Channeling Rear Window 89

Copyright © 2016 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC DOI: 10.1080/01956051.2015.1103202 CHANNELING Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline. Rear Window com/vjpf. BY Sue Brower

Rear Window (1954). Directed by . Shown: . Photo courtesy of /Photofest.

Abstract: Rear Window is usually IT’S 1954, and a man accustomed to life as a globetrotting interpreted as a metaphor for cinema and photojournalist finds himself laid up with a broken leg. His film spectatorship. However, the film’s domestic setting, plural spectacles, and apartment is hot, and on the phone with his gendered spectators’ conversations could editor he complains of profound boredom. We see a stack of also refer to television, which at the time was sweeping the nation, and which copies of the magazine he works for, but there seem to be no Hitchcock was on the verge of exploring newspapers or books, no phonograph or radio, and no sign of creatively and financially. the newest form of home entertainment, television. What can Keywords: cinema apparatus, gendered L.B. “Jeff” Jefferies, the central figure in Alfred Hitchcock’s spectator, Alfred Hitchcock, popular entertainment, television history Rear Window, do to while away the time? 90 JPF&T—Journal of Popular Film and Television

This image might better apply not to the singular spectacle that is cinema, but instead to the simultaneous/competing stories on the channels of television, to which the spectator can turn as he or she wishes.

