By Lynn R. Mitchell
Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” will show on the big screen this week at the Visualite Theater in downtown Staunton for a special nationwide event. For local theater locations in other parts of the country check the Fathom Events website:
Special Fathom Features: A specially produced introduction by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz with the iconic film to immediately follow.
Spy through the “rear window” from the best seat in the house as TCM Presents: Rear Window arrives in select U.S. cinemas as a special two-day event on March 22 and 25, 2015 at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. local time.
Presented by Fathom Events, Turner Classic Movies (TCM) and Universal Pictures Home Entertainment, this classic 1954 Alfred Hitchcock film stars Hollywood legends James Stewart and Grace Kelly and is digitally re-mastered for premium picture and sound quality. In addition to the film, movie buffs will also be treated to a specially produced introduction by TCM host Ben Mankiewicz.
Widely considered one of Alfred Hitchcock’s very best films, Rear Window finds photojournalist L.B. Jeffries (James Stewart) wheelchair bound with a broken leg and confined to his tiny, sweltering courtyard apartment. To pass the time between visits from his nurse (Thelma Ritter) and his fashion model girlfriend Lisa (Grace Kelly), the binocular-wielding Jeffries stares through the rear window of his apartment at the goings-on in the other apartments around his courtyard. As he watches his neighbors, he assigns them such roles and character names as “Miss Torso” (Georgine Darcy), a professional dancer with a healthy social life or “Miss Lonelyhearts” (Judith Evelyn), a middle-aged woman who entertains nonexistent gentlemen callers. Of particular interest is a seemingly mild-mannered travelling salesman Lars Thorwald (Raymond Burr), who is saddled with a nagging invalid wife. One afternoon, Thorwald pulls down his window shade, and his wife’s incessant shouting comes to a sudden halt. Out of boredom, Jeffries casually concocts a scenario in which Thorwald has murdered his wife and disposed of the body in gruesome fashion. Trouble is, Jeffries’ musings just might happen to be the truth.
Most of us have only seen this movie on our television screens. Gather some friends and head to the theater for an evening with Grace Kelley and Jimmy Stewart.
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