Rear Window is the 1954 Hitchcock film in which James Stewart spies on his neighbors from a wheelchair. Stewart plays L. B. “Jeff” Jefferies, a photojournalist confined to his Greenwich Village apartment after breaking his leg on assignment. With little else to do during a heat wave, he watches the lives unfolding across the courtyard.
His casual observation becomes a murder investigation when he suspects traveling salesman Lars Thorwald has killed his wife. Grace Kelly plays Lisa Fremont, Jeff’s initially skeptical girlfriend, while Thelma Ritter portrays Stella, his nurse. Their investigation draws them outside the apartment and into direct danger, turning Jeff’s passive voyeurism into a suspenseful struggle for proof.
Hitchcock based the screenplay by John Michael Hayes on Cornell Woolrich’s 1942 short story “It Had to Be Murder.” The film was shot almost entirely on a massive indoor courtyard set at Paramount Studios. Its unusual viewpoint makes the audience share Jeff’s curiosity—and raises questions about privacy, surveillance, and the pleasure of watching other people’s lives.