In 1954, the same year as the film’s what he sees, suggest he is both desir- windows just as a wife might chide a release, an estimated audience of forty- ous film spectator and “substitute direc- husband for falling asleep in front of three million watched the March 25 tele- tor/auteur” (Stam and Pearson 201). the television, something Hitchcock confessed to doing regularly. cast of the Oscars (Doherty, Hollywood’s In several analyses of the film, this One might also consider the timing Censor 2), and the Army-McCarthy interpretation has become the theoreti- of Rear Window. The film was made hearings were broadcast to twenty-two cal “given,” and is further developed in, in 1954, at the advent of the television million daytime viewers from April to for example, Mulvey’s feminist obser- era. It is plausible to see commentary June that same year (Doherty, “Army- vations on scopophilia and male domi- in the film on the way the voyeurism of the cinema was seeping into the McCarthy Hearings”). But like most nance in mainstream Hollywood films home, how America was entering an film directors in the 1950s, Hitchcock (719–29). Stam and Pearson base their era of even more intense and isolated kept the mise-en-scène of Rear Window discussion of the film on this premise, voyeurism. Hitchcock himself would devoid of television. Or did he? As Jef- but they also quote Foucault’s descrip- discover television as a resource for feries’ primary form of entertainment, tion of the panopticon to describe the marketing his brand of voyeurism the very next year when he would televise he gazes out of the window that critics spectacle Jefferies observes: “so many his Alfred Hitchcock Presents show. since the 1960s have interpreted as a cages, so many small theaters, in which Consciously or unconsciously, Rear metaphor for cinema. However, I would each actor is alone, perfectly individu- Window was made at a time when tele- suggest that the domestic setting, the alized and constantly visible” (203). vision was poised to do to millions of plural spectacles, and the interpretive This image might better apply not to American [sic] just what Jeff’s win- dows do to him: turn him into a Peep- conversations among the spectators in the singular spectacle that is cinema, ing Tom, who, as Stella says, needs to Jefferies’ apartment can be seen as a ref- but instead to the simultaneous/compet- take a good look inside for a change. erence to television, the mass medium ing stories on the channels of television, (130) that by the time of Rear Window’s pro- to which the spectator can turn as he or In proposing an interpretation of Jeff’s duction was sweeping the nation, and a she wishes. Jefferies, seated in his living activity as television watching rather medium which Hitchcock himself was room, is watching not one movie, but an than as a metaphor for cinema, Fawell on the verge of exploring creatively and array of small windows, each revealing identifies several elements to be dis- financially. little stories to which he switches at will. cussed in this article. But even in open- Only one writer has heretofore sug- ing up these possibilities, he limits his gested that the viewing activity in Jeff’s analysis to the standard critique of tele- Rear Window, apartment could be understood as some- vision (escapist, sleep-inducing, and Another Look thing other than cinematic. In Hitch- because of its low-art connotations then cock’s Rear Window: The Well-Made and until recently, a guilty pleasure). The accepted interpretation of Film (2001), John Fawell offers two Moreover, he makes no mention of Lisa Rear Window has evolved from Jean paragraphs, quoted here in their entirety or Stella as spectators. He then aban- Douchet’s observations in “Hitch and to be clear: dons this idea by the beginning of his His Public” (originally published in In fact, it may be more to the point to next chapter, reaffirming that the film is, 1960, translated into English in 1961), see Jeff as a television watcher rather among other things, “a commentary… which identifies Stewart/Jefferies as than a filmgoer. The set of Rear Win- on the nature of film going and film dow resembles a crude anticipation a spectator and a voyeur who “invents of the remote control, with Jeff going viewing” (135). his own cinema” (19). Douchet’s ob- back and forth from one story to an- However, Fawell’s mention of the servations have been elaborated using other. Jeff’s habits are similar to those film’s cultural and historical contexts Baudry’s concept of the cinematic appa- of someone watching television. Jeff in the above passage suggests the rel- ratus as the centerpiece, employing ide- uses the windows as an escape from his evance of a television-oriented inter- troubles. Twice after squabbles with ological and psychoanalytic approaches Lisa, the night she leaves angrily and pretation to our understanding of Hitch- to get at the role of the spectator in cin- the night she goes off, hurt, to prepare cock in 1950’s America as director and ema as he (note gender) makes sense of dinner, Jeff seems sincerely troubled producer. The following discussion will the spectacle. The rear window itself, by their fights. But within moments, draw from scholarship in cultural histo- some say, has the aspect ratio of wide- a cloud of guiltiness crosses over his ries of American media in the 1950s and face and his eyes sneak to the window. screen cinema (Curtis 28). The progres- Like a television viewer, he eats while theoretical work in media studies, as sively larger lenses Jefferies uses for watching the windows. Stella chides well as recent biographies of Hitchcock “close-ups,” and his interpretations of him for falling asleep in front of the and his contemporaries. Channeling Rear Window 91 The Context of Rear Window By the time Hitchcock was shooting Rear Window he was poised to assume a central place in the shifting media land- scape. As a result of his 1939 contract with producer David O. Selznick, the Selznick talent agency represented the director through the early 1940s. The agency was purchased by New York talent agent Leland Hayward,1 whose Hayward-Deverich agency was in turn bought by the Music Corporation of America in 1945, bringing along major stars, writers, and directors, including Hitchcock and (McGil- ligan 407). Originally a talent agency for live music and radio, MCA had es- tablished a practice of obtaining “blan- ket waivers” with the musicians’ union (American Federation of Musicians), allowing the agency to both represent individual artists and produce the radio programs on which they would appear (Wasko 143). The practice continued as MCA moved into the film industry. Lew Wasserman, president of the company by 1946, became “the matchmaker be- tween Hitchcock and Stewart,” accord- ing to Hitchcock biographer Patrick Mc- Rear Window (1954). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures/ Gilligan (407). Wasserman negotiated Photofest. Stewart’s appearance in Hitchcock’s Rope in 1948, and eventually a nine-pic- by its subsidiary, Revue. Wasserman “If Hitchcock can do it, why can’t you?” ture deal between Hitchcock and Para- worked with stars such as Jack Benny (McDougal 252). mount, which would include Stewart’s and Errol Flynn, as well as Hitchcock, In the wake of the 1948 Paramount starring roles in Rear Window, The Man to create independent production com- decision, which had forced the studios Who Knew Too Much, and Vertigo (see panies, “allowing [the stars] to mini- to eliminate long-term contracts with also McDougal 205). mize taxes while exploiting their star actors, writers, and directors, MCA By 1952, Wasserman oversaw the salaries and expanding their influence moved into the void and “became creation of Revue Productions, a new in movie production” (McDougal 252; known as ‘The Octopus’ because its subsidiary of MCA, based at Universal Anderson 262–64; Schatz, Genius 470– tentacles extended into every aspect of Studios (Schatz, Genius 484). Revue 72). It’s important to note that through the entertainment business” (McDougal produced many of television’s early an- his connection with Wasserman, Hitch- 123). In addition, the FCC’s 1948 freeze thology series, such as General Electric cock would have seen the rapid devel- on the issuance of new television sta- Theater, hosted by MCA client Ronald opment of television, as well as the fi- tion licenses was lifted in April, 1952, Reagan, who also was president of the nancial benefits of the percentage deals allowing for the rapid rise of television Screen Actors Guild. Through these con- and tax advantages Wasserman was able penetration into cities previously lack- nections, Wasserman revived the sort of to negotiate in the new medium. In an ing access to TV programming (Bar- waiver that had proved so advantageous interview with the Los Angeles Times, nouw 140). The programming climate for MCA in the past, this time with stars Hitchcock quipped, “I am entering tele- of American television in the early-to- of both film and television. He “pack- vision because I am the tip of a tendril. I mid 1950s included musical and variety aged” series for television networks by am a slave to MCA” (qtd. in McGilligan shows, sports, news, educational series, providing program writers, directors, 515). In turn, the director’s name was and of course fiction, which ranged and stars from the MCA client list for used by MCA when other clients balked from prestigious live anthology drama programs that would then be produced at working in television; said one agent, series to telefilmed Western and science 92 JPF&T—Journal of Popular Film and Television

the show was “an immediate success” (Schatz, The Genius 484), soon to be- come “a mega-hit” (McDougal 253).

