DVD/150: REAR WINDOW (Alfred Hitchcock, 1954)

During a heatwave, LB 'Jeff' Jefferies is chafing in his Greenwich Village apartment: a magazine photographer, in a few days he will finally have a plaster cast removed from his left leg after being injured on assignment, and his socialite fiancée Lisa is pressing him about marriage although he refuses to sacrifice his globe-trotting.  Bored, Jeff starts watching his unknown neighbours around the large tenement courtyard...

One night he hears a woman scream from one of the windows, and starts watching - first with binoculars, then his zoom-lens camera - the apartment of Lars Thorwold, a salesman whose bedridden wife has gone. 

Jeff slowly manages to convince Lisa and his insurance company nurse Stella that Thorwald has murdered his wife but his NY detective friend remains unconvinced.

With Thorwald obviously about to leave, Jeff allows Lisa and Stella to put themselves in harm's way, but this leads Thorwald to Jeff's door.

Shelf or charity shop? Spying on the other DVDs in my storage box REAR WINDOW is one to keep.  Filming on a huge sound stage, Hitchcock keeps the action centred mostly in Jeff's small apartment making us co-voyeurs along with his hero.  A masterpiece in thriller storytelling, Hitchcock also shades James Stewart's everyman screen persona to one of vague unlikeability - a forefunner of his morally ambiguous 'Scottie' in VERTIGO.  Grace Kelly is a sparkling presence as Lisa, mirrored perfectly by Thelma Ritter's astringent nurse Stella.  It is interesting how Hitchcock makes his killer Raymond Burr almost sympathetic in his final confrontation with Stewart - a mix of threat, helplessness and bafflement.  John Michael Hayes' excellent script is based on a Cornell Woolrich short story.

DVD/150: VERTIGO (Alfred Hitchcock, 1958)

VERTIGO had mixed reviews but since the 1980s it has been acclaimed, currently topping Sight and Sound's '100 Greatest Films' list - it is pure cinema.

Scottie, retired from the San Francisco police when his acrophobia resulted in another officer's death, is asked by an acquaintance to follow his wife who is acting strangely.

Scottie follows Madeleine who seems haunted by an ancestor Carlotta Valdes, visiting her grave, sitting transfixed by Carlotta's portrait and copying her hairstyle.

Scottie saves Madeleine when she attempts drowning but she cannot remember her actions; Scottie is now obsessed with her as they grow closer.

They visit a Mission where Carlotta had lived, but when Madeleine impulsively runs up the spire staircase, Scottie cannot follow due to his acrophobia. He hears a scream and Madeleine plunges to her death.

A year on, Scottie meets Judy Barton who resembles Madeleine but trying to replicate Madeleine brings tragedy...

Shelf or charity shop? On a (not too high) shelf as befits one of my favourite films.  Hitchcock's sublime vision of 'amour fou' was based on Boileau and Narcejac's D'ENTRE LES MORTES but he ditched it's WWII setting and the villain's come-uppence to create a masterpiece of longing and deception, helped immeasurably by Bernard Herrmann's sweeping score and Robert Burks' misty dream-like cinematography.  A film that cries out to be seen more than once for Hitchcock's marvellous storytelling, James Stewart's subtle performance of a man lost to his obsession and Kim Novak's under-appreciated dual role as the ethereal and haunting Madeleine, and the hard-edged, increasingly desperate Judy Barton; it's a performance that is best appreciated seen twice (or more).  A special mention too for the supporting performance of Henry Jones as a snide coroner.  Timeless and haunting...

Dvd/150: WIFE VERSUS SECRETARY (Clarence Brown, 1936)

By the mid-1930s the prohibitive production code made it difficult for Jean Harlow to play the tart-with-a-heart roles that made her famous so MGM subverted her persona in WIFE VERSUS SECRETARY - accused by others of being a homewrecker she is in fact just a devoted secretary.

Magazine publisher Clark Gable is happily married to Myrna Loy but, when she hears rumours of his relationship with secretary Harlow, Loy's suspicions overtake her.  This is not helped when Harlow secretly flies with Gable to Havana suddenly but we know it's all innocent as he is secretly trying to acquire a newspaper and only Harlow knows the plan.

Although billed as a comedy drama, director Clarence Brown concentrates more on the marital drama with Harlow standing glumly by, realizing her actual feelings for her boss when boyfriend James Stewart suggests she give up her job when they get married.

Shelf or charity shop?  As it's on the same disc as CHINA SEAS I will hang on to this one...