Hello dudesndivorce.com readers!
I recently watched another Jimmy Stewart great! I must be honest I am a huge Jimmy Stewart fan, I have yet to watch anything he has done that I did not enjoy. And this collaboration with Grace Kelly and directed by none other than Alfred Hitchcock is no exception.
If you have not endeared yourself to the art and suspense of a Hitchcock film, this one is a good place to start. Mr. Hitchcock artfully and subtly gets you so involved in the story that soon you are DIEING to know just how it will turn out! You find yourself caught up in the mystery along with the main characters as if you were a part of the story itself. Breathlessly awaiting the next clue or finding yourself sitting on the edge or your seat, hands clenched tight, as they put themselves in a dangerous predicament. Such is the art of Alfred Hitchcock.
Let me lay out the general scenario of the movie for you. Stewart plays L.B. Jeffires a professional photographer who is currently stuck in his apartment recuperating from a serious on the job injury that placed his leg in a cast from his toes to above his waist. So he sits at home all day with nothing to do but watch his neighbors in their New York City apartment complex, wishing he could get out of his cast and back to work! Thelma Ritter plays his sharp tongued health care worker, Stella, who comes to his apartment daily. Despite her cynicism and old world advice she gets caught up in L.B.’s schemes. Grace Kelly plays Lisa Fremont, L.B.’s high society girlfriend, who is very much in love with him. (The movie never explains how these two obvious opposites meet.)
Over the weeks of watching his neighbors L.B. really gets to know their patterns, habits, and to a certain extent, their personalities too. He watches “Miss Lonely Hearts” each night come home and play out her dream of sharing her evenings with her “Mr. Charming”, that doesn’t exist. He watches the aspiring composer struggle daily at his piano to find his “one great piece”. And he watches a couple of newlyweds move in, pull down their shades to rarely be seen again! But most of all he sees a salesman, Lars Thorwald, (played by Raymond Burr) come home each night after a long hard day of work to a invalid and apparently unappreciative wife! L.B.’s suspicions are raised when one dark and rainy night he hears a scream from somewhere and later, in the middle of the night, notices Mr. Thorwald leaving his apartment several times with a large suitcase! From that point on the blinds are closed in the Thorwald aapartment and Mrs. Thorwald is not seen again. L.B. begins to monitor the apartment closely and sees Thorwald cleaning the suitcase with minute detail and wrapping up a saw and a large knife. He watches Thorwald pack up all of Mrs. Thorwald’s possessions and ship them out! L.B. can’t stand it! He tells Lisa and Stella and even calls and old friend who is a detective on the police force, Doyle (played by Wendell Corey). While Lisa and Stella eventually begin to be wrapped up in L.B.’s ideas, Doyle remains doubtful and reticent.
Eventually the trio of L.B., Lisa, and Stella feel they need to take things into their own hands! Here is where Thorwald discovers he is being watched! All their efforts to ferret out the mystery while remaining hidden have come to naught, they have been found out! One of the tensest scense in movie history follows as L.B., alone and helpless in his wheelchair, is left in the dark listening to the approaching footsteps of Thorwald, sure that Thorwald will kill him when he arrives.
This movie is a work of art. Hitchcock went to great lengths to make this movie, to the point of building what was at that time the largest sound stage in Hollywood to recreate the entire apartment complex in which the story took place. The set was so detailed that each apartment actually had electricity and running water. In fact Georgine Darcy, who plays Miss Torso, another apartment resident virtually lived in her partment during the filming, staying there between takes. Hitchcock also had the actors wear flesh colored ear piece radios so he could direct them without them having to leave their “apartment”.
Some lines from the movies:
Jeff: She wants me to marry her.
Stella: That’s normal.
Jeff: I don’t want to.
Stella: That’s abnormal.
Jeff: Why would a man leave his apartment three times on a rainy night with a suitcase and come back three times?
Lisa: He likes the way his wife welcomes him home.
Stella: Intelligence. Nothing has caused the human race so much trouble as intelligence.
Lisa: What’s he doing? Cleaning house?
Jeff: He’s washing and scrubbing down the bathroom walls.
Stella: Must’ve splattered a lot.
[both Jeff and Lisa look at Stella with disgust]
Stella: Come on, that’s what were all thinkin’. He killed her in there, now he has to clean up those stains before he leaves.
Lisa: Stella… your choice of words!
Stella: Nobody ever invented a polite word for a killin’ yet.