“Little Stories” Rear Window was in production dur- ing this period of televisual excitement, but the cinematic analogy has domi- nated critics’ discussion of the film. Stam and Pearson acknowledge theatri- cal allusions in the script, but ultimately describe the characters viewed across the courtyard as having “strayed directly from the various genres of the classic Hollywood film” (201). Indeed, most critics seem to accept the many theat- rical references (e.g. Lisa’s line, “the opening night of the last week of L.B. Jefferies in a cast”) as not incongruent with the cinema metaphor. John Bel- ton observes numerous “spectacles… Rear Window (1954). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Shown: Georgine Darcy. Photo courtesy compris[ing] the film’s narrative,” how- of Paramount Pictures/Photofest. ever (3). Recalling Tom Gunning’s de- scriptions of pre-1906 films as “the cin- fiction series to sitcoms. As Thomas serve as executive producer, and direct ema of attractions”—“a series of loosely Schatz, Janet Wasko, and Christopher an “unspecified” number of episodes connected acts or attractions, resem- Anderson have shown, the film indus- (McCarty and Kelleher 13–15). Sham- bling, in part, the structure of a vaude- try was eager to get involved in the new ley Productions, named after an English ville show,” Belton argues the spectacle medium. The Disney Studio was one summer cottage Hitchcock and his wife seen from L.B. Jefferies’s window is of the earliest forays in October, 1954, owned for many years, became the pro- similar. Although Rear Window “has with its ABC deal giving the network a duction company for Alfred Hitchcock a strong narrative line,” he suggests 30% share of the new Disneyland theme Presents (1955–1962) and later the Al- the display of the apartment dwellers’ park and the studio a weekly series fred Hitchcock Hour (1962–1965), as lives constitutes a “montage of attrac- (Anderson 133–55; Schatz, The Genius well as a short-lived series, Suspicion tions” (3). For Belton, then, the cinema 477). By 1955, Warner Bros. had begun (1957–1958). metaphor doesn’t apply to cinema as we another weekly series with ABC, rotat- According to McGilligan, Hitchcock have come to know it, but to the more ing programs of three different genres “wasn’t himself a big TV watcher (he presentational mode of cinema’s earliest based on successful Warner Bros. films liked quiz shows…and public affairs years—a mode more often associated (Anderson 155–90). programs)….[and] saw the epidemic with television. Early in 1955, some seven months af- popularity of television as a threat to the Such evidence allows expansion on ter Rear Window was released, Wasser- film industry, to which he was unreserv- Fawell’s suggestion that Hitchcock, man proposed to Hitchcock a TV series edly loyal” (514). But the climate was whether conscious or unconscious of the that would tie in with the recently (in- perfect for Hitchcock, already a brand new television venture he would embark dependently) launched Alfred Hitchcock name in a way few Hollywood direc- upon in the following year, might have Mystery Magazine. After his original tors were at the time, to bring his spe- been exploring the nature of the new reluctance to become involved in the cial blend of suspense and dark humor medium. Barnouw and Spigel have each new, less prestigious medium, Hitch- to TV, and Wasserman had little trouble described TV content of the early 1950s cock agreed to put his name on the mys- setting up Alfred Hitchcock Presents as ranging from the prestigious live an- tery anthology series, act as on-air host, on CBS. Premiering in the fall of 1955, thology dramas to the vaudeville-based

Early in 1955, some seven months after Rear Window was released, Wasserman proposed to Hitchcock a TV series that would tie in with the recently (independently) launched Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Channeling Rear Window 93

