Rear Window (1954)
97%RT Audience Score: 95%
Awards & Nominations: Nominated for 4 Oscars
6 wins & 13 nominations total
Hitchcock exerted full potential of suspense in this masterpiece.
Hitchcock totally killed it with this flick! The suspense was off the charts and had me on the edge of my seat the whole time. It’s like he was playing a game with my nerves and he was winning. This movie is a total masterpiece and I’m pretty sure I’ll be sleeping with the lights on for a while.
Production Company(ies)
Alfred J. Hitchcock Productions,
Distributor
Paramount Pictures
Release Type
Theatrical, Theatrical (Limited)
Filming Location(s)
Stage 18, Paramount Studios – 5555 Melrose Avenue, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA
MPAA / Certificate
PG
Year of Release
1954
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:1.37 : 1 (original ratio)
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Runtime:1h 52m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Sep 1, 1954 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 7, 2004
Genre(s)
Mystery & thriller
Keyword(s)
starring James Stewart, Grace Kelly, Wendell Corey, Raymond Burr, Thelma Ritter, Judith Evelyn, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, written by John Michael Hayes, Cornell Woolrich, mystery, thriller, PG, box office gross $1.6M, reviewed by Terry Hiller, Harper Barnes, John Monaghan, Dave Kehr, Eleanor Ringel Cater, Peter Travers, Matt Neal, Wesley Lovell, Russ Burton, C.A Lejeune, Jane Corby, voyeurism, suspense, murder, photographer, broken leg, neighbors, nurse, wife, detective, disappearance, binoculars, zoom lens, sleepover, flower garden, subplots, tension, thriller masterpiece
Worldwide gross: $37,034,514
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $465,267,071
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 311
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 50,737,958
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $1,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $12,563,067
Production budget ranking: 1,578
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $6,765,211
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $445,938,793
ROI to date (est.): 2,307%
ROI ranking: 42
Grace Kelly – Lisa Carol Fremont
Wendell Corey – Det. Lt. Thomas J. Doyle
Raymond Burr – Mr. Lars Thorwald
Thelma Ritter – Stella
Judith Evelyn – Miss Lonelyheart
Alfred Hitchcock – Producer, Director
John Michael Hayes – Writer
Cornell Woolrich – Writer
Director(s)
Alfred Hitchcock
Writer(s)
John Michael Hayes, Cornell Woolrich
Producer(s)
Alfred Hitchcock
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
Nominated for 4 Oscars
6 wins & 13 nominations total
Academy Awards
All Critics (124) | Top Critics (48) | Fresh (122) | Rotten (2)
It’s a great movie and it’s a chance in a million to see a passionate Grace Kelly… She had so much class it would be easy to overlook that underlying heat which Hitchcock let play in this film.
June 8, 2021 | Rating: 4/4
Terry Hiller
Fort Worth Star-Telegram/DFW.com
TOP CRITIC
Rear Window builds in a much more linear way, slowly creating tension bit by bit until the chilling final 10 minutes. It takes a long time to get there, but there is literally never a dull moment.
June 8, 2021
Harper Barnes
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
TOP CRITIC
Sure, Vertigo is more personal, Psycho more bizarre, North by Northwest more thrilling. But Rear Window shows the Master of Suspense at his most spare, sophisticated and sinisterly clever a movie that is essentially about watching movies.
June 8, 2021 | Rating: 4/4
John Monaghan
Detroit Free Press
TOP CRITIC
The most densely allegorical of Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpieces, moving from psychology to morality to formal concerns and finally to the theological. It is also Hitchcock’s most innovative film in terms of narrative technique.
June 8, 2021
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
TOP CRITIC
This is Alfred Hitchcock at his best — a hugely entertaining, romantic and witty film with just a touch of mayhem.
June 8, 2021
Eleanor Ringel Cater
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
TOP CRITIC
Hitchcock condemned the invasive immorality of voyeurism without for a second denying its allure. In terms of art and entertainment, he knew better than any movie director that there’s no percentage in minding your own business.
June 8, 2021
Peter Travers
Rolling Stone
TOP CRITIC
Psycho may be more daring and thrilling (and ultimately better), and Vertigo certainly has its fans for its unique stylings and deep themes, but Rear Window is the quintessential Hitchcock film.
June 20, 2022 | Rating: 5/5
Matt Neal
Movies Ate My Life
One of the defining characteristics of Alfred Hitchcocks cinematic oeuvre is his constant need to innovate and iterate on ideas, taking audiences to new and compelling places. Rear Window is not his most ambitious gimmick, but it is his most successful.
February 12, 2022 | Rating: 4/4
Wesley Lovell
Cinema Sight
Hitchcock has improved on most of his other efforts by giving a depth to the pure action line with the addition of a sincere lose element and a comedy line which runs like a warm current just under the surface of the tension.
June 10, 2021
Russ Burton
Illustrated Daily News (Los Angeles)
It is taut, exact, well-patterned; technically bang on; never lets the attention go. Hitchcock is a director who has always revelled in contrasts; nothing delights him more than to smother his ice-cream with lashings of hot chocolate sauce.
June 8, 2021
C.A. Lejeune
Observer (UK)
The suspense accumulates until it reaches a point when the whole picture seems electrically charged. It is this desultoriness, with the accompanying attention to small angles of the story that helps to make It full-bodied, adult entertainment.
June 8, 2021
Jane Corby
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
One of the best in the cast is Thelma Ritter, insurance company nurse who pays Stewart daily visits. Wendell Corey is excellent; so is Raymond Burr, the menace in this picture.
June 8, 2021
Lillian Blackstone
Tampa Bay Times…
Plot
Professional photographer L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies breaks his leg while getting an action shot at an auto race. Confined to his New York apartment, he spends his time looking out of the rear window observing the neighbors. He begins to suspect that a man across the courtyard may have murdered his wife. Jeff enlists the help of his high society fashion-consultant girlfriend Lisa Fremont and his visiting nurse Stella to investigate.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Rear Window features a young Grace Kelly in one of her earliest film roles.
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