- Directed by Alfred Hitchcock
- Written by John Michael Hayes, Cornell Woolrich
- Stars James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 52 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m01YktiEZCw
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
This was a fun classic to watch. It’s Hitchcock, the master of slow build tension, which steadily climbs through the movie. The set is impressive in size and complexity, considering it was all indoors in a studio. It’s a thriller with low-key horror and worth the watch if you haven’t seen it.
Synopsis
As the credits roll, we get a view from a window looking out at… more windows. The camera eventually zooms around to the fire escapes, ladders, and windows, so we get a good idea of the setting.
We come back to see L. B. Jeffries, sweating in his apartment, which is excruciatingly hot; the neighbors are sleeping outside on their balcony. He’s a professional photographer, but he’s stuck inside with a broken leg in a cast, at least until next Wednesday. He watches the hot woman across the courtyard doing her exercises in a bikini. He’s got nothing to do but watch the neighbors.
Stella comes in and chides him for being a peeping Tom. She’s an insurance company nurse. She says he’s gonna see things he shouldn’t see and get into trouble. They talk about Lisa Fremont, his wanna-be girlfriend; he thinks she’s too good for him.
That evening, Lisa comes over for a visit. She’s wearing a $1,100 dress; she’s a very successful model, and she’s brought him a catered dinner. He watches a woman across the courtyard have a pretend “date” all by herself.
Jeffries points out Miss Torso, a ballet dancer, a young woman with many suitors. The two imagine what the busy woman is feeling.
Lisa wants Jeffries to settle down, but he’s a globetrotter who loves to travel for his photography. Neither of them is likely to change, and he thinks they should break up. She gets angry and leaves.
Later that night, Jeffries hears a woman screaming somewhere, but he doesn’t see anything. He watches one man come and go several times throughout the night; he’s a salesman, but what would he be doing out so late? What’s in his sample case? He goes to sleep and doesn’t see the man leave again, this time alongside a woman.
Jeffries gets some binoculars to watch more closely. He then upgrades to a telephoto lens on his camera. He sees that the man has a huge saw and machete, but his nagging wife has seemingly vanished. Could he possibly have– no!
Jeffries concludes, “There’s something terribly wrong.” He wonders how someone would even begin to cut up a human body, and Lisa thinks maybe he’s losing his mind being cooped up for weeks. They both watch the man packing something into a huge crate; Lisa is now on board with the not-so-crazy theory.
Lisa checks out the man’s mailbox and says the man’s name is Lars Thorwald. Jeffries calls his friend, the detective, Tom Doyle, to come over and check out the situation. The next morning, Stella’s thrilled to hear about the excitement. They watch as Thorwald pays some men to carry the trunk away.
Doyle comes over and verifies that Jeffries hasn’t actually seen a murder or a body. Still, he offers to look into things. Doyle finds out that the wife left while Jeffries was asleep. Jeffries still wants Doyle to search the man’s apartment, but that’s against the rules. There’s even a postcard sent by the man’s wife. Case closed.
Maybe not. Jeffries watches Mr. Thorwald come home with some laundry. He watches the man dig through his wife’s purse and find a wedding band inside. He packs up for a trip, but when he leaves, he doesn’t take anything with him.
Lisa comes by again, and they talk about Mr. Thorwald. Lisa thinks the woman everyone saw leaving Thorwald’s apartment wasn’t his wife, at least not yet. Doyle stops by and gets updated on what’s been going on. Doyle says Lars Thorwald is no murderer; there’s no case.
Jeffries wonders about how ethical it is to watch a man with binoculars and a telephoto lens. There’s a scream, and the little dog we’ve seen several times is dead with his neck broken. Everyone comes out to hear the woman screaming about the dog. That dog had been digging in one spot where Thorwald had been digging. Also, he’s the only one who doesn’t come to the window to hear about the dog. What could Thorwald have buried there?
Jeffries addresses a note to Thorwald, “What have you done with her?” and Lisa slips it under his door. They look up Thorwald’s phone number, and Jeffries calls him and sets up a meeting across town; he makes it sound like a blackmail attempt. Stella and Lisa go out to dig up those flowers. They don’t find anything, so Lisa climbs up into Thorwald’s apartment to search.
Stella’s there, and she watches a “make-believe date woman” take a bunch of pills and write a note. Is she planning suicide? Jeffries calls the police, but he doesn’t see Thorwald coming home.
Thorwald confronts Lisa, and Jeffries and Stella watch from their room. The police arrive just in time to stop the struggle. Throwald finally spots Jeffries watching him, so now he knows what’s going on. The police take Lisa away, and Stella leaves to bail her out.
Alone, Jeffries starts wondering if Thorwald is going to come after him. Thorwald does come over to confront Jeffries. “What do you want from me? Your friend, the girl, could have turned me in. Why didn’t she? Do you want money?”
Jeffries uses his camera flashbulbs to blind Thorwald, who attacks him. They wrestle in the window as Doyle and the police arrive. The police grab Thorwald, but Jeffries falls out the window. Thorwald admits everything.
We get a final shot of the lives of all the neighbors as Jeffries sleeps in his wheelchair– now with two broken legs.
Commentary
Although I was familiar with the premise, I hadn’t seen this film before, so I had no idea how it would end. Throughout most of the film, I wondered if there was even a murder. The tension builds slowly up to the end, where we find out what’s really been going on.
The entire movie was shot on one big set. It’s obvious from the skyline that it’s all on a soundstage somewhere, but it’s really elaborate. There are numerous characters in other windows, and many of them have their own stories, which was fun.
It’s pretty cool!