As Jefferies looks out his window, he turns, repeatedly—one might say obsessively—not to one grand, cinematic spectacle, but to many smaller entertainments, little stories in lighted framed rooms … variety shows, as well as narrative series through television, drama had become genres. The dancing Miss Torso and the from Westerns to sitcoms, increasingly habit: “The slice of life, once a project music composer come from the world of produced as “telefilm.” Schatz describes of naturalist drama, is now a voluntary, the variety and musical shows that were the programming as “genre-bound,” not- habitual, internal rhythm…that of a ba- popular at the time, both of which are ing the ratings show “how heavily TV’s sic need” (4). He observes, too, that the narrativized in the film with a “turn” at genres were keyed to certain East Coast naturalist dramatists: their stories’ conclusion; the newlywed couple and the couple on the terrace entertainment forms, particularly the created, above all, rooms…rooms in ‘culture industries’ based in and around which life was centered, but inside with their dog suggest sitcoms which New York City—not only radio and ad- which people waited for the knock on take different turns toward the end; Miss vertising but also theater, vaudeville, the door, the letter or the message, the Lonelyhearts is the sort of downbeat music, and publishing” (“Desilu” 119). shout from the street, to know what melodrama that Barnouw says led to the would happen to them…There is a demise of the anthology drama—indeed, The Greenwich Village setting of Rear direct cultural continuity…from those Window, with its cast of minor charac- enclosed rooms, enclosed and lighted Stam and Pearson compare Miss Lone- ters, many of whom are associated with framed rooms, to the rooms in which lyhearts to the “social realist film Marty” the arts, captures cultural aspects of we watch the framed images of tele- (201), which was a television drama be- New York, but neither cinema nor tele- vision: at home, in our own lives, but fore it was adapted to feature film. The needing to watch what is happening, as most compelling story seen from Jeffer- vision is mentioned directly. Broadcast- we say, “out there.”…(6, my emphasis) ing is represented only by the “radio” ies’ window concerns the disappearance elements of the film’s soundtrack, even As Jefferies looks out his window, he of Mrs. Thorwald and her husband’s bi- though Manhattan was the hub of both turns, repeatedly—one might say ob- zarre behavior the night she disappears. live radio and television production at sessively—not to one grand, cinematic This is, of course, a murder mys- the time. spectacle, but to many smaller entertain- tery—not one that unfolds seamlessly, According to McGilligan, Grace ments, little stories in lighted framed in the tradition of Hollywood cinema, Kelly recalled during the production of rooms, “representations and perfor- but still the genre that Alfred Hitchcock (in 1953) that Hitch- mances,” as Williams says, of different Presents would employ beginning with cock “sat and talked to me about [Rear Window] all the time…He talked to me about the people who could be seen in other apartments opposite the ‘rear win- dow,’ and their little stories, and how they would emerge as characters and what would be revealed” (McGilligan 471–72). “Little stories” was Hitch- cock’s own term for the vignettes of the apartment dwellers (McGilligan 483). Later, in an interview regarding Alfred Hitchcock Presents, he told the Los Angeles Times “I have always wanted to work in the short story…The small, simple tale of a single idea building to a turn, a twist at the end. A little shocker. The story that’s lost, when stretched to the length of a movie” (McGilligan 523). Cultural critic Raymond Williams, speaking of television two decades later, offered a description that both echoes Hitchcock and expounds upon the television viewer’s experience. He remarked that television had contrib- Rear Window (1954). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Shown from left: , Grace uted to the dramatization of society, and Kelly, James Stewart. Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures/Photofest. 94 JPF&T—Journal of Popular Film and Television

As Jeff watches, the Thorwald plotline is interrupted no less than eighteen times, sometimes by intrusions from the outside world (such as Stella’s or Lisa’s arrival), and sometimes by Jefferies himself, as he switches his attention to other windows.

its premiere in 1955. Indeed, like a tele- expand to the new labor-saving appli- “different things” than Jeff. Neverthe- vision program it is punctuated by inter- ances that were so much a part of mar- less, Jeff’s new disability makes him ruptions, for us, the spectators of Rear ried life in the fifties, just as Jeff feared. a domesticated spectator—part of the Window, and for Jefferies as he intermit- Spigel notes television became “the home theater audience and part of the tently watches, dozes, converses with most sought-after appliance for sale in 1950s “family” in which the emascu- various visitors, eats and drinks, and post-war America” (3), but the televi- lated male figure participated in the checks on the “stories” of the other resi- sion is conspicuously absent from Jeff’s “low culture” of television (Spigel 61). dents simultaneously occurring across list as he speaks to his editor. Signifi- As Jeff watches, the Thorwald plot- the way. It is the “distracted” mode of cantly, Spigel pairs the acceptance of TV line is interrupted no less than eighteen watching ascribed to television as early into the postwar home with the “central times, sometimes by intrusions from as the 1960s by Williams. The narrative preoccupation” of domesticity among the outside world (such as Stella’s or interruptions from commercials would, the middle class (33): “[t]elevision was Lisa’s arrival), and sometimes by Jeffer- in fact, become a running joke on Al- typically welcomed as a catalyst for ies himself, as he switches his attention fred Hitchcock Presents (McCarty and renewed social values” (2). The new to other windows. Fawell’s reference Kelleher 33). “home theater,” with television as the to the remote control is anachronistic, new “hearth” (38), became central to the as he admits, but the ability to switch domestic space over which the woman easily from one station’s fare to another The Domestic/ of the house had control, a power Lisa was a commonly observed (and ridi- is already demonstrating, but hoping to culed) feature of the new medium. In the Domesticated make official through marriage. film, the rhythm of viewing and inter- Spectator(s) Homebound as he is, Jeff is doubly ruption slows as Lisa and Stella become emasculated, confined to feminine space engrossed in the mystery along with Jeff Because of visits from Stella, Doyle, and with his leg in a cast. Modleski has and focus on what we might call “The and especially Lisa, Jeff isn’t the ideal further observed that the standing Lisa Thorwald Story.” Watching the ongo- cinematic spectator. Not only is he towers over chair-bound Jeff in nearly ing “story,” usually in the daytime after frequently interrupted, but rather than every shot (77), and becomes the active Thorwald’s initial nocturnal comings watching in a darkened theater, he does agent in confronting Thorwald. Jeff and and goings, Jeff is often flanked by one his viewing from a domestic setting, Lisa’s initial conflict over the feasibil- or both of the female spectators in the which in the 1950s had become the ity of marriage—a tense conversation sort of “home theater” configuration domain of commercial television and a held face to face, with the window ap- Spigel describes (106), all gazing in the site of female-dominated consumption, pearing only at the edges of the frame in same direction rather than facing one as Lynn Spigel has argued. In the film’s all shots of the scene—echoes postwar another. opening scene, Jeff tells his editor on the negotiations between returning soldiers Engrossed as they are in puzzling phone that his boredom may lead him who had seen combat and male camara- out the murder mystery, Jeff, Lisa, and to “do something drastic like get mar- derie, and women who had moved into Stella are a bit like Joe and his friend ried,” and he recites a list of appliances the workforce in the war years, but who Herb in Hitchcock’s , he would undoubtedly acquire along now also desired a home and family. in both cases enjoying the discussion of with a wife. In her first scene with Jeff, Only when Jeff and Lisa begin focus- a murderous crime from an apparently Lisa proves to be the consumer par ex- ing on the spectacle they watch together safe distance, even as a real murderer cellence, modeling her $1,100 gown and from the home does their relationship is nearby. When Lisa returns to Jeff’s discussing its marketability, identifying begin to move beyond the “status quo” apartment after she has slipped Jeff’s Jeff’s need for a new cigarette case, the Jeff had requested. Modleski observes note (“What have you done with her?”) “simple silver” replacement for which that Lisa stays the night at Jeff’s apart- under Thorwald’s door and escaped dis- she has already purchased, and order- ment on the same night she becomes covery, she is exhilarated, her eyes spar- ing a lobster dinner from the iconic 21, convinced of his theory (78). kling, and Jeff returns her gaze for the delivered to Jeff’s home. Later she will Looking out his window, piecing to- first time with a look that can only be show off her Mark Cross case, mention- gether what he is convinced is a murder described as love, desire, and joy. They ing the brand name as a savvy consumer story, Jeff becomes part of an interpre- are having fun, a previously disengaged would. The marriage she seeks with Jeff tive community with Stella and Lisa, couple now bonded over their shared would no doubt require Lisa’s tastes to both of whom, as Modleski notes, see viewing experience. Channeling Rear Window 95

