
I can only hope that someday in your life you can just sit back, relax, and enjoy some uninterrupted Alfred Hitchcock movies. They are just so rich. Take for example Rear Window, the setting in this film is everything and it’s only one large set. You may not think a film of a guy in a wheelchair looking out his rear window onto the courtyard of his apartment and its other inhabitants sounds like the fodder for action and suspense, but believe me, in the hands of the master – it’s riveting.

The setting in this film, like most settings crucial to the narrative, is almost a character in itself. We get so much information in the opening panning shot. Before a word is spoken, we know things about our protagonist like he’s a photographer, he’s been in an accident, he has photographed famous people, and his neighbors all have distinct characters.

It shouldn’t be surprising then, that the main character played by James Stewart spends his time looking out his window at his neighbors. He’s a photographer…a professional observer. Hitchcock raises this pastime to an almost deviant voyeuristic level. He becomes convinced that his neighbor has killed his wife and manages to convince those around him of the same thing. The voyeurism takes a turn in a scene when the man (played by Raymond Burr) turns his gaze back into Stewart’s apartment. The viewer then becomes the viewed. His wheelchair-bound state makes him vulnerable as he cannot escape his setting.
Even though there is only on set in the film, it only becomes claustrophobic when the killer arrives. Until then, Hitchcock manages to keep us interested by including moments of the neighbor’s lives. Hitchcock always seems to manage his settings for the greatest effect. From Rope to Lifeboat to Rear Window and to some extent Dial M for Murder, there’s a very limited setting, yet its character is just as much a part of the film as the actors!
Seriously, treat yourself to a Hitchcock film tonight!
Alfred Hitchcock Filmography
The Silent Years
1925 The Pleasure Garden
1927 The Mountain Eagle
1927 The Lodger
1927 Downhill
1927 Easy Virtue
1927 The Ring
1928 Champagne
1928 The Farmer's Wife
1929 The Manxman
The British Classics
1929 Blackmail
1930 Juno and the Paycock
1930 Murder!
1931 The Skin Game
1932 Number Seventeen
1932 Rich and Strange
1934 The Man Who Knew
Too Much
1934 Waltzes From Vienna
1935 The 39 Steps
1936 Sabotage
1936 Secret Agent
1937 Young and Innocent
1938 The Lady Vanishes
1939 Jamaica Inn
1940 Foreign Correspondent
Vintage Hollywood
1940 Rebecca
1941 Mr. and Mrs. Smith
1941 Suspicion
1942 Saboteur
1943 Shadow of a Doubt
1944 Lifeboat
1945 Spellbound
1946 Notorious
1948 The Paradine Case
1948 Rope
1949 Under Capricorn
1950 Stage Fright
1951 Strangers on a Train
1953 I Confess
1954 Dial "M" for Murder
1954 Rear Window
1955 To Catch a Thief
1955 The Trouble with Harry
1956 The Man Who Knew
Too Much (remake)
1956 The Wrong Man
1958 Vertigo
1959 North by Northwest
1960 Psycho
1963 The Birds
1964 Marnie
1966 Torn Curtain
1969 Topaz
1972 Frenzy
1976 Family Plot
The Silent Years
1925 The Pleasure Garden
1927 The Mountain Eagle
1927 The Lodger
1927 Downhill
1927 Easy Virtue
1927 The Ring
1928 Champagne
1928 The Farmer's Wife
1929 The Manxman
The British Classics
1929 Blackmail
1930 Juno and the Paycock
1930 Murder!
1931 The Skin Game
1932 Number Seventeen
1932 Rich and Strange
1934 The Man Who Knew
Too Much
1934 Waltzes From Vienna
1935 The 39 Steps
1936 Sabotage
1936 Secret Agent
1937 Young and Innocent
1938 The Lady Vanishes
1939 Jamaica Inn
1940 Foreign Correspondent
Vintage Hollywood
1940 Rebecca
1941 Mr. and Mrs. Smith
1941 Suspicion
1942 Saboteur
1943 Shadow of a Doubt
1944 Lifeboat
1945 Spellbound
1946 Notorious
1948 The Paradine Case
1948 Rope
1949 Under Capricorn
1950 Stage Fright
1951 Strangers on a Train
1953 I Confess
1954 Dial "M" for Murder
1954 Rear Window
1955 To Catch a Thief
1955 The Trouble with Harry
1956 The Man Who Knew
Too Much (remake)
1956 The Wrong Man
1958 Vertigo
1959 North by Northwest
1960 Psycho
1963 The Birds
1964 Marnie
1966 Torn Curtain
1969 Topaz
1972 Frenzy
1976 Family Plot