Rear Window (1954)

Rear Window is a 112-minute running suspense, crime movie from America, which was released during 1954. The movie was directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock, an English movie producer and director and the screenplay of the movie was written by an American writer, John Michael Hayes. The story of the movie is derived from the short story "It Had to Be Murder", written in 1942 by Cornell Woolrich, an American short story writer and novelist. At first, the movie was released by a movie studio, the TV Production Corporation and film distributor, the Paramount Pictures. The notable celebrities included in the movie were James Stewart, Wendell Corey, Grace Kelly, Raymond Burr and Thelma Ritter. The Rear Window movie was screened at the Venice Film Festival in 1954.

The Rear Window movie is considered by several critics, filmgoers and scholars to be one among the best movies of Alfred Hitchcock. The movie was included in the National Film Registry of the United States in 1997.

Production of the movie

The entire part of the Rear Window movie was filmed at Paramount studios, as well as a huge set on one among the soundstages. There was as well, cautious use of sound, together with natural sounds and the music, traveling across the courtyard of the apartment of James Stewart, the one of the actors of the movie. At one position, the tone of Bing Crosby, the singer of the movie, can be heeded, singing at first from the Paramount movie “Road to Bali” in 1952. Furthermore, heard on the recording are editions of songs popularized previously in the decade by an American musician and singer, Nat King Cole in the movie "Mona Lisa", in 1950, and Dean Martin, an American actor, singer, comedian, and movie producer in the movie "That's Amore" in 1952, together with segments from score of Leonard Bernstein, an American musician, author, conductor, music professor, and pianist, for the ballet “Fancy Free” of Jerome Robbins in 1944.

Hitchcock employed Edith Head, a costume designer from America, in all of his Paramount movies. Even though veteran Hollywood musician, Franz Waxman is recognized with the score for the movie, his contributions were restricted to the opening and closing headings and the piano song, played by one among the neighbors, Ross Bagdasarian, a musician during the production of the movie. This was the final score of Franz Waxman for Hitchcock. The director employed chiefly "diegetic" sounds, the sounds coming up from the usual life of the characters all through the movie.

Response of the movie

A "benefit world premiere" for the movie, with the bureaucrats of the United Nations and "famous affiliates of the social and amusement worlds" in presence, was organized on the 4th of August 1954 in the New York City at the Rivoli Theatre, with earnings belonging to the aid organization, the American-Korean Foundation. The Rear Window movie went on to get an anticipated earnings of $5.3 million at the box office in North America during 1954.

Nominations and awards

The Rear Window movie won 1955 BAFTA awards for the Best Film from any Source category.

The movie won the 1955 Edgar Allan Poe award for the Best Motion Picture category.

It won the 1954 National Board of Review, USA award for the Best Actress category.

The Rear Window movie was nominated for the 1955 Academy Awards for the Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Cinematography and Best Sound, Recording categories.