ing!” to a woman leaning out of her at last confront the inhabitant who has “Person to Person” window à la Molly Goldberg; a couple been anonymously watching since the According to Spigel, the postwar de- sleeps on their terrace—a humorous pair death of Anna Thorwald. mographic shift to the suburbs encour- who lower their little dog to the court- aged “a generalized sense of isolation- yard in a clever basket contraption to ism” (100) in which television and the the sound of her whistling (she is called “Beat the Clock” new array of labor-saving appliances the “Siffleuse”—the Whistler—in the served to replaced community-based screenplay). Even Thorwald, who has As Spigel has pointed out, because of activities: a refrigerator eliminated the already told the Sculptress to “shut up” its domestic setting, television of the fif- need for daily shopping, a washing ma- when she offers gardening advice, gen- ties, especially daytime television, made chine precluded trips to more commu- tly shoos the dog away from his flower every effort to appeal to female viewers. nal laundry facilities, and so on. Spigel garden. But later when the Siffleuse sees Daytime TV in the fifties included soap notes a 1955 survey by Fortune maga- her little dog dead, strangled, her scream operas, as is often noted, but also game zine which concluded: and grief-stricken address to the entire shows and talk/variety shows, which courtyard momentarily unites a com- included celebrity guests, musical stars, [i]n the postwar years the community munity of strangers—everyone except activity most affected was spectator- and audience participation segments. ship. By far, the greatest [economic] Thorwald looks out their windows, but Lisa and Stella are spectators who be- slump was in the spectator amuse- turn back to their own apartments as come audience participants. Jeff is able ments—most strikingly in movie at- soon as the “show” is over: to persuade them of his hypothesis re- tendance, but also in baseball, hockey, garding Mrs. Thorwald’s murder, but it theater and concert admissions… Which one of you did it?… American spectators had moved in- You don’t know the meaning of the is the women who explore what they all doors where high fidelity sound and word “neighbor”! Neighbors like each agree is the related mystery of the mur- television promised more and better other, speak to each other, care if any- dered dog. When Jeff calls Thorwald entertainment than in ”the golden age body lives or dies. But none of you to lure him out of the apartment, he is of the box office.” (qtd. in Spigel 106) do… in the powerful position of creating the Did you kill him because he liked you? disturbance and seeing its result—he is Spigel argues that to counter the post- Just because he liked you? war family’s isolation television fami- not only a voyeur, but a provocateur, as lies, especially in sitcoms such as The Clearly Hitchcock draws a distinction Belton has noted (14), with the control Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, pro- between real community relationships, of a film director or a TV producer. vided weekly visits from “neighbors.” which involve two-way interactions, Lisa and Stella examine the flower These television families “maintain[ed] and artificial “neighbors,” whether bed, with Lisa standing watch, and the ideals of community but plac[ed] they are the isolated inhabitants visible Stella digging among the flowers Jeff them at a fictional distance” (120–32). from their windows, or, perhaps the had observed became “shorter” over Another sort of television “visit” offered electronic neighborhood provided by two weeks. The danger at this point is by CBS from1953 to 1961 was Edward television (Jeff “names” his neighbors relatively minor—Thorwald is out fol- R. Murrow’s “Person to Person,” in in part because he doesn’t know their lowing Jeff’s call, and the courtyard is which Murrow and the television au- real names, which is why Lisa dashes empty of the Sculptress and the couple dience were welcomed into the homes across the courtyard to get Thorwald’s who lost their dog. Despite their grim of celebrities including Frank Sinatra, from his mailbox). Responding to Jeff’s motivation, Lisa and Stella, shovel at Marilyn Monroe, and a young Senator theories about Thorwald’s behavior, the ready, in some ways resemble Lucy John F. Kennedy and his wife. The show Doyle cautions him to keep his distance and Ethel embarking on one of their offered a bizarre simulacrum of neigh- and not jump to conclusions: “That’s a schemes. Their femaleness invites the borly closeness, in which millions of secret, private world you’re looking at male cinema spectator of the 1950s Americans got to see celebrities’ home out there. People do a lot of things they to dismiss their activity as minor and décor, prized possessions, even their can’t explain.” The dog’s murder and its somewhat amusing as they poke around pets. owner’s confrontation with the isolated the flower garden and mime their In the early scenes of Rear Window, window watchers introduces another empty-handedness to Jefferies. neighborliness seems natural and un- murder mystery and foreshadows the Finding nothing, Lisa crosses the forced: the Sculptress says “Good morn- ending of the film when Thorwald will courtyard to investigate the Thorwalds’

