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In an age when voyeurism has gone from a guilty taboo to a full-blown cultural obsession, Hitchcock's 1954 masterwork Rear Window seems to be an especially prescient sign of things to come.
Opening today at the Princess Theatre in a restored, remastered version that is beautiful to behold, Rear Window not only holds up well, it seems to foreshadow our morbid fascination with everything from reality TV shows to JenniCam.
The late Jimmy Stewart is L. B. "Jeff" Jeffries, a globe-trotting photojournalist who is laid up in his sweltering New York City apartment, thanks to a broken leg suffered while shooting an auto race.
He bides his time looking out his rear window at the other apartments across the courtyard, watching the comings and goings of his neighbours while keeping his commitment-craving uptown girlfriend Lisa (the meltingly gorgeous Grace Kelly) at arm's length.
Among the apartment dwellers Jeffries uses his binoculars and long-lensed camera to spy on - including a nubile dancer, a lonely single woman, a composer, an older couple with a lapdog and others - is the furtive Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr) and his bed-ridden wife.
When Mrs. Thorwald mysteriously disappears and Jeffries sees the husband acting suspiciously, he imagines a murder has unfolded, with himself as the sole witness.
Convincing Lisa, his nurse Stella (Thelma Ritter) and his police detective friend Doyle (Wendell Corey) proves to be difficult, though, until Lisa risks her neck to get evidence of Thorwald's evil deeds.
Rear Window is one of the best examples ever of a filmmaker forcing his audience to experience the movie's events through the hero's eyes. The audience is locked in the apartment with Jeffries, seeing only what he sees and experiencing exactly what he experiences.
So when Hitchcock cranks up the suspense and fear, peaking with a heart-pounding climax that sees the wheelchair-bound Jeffries' life in danger, the audience can't help but be whipped along for the ride.
If there are any complaints about the film, it's that Hitchcock spends too much effort beating us over the head with symbolism, and the climax seems oddly rushed, considering how slowly the thumbscrews of suspense have been applied.
But there's no denying this is Hitchcock at his finest, and that Rear Window is worth seeing again - and again.