Rear Window: The Making of a Hitchcock Masterpiece in the Hollywood Golden Age

Summary

Before the internet and social media offered voyeuristic glimpses into the lives of others, the acclaimed Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, exposed the dangers and delights of looking—and knowing—too much in his 1954 masterpiece Rear Window. Hailed as one of the greatest films ever made, it stars James Stewart and Grace Kelly but, in an unusual gamble, is shot entirely from within a Greenwich Village apartment.

Hitchcock forces his audience to participate in his protagonist's voyeuristic impulses and darkest obsessions—a bold move in the era of the Hollywood Blacklist and restrictive Hays Code. But the gamble paid off, and Rear Window became a timeless classic. This book goes straight to the source of Rear Window's genius by mining the papers of Hitchcock, Jimmy Stewart, and Thelma Ritter, revealing little-known facts behind the scenes: Why taking the role of Lisa was one of the toughest decisions Grace Kelly ever made; How Hitchcock intertwined suspense and romance with inspiration from Ingrid Bergman; How he used a topless scene to distract censors from other scenes to which they may have objected; and how Hitchcock crafted the film's unforgettable villain by modeling him on a producer he loathed.

This exciting book pulls back the curtain on a classic thriller that's as relevant today as ever—and every bit as thrilling.