Daytime TV in the fifties included soap operas, as is often noted, but also game shows and talk/variety shows, which included celebrity guests, musical stars, and audience participation segments. Lisa and Stella are spectators who become audience participants. 96 JPF&T—Journal of Popular Film and Television apartment, becoming an actor in the But direct address to the audience was, point the “Thorwald Story” becomes a drama, as several critics have noted. and continues to be, part of the language different drama altogether, as he gazes Lisa, nimbly scaling the fire escape of presentational television, from news- directly at Jeff and us, his audience. As in her full skirt and heels, climbs into casters and game show hosts to stand- Fawell notes, Hitchcock uses this dis- Thorwald’s window—a swashbuckling up comedians (Spigel 143–44). It was concerting gaze (a look through a win- maneuver suggesting the heroism and also employed in many live television dow) in when Marion, who has active subjectivity Modelski has ob- commercials of the day. Faye Emerson, just stolen $40,000 from her employer served—and enters as a participant in another blonde, elegant actress, had her and lied about a headache to leave work the murder mystery she, Jeff, and Stella own talk show and became the glamor- early, locks eyes with her boss through had only previously been watching. ous spokesperson/model in appliance her car’s windshield as he crosses the Stella rejoins Jeff to watch the proceed- commercials, in both cases employing street at an intersection (132). This di- ings as Lisa is framed in the series of a direct address to the viewers at home. rect gaze breaks expectations and con- windows of the Thorwald apartment, As Lisa did in the courtyard when she ventions of privacy or safety, such that Jeff writhing as he helplessly watches, and Stella directly addressed Jeff’s (and the recipient feels caught, exposed. but both he and Stella are temporarily our) gaze, now in Thorwald’s apartment When Thorwald looks out of his distracted by the drama of Miss Lone- she “demonstrates,” with exaggerated window, returning Jeff’s and our gaze, lyhearts’ near suicide in the apartment gestures and direct looks at the specta- the murder mystery contained in Thor- below. As music from the composer’s tor, the emptiness of the purse. wald’s apartment—contained like all apartment reaches both Lisa and Miss When Thorwald enters, finds Lisa and the other generic narratives we have Lonelyhearts, however, both stop to lis- begins to struggle with her, the drama been following in the course of Rear ten, framed in two windows, one above takes a serious turn, and the fourth wall Window—breaks out of the “framed the other. Although Modleski describes is reestablished. Ironically, Jeff calls out rooms” and into the “home theater” of this as a “ʻsplit screen’ effect” (82), to the spectacle who can’t hear, “Lisa, Jeff’s apartment. In addition to the ac- which would become popular in cinema what are you doing?” Stam and Pearson cusatory exchange between Marion in the later fifties and the sixties, the two argue that his is the action of the im- and her employer, Thorwald’s gaze an- “screens” here could also be seen as the mobilized cinema spectator, but cinema ticipates the final mad look of Norman competition between two television dra- etiquette frowns on such verbal involve- Bates/Mother glowering into the lens, mas, “on” at the same time. ment in the theater. That is not the case acknowledging, recognizing, knowing When Thorwald appears in the street with television, however. Indeed, Liebes the spectator’s presence. below and enters the apartment building, and Katz’s study of conversation among In the confrontation between Jeff and the suspense operates on two levels, for Dallas viewers suggests talk during Thorwald, then, Rear Window moves Jeff as Lisa’s helpless spectator, and for TV viewing is frequent and can be di- beyond what can comfortably be con- us, watching both Jeff and Lisa, neither rected either to the TV characters, to sidered a film metaphor as the drama of them able to stop Thorwald. Unaware fellow viewers, or both. Jeff, Lisa, and from Thorwald’s apartment erupts from of her danger in Thorwald’s apartment, Stella’s conversation during the unfold- its framed space. After Jeff has con- Lisa breaks the “fourth wall” when she ing drama has been a mutually accepted ferred with Doyle on the phone about finds Mrs. Thorwald’s purse, an item to activity throughout, and as Lisa’s situ- Lisa’s arrest and hangs up, he answers which Lisa has attributed great value in ation becomes dire, Jeff speaks to the the next call as if it were his old friend feminine culture, and to which she is “screen” as television viewers often do. Doyle again. However, it is Thorwald connected through her own Mark Cross When the police arrive in response to in the aural version of his direct gaze, bag, as Modelski notes (78); she looks Jeff’s call, their attention is first on Thor- breaking through the safety and power directly at the spectator (Jeff, Stella, wald for manhandling Lisa, but turns to Jeff had felt with his earlier anonymous and us) to show her discovery of Anna Lisa who is arrested for breaking and call to the murderer. Thorwald’s subse- Thorwald’s purse. This gaze into the entering. Once safe from Thorwald, but quent invasion of Jeff’s apartment thus lens is a departure from classical Holly- still in the framed space of the Thorwald offers a horror of a new kind, a horror wood cinema as well as the conventions apartment, Lisa breaks the wall once that was being fought among critics and of television drama. It has an accepted more to “demonstrate” to her audience legislators concerned about TV content place in theater as asides and narrators’ of Jeff and Stella her discovery of Mrs. “invading” the home, blurring the line addresses to the audience, and at the Thorwald’s wedding ring, which Lisa between public and private (Spigal 117). time was selectively used in film as a now “models” on her left hand. Thor- When Thorwald enters Jeff’s domestic self-reflexive, often comic technique. wald follows Lisa’s gaze, and from this space, he brings the reality of murder to

