Rear Window

One of Hitchcock's most accessible films is also one of his most gleefully deviant, dealing as it does with such fun urban pastimes as voyeurism and spousal mayhem. As wheelchair-bound maverick photographer L.B. Jeffries, Stewart is top notch, idling away his convalescence by peeping on the neighbors in his Manhattan courtyard flat. Along with socialite love interest Lisa Fremont (Kelly, looking positively diaphanous) and take-no-prisoners nursemaid Stella (Ritter), Jeffries spies what appears to be a murder committed by a gruff, pre-Perry Mason Burr. Based on a Cornell Woolrich short story, this is one of Hitchcock's finest moments, full of subtle humor and nasty black turns, not to mention a wonderful score by Franz Waxman and gorgeous cinematography from longtime Hitchcock director of photography Robert Burks. This new print of Rear Window has been restored by the team of Robert Harris and James Katz (they also worked on the restored Vertigo a few years back) and features a newly reconstructed 35mm negative and dye-transfer Technicolor, which is to say the whole thing looks as good as it did in 1954.