Rear Window

Hitchcock is the director whose films I rewatch most often. I enjoy some of the early British movies, especially The Thirty-Nine Steps and The Lady Vanishes, but even more those made at the height of his American career: Foreign Correspondent, Saboteur, Shadow of a Doubt, Notorious, Strangers on a Train, To Catch a Thief, and North by Northwest. And that list isn't exhaustive. The most important not listed is Rear Window. From "Looking Back at Rear Window" reviewing a recent, apparently flawed, book about the film:

Released in the summer of 1954 to general acclaim and impressive box-office receipts, Rear Window endures as a genuine pop-art achievement, its big-budget Hollywood approach—glamorous stars, enviable costume design, blazing Technicolor, and studio-system craftsmanship—enlivened by a restless intelligence behind the camera. By mixing suspense, comedy, romance, and mystery, Hitchcock delivered a rousing if incongruous tour de force, its lighthearted tone occasionally contrasting wildly with its sordid subject. After all, if any film featuring (off-screen) murder and dismemberment can be considered lighthearted, Rear Window would be it. With a witty screenplay, an appealing star with longstanding box-office prowess (Jimmy Stewart), a promising young actress of striking, almost numinous beauty (Grace Kelly), and a talented supporting cast (including Raymond Burr as the villain and the irrepressible Thelma Ritter), Rear Window offers new delights with every viewing. ....

Though Rear Window was his third film with a restricted setting (after Lifeboat and Rope), Hitchcock seemed to relish the scale of the challenge this time around. Rear Window takes place entirely in a single room: where Jefferies watches the action across the courtyard (first with binoculars, then with a camera/telephoto lens combination), forcing the audience to share his subjective point of view. To realize his bravura vision, Hitchcock had one of the most elaborate sets since the days of Cecil B. DeMille constructed. At a cost of “$9,000 to design and $72,000 to build,” Paramount erected a life-size model of a Greenwich Village apartment complex. .... (more)

Carlos Acevedo, "Looking Back at Rear Window," City Journal, Jan. 9, 2026.