As Lisa did in the courtyard when she and Stella directly addressed Jeff’s (and our) gaze, now in Thorwald’s apartment she “demonstrates,” with exaggerated gestures and direct looks at the spectator, the emptiness of the purse. Channeling Rear Window 97

Thorwald’s gaze anticipates the final mad look of Norman Bates/Mother glowering into the lens, acknowledging, recognizing, knowing the spectator’s presence.

a spectator who heretofore has merely some cities, had gained the capacity to As a contributor to a weekly maga- watched, speculated, and been enter- become the dominant mass medium. zine, Jeff was part of a medium losing tained. Jeff’s spectatorial immobility The year after the release of Rear Win- favor among advertisers and audiences becomes a concrete reality, and Thor- dow, Alfred Hitchcock Presents would (Spigel 7). In this context, Rear Window wald has become more than a charac- premiere, and it would occupy a popular becomes a parable for the changes in ter in an entertaining mystery. “The spot in the Nielsen ratings for the next American entertainment in the 1950s. Thorwald Story” has come to life, the ten years. In criticism of television during the fif- murderous character has become real, At this point in his career, Hitchcock ties, Spigel notes, the new medium was and he has entered Jeff’s living room in was a confident director and considered thought to turn men “into passive home- a way that television, not cinema, was an expert on cinema who would later bodies” (61), a reasonable description invading American homes. Jeff’s at- write the entry on “Film Production” of Jeff himself. His recent injury forces tempt to fend off Thorwald with his only for the Encyclopedia Britannica in 1965 him to be a domesticated spectator— tool—a camera—barely slows down his (Auiler 21). Almost from the beginning part of the television home theatre audi- attacker. And while the violence done of his career Hitchcock explored the na- ence and part of a “family” in which the to Mrs. Thorwald occurred out of sight, ture of cinema in his films, as he cer- emasculated male figure participates in “offscreen,” Jeff’s struggle with the tainly does in Rear Window. Given the the newest form of popular culture. real Thorwald is a horrific culmination timing of the production of Rear Win- From this perspective, a number of of the spectacular entertainment he has dow, however, it would also seem likely the film’s themes can be seen in a new found from his rear window. that he would be interested in exploring light. In the context of television’s do- After Thorwald has pushed him from the similarities and differences among mesticity, the marriage Lisa desires the window, Jeff’s rescue by police various forms of popular entertain- and Jeff wishes to escape can be seen takes place outside the window frames, ment—theater, film, and television. as a contrast not only to Jeff’s adven- seeming to reestablish life outside a mediated world. In the final scene, the camera pans around the courtyard to provide some closure to each of the other little stories we have been follow- ing in the film, with Jeff and Lisa shar- ing domestic space, no longer riveted to the window, but napping and reading, with Lisa now in jeans, also tailoring her entertainment depending on Jeff’s attention. There is still no television in evidence.

