Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-5xszh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-28T01:22:36.486Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Introduction

Spectacle and Narrative

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2012

John Belton
Affiliation:
Rutgers University
John Belton
Affiliation:
Rutgers University, New Jersey
Get access

Summary

Like many of the best works of classical Hollywood cinema, Rear Window is a deceptively obvious film. Its chief virtues are clearly visible for all to see. An exemplary instance of commercial motion picture entertainment, it represents the best that Hollywood had to offer its audiences in the tumultuous 1950s. (Indeed, its classic status continued to be reaffirmed in the 1990s; in 1997, the Librarian of Congress placed it on the National Film Registry, and in 1998, it was listed among the American Film Institute's best 100 American films of all time.) Filmed in glorious Technicolor and projected on a big screen in a widescreen format, it is, on a purely technological level, a compelling example of 1950s motion picture spectacle. Though its subject matter lacks the epic proportions of that era's big-budget biblical spectacles, costume pictures, or westerns, its basic situation is pure spectacle. Indeed, its story is “about” spectacle; it explores the fascination with looking and the attraction of that which is being looked at. The story goes as follows: Confined to a wheelchair with a broken leg, photo journalist L. B. Jefferies (James Stewart) has little to do but to look out his rear window at his Greenwich Village neighbors. He suspects that one of them, a jewelry salesman named Thorwald, has murdered his invalid wife. With the help of his girl-friend, Lisa Fremont (Grace Kelly), and his nurse, Stella (Thelma Ritter), he continues to observe Thorwald until evidence is discovered that confirms that Thorwald did, indeed, kill his wife.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1999

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by John Belton, Rutgers University, New Jersey
  • Book: Alfred Hitchcock's <I>Rear Window</I>
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173001.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by John Belton, Rutgers University, New Jersey
  • Book: Alfred Hitchcock's <I>Rear Window</I>
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173001.001
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Introduction
  • Edited by John Belton, Rutgers University, New Jersey
  • Book: Alfred Hitchcock's <I>Rear Window</I>
  • Online publication: 05 June 2012
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139173001.001
Available formats
×