apartment with what looked like a female but I was fooled solely being an Alfred Hitchcock movie. While watching I kept thinking well it is pretty obvious that the man murdered his wife but being as it was a Hitchcock movie I thought the big shocker would be if in fact the neighbour lady was not murdered. I kept thinking “well this is a Hitchcock movie so it’s not going to have the most obvious story line” but it really did, so honestly that is the big surprise for me. Once again, Alfred Hitchcock tricked me.

The time this film was created was a very different world from the one we live in today. In the movie, the main couple is talking about getting married even though the couple has never lived together. During that time, it was completely forbidden for a couple to live together unmarried and if they did, they were looked down on. In one scene, Doyle the police officer notices the nightgown that Lisa had at the apartment and you can tell by the look on his face that he is judging her for planning to spend the night with Jeffries. Today, things are almost the complete opposite of that mentality. Now the majority of couples live together before they get married and some never do get married and just live together for their life, so for me to see a couple planning or even just talking about getting married without living together first, I would likely make the exact same face that Doyle did.

Another thing I noticed in the movie that significantly impressed me was the dog. Watching the one character put the dog in the basket and pull it up and down amazed me. Perhaps it is not the most impressive thing animals have done in movies but it caught my attention because if the dog moved slightly the wrong way it would have fallen out and killed which is something, thankfully, you do not see in films today. Because animal safety is such a high concern and major priority in films now, I honestly think that would be a scene that would not be filmed today. For myself, watching animal safety is something I notice, but well-trained animals are something I notice even more. Training animals for films must not be an easy job so I am quite impressed with what some can do in a film. Perhaps the animal actors in films are not something noticed by all but it is definitely something I notice and pay attention to. For me, animals can make or break a film; that dog was definitely an asset for Rear Window.

Overall, if I was to rate this movie I would give it four out of five beans. It is missing its fifth bean for an unexplainable reason; it just does not feel like a five to me but overall, it is a good movie. The movie just does not give me the feeling of amazement to get that fifth bean. The creating, directing, and acting in the movie are great. It is a movie that anyone that watches will be impressed with and possibly even shocked like me. I hate admitting I was shocked because I honestly thought that it was going to be one where Hitchcock did what he does best and trick us, but in reality, that is what he did. Alfred Hitchcock once again fooled me.