Window on the World Despite the seemingly timeless na- ture of the cinematic experience, the industrial and cultural context of Rear Window is bound to specific elements in America’s media history. Hollywood film in the 1950s faced competition from domestic independent productions (such as those Hitchcock himself was plan- ning in cooperation with Paramount), as well as an influx of foreign films. With the lifting of the freeze on television sta- Rear Window (1954). Directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Shown: Raymond Burr. Photo courtesy tion licenses, TV, already on the rise in of Paramount Pictures/Photofest. 98 JPF&T—Journal of Popular Film and Television

[Jeff and Lisa’s] relationship grows as they stay in his apartment and watch, follow, and interpret the little stories in framed rooms.

turous, exotic career, but also to Lisa’s Note tory of Hollywood. New York: Crown, life of glamour. They will both have 1. The name “Leland Hayward” is slipped 1998. Print. to change for the relationship to work. into Lisa’s chatter about her busy day in her McGilligan, Patrick. Alfred Hitchcock: A first scene in Rear Window. Life in Darkness and Light. New York: The paradigm of couples we see in the Harper, 2003. Print. film—“shows” about the various stages Modleski, Tania. The Women Who Knew Too of marriage—emphasize the need for Works Cited Much: Hitchcock and Feminist Theory. love, courage, humor, and imagination. Anderson, Christopher. Hollywood TV: The New York: Methuen, 1988. Print. Studio System in the Fifties. Austin: U of Lisa has shown she is capable of adven- Mulvey, Laura. “Visual Pleasure and Narra- Texas P, 1994. Print. tive Cinema.” Film Theory & Criticism. ture. Jeff, by circumstance, has become Auiler, Dan. Hitchcock’s Notebooks: An Au- 7th ed. Ed. Leo Braudy and Marshall Co- tamed, domesticated—his global lens re- thorized and Illustrated Look Inside the hen. New York: Oxford, 2009. 711–22. duced to the gaze of a restless homebody. Creative Mind of Alfred Hitchcock. New Print. Their relationship grows as they stay in York: Harper, 2001. Print. Schatz, Thomas. “Desilu, I Love Lucy, and his apartment and watch, follow, and in- Barnouw, Eric. Tube of Plenty: The Evolu- the Rise of Network TV.” Making Televi- tion of American Television. 2nd rev. ed. sion: Authorship and the Production Pro- terpret the little stories in framed rooms. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1990. Print. cess. Ed. Robert J. Thompson and Gary Spigel cites an episode from Fire- Belton, John. “Introduction: Spectacle and Burns. New York: Praeger, 1990. 117–35. side Theater (also produced in1954 by Narrative,” Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Win- Print. MCA’s Revue Productions). The plot dow. Ed. . Cambridge: Cam- ——. 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Marshall Deutelbaum of Stewart as Jefferies merges the image Television. Web. 6 Aug. 2015. and Leland Poague. Malden: Wiley, 2009. of the feminized, domesticated male ——. Hollywood’s Censor: Joseph I. Breen 199–211. Print. with that of the A-list movie star who in & the Production Code Administration. Wasko, Janet. “Hollywood and Television in the mid-1950s also starred in a number New York: Columbia UP, 2007. Print. the 1950s: The Roots of Diversification.” The Fifties: Transforming the Screen, of violent Westerns directed by Anthony Douchet, Jean. “Hitch and His Public,” A Hitchcock Reader. 2nd ed. Ed. Marshall 1950–1959. Ed. Peter Lev. Berkeley: U of Mann. Jeff might indeed be the “substi- Deutelbaum and Leland Poague. Malden: California P, 2003. 127–46. Print. tute” for Hitchcock, armed with his pho- Wiley, 2009. 17–24. Print. Williams, Raymond. “Television in a Dra- tographic tools and storytelling tropes, Fawell, John. Hitchock’s Rear Window: The matised Society.” Raymond Williams on but when he trains his lens through his Well-Made Film. Carbondale: Southern Il- Television: Selected Writings. Ed. Alan linois UP, 2001. Print. O’Connor. London: Routledge, 1989. rear window, he sees a new mediascape. 3–13. Print. His view may be privileged, but it is no Liebes, Tamar, and Elihu Katz. The Export of Meaning: Cross-Cultural Meanings of longer exclusive, attended as he is by Dallas. 2nd ed. New York: Oxford UP, other, female spectators with different Sue Brower teaches in the School of Theatre 1993. Print. + Film at Portland State University, Port- interpretations, judgments, behaviors. McCarty, John, and Brian Kelleher. Alfred land, Oregon, and has taught broadcasting The spectacle he views from a safe dis- Hitchcock Presents: An Illustrated Guide history in addition to film and media studies. tance becomes the specter of a new me- to the Ten-Year Television Career of the She has written on genre and gender in film Master of Suspense. New York: St. Mar- and television, as well as fan activity. Her dium that would confront him and the tin’s, 1985. Print. American film industry, threatening its current project examines genre hybridity in McDougal, Dennis. The Last Mogul: Lew “The Monstrous and the New Musical.” very existence. Wasserman, MCA, and the Hidden His- Copyright of Journal of Popular Film & Television is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.