Episode 9 – Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954)
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SPECIAL GUESTS
Author Murray Pomerance, “Alfred Hitchcock’s America”
Author John Fawell, “Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window: The Well-Made Film”
This month we are profiling one of the greatest films ever made by a cinematic giant, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1954 thriller Rear Window.
This podcast is non-profit and has been broadcast for educational purposes. Excerpts from the following material has been included to enhance the listener experience:
MOVIES
Rear Window (1954) dir. Alfred Hitchcock, USA
“Bart of Darkness”, The Simpsons (1994) dir. Jim Reardon, USA
Alfred Hitchcock Talking About Fear (2010) YouTube video, iconic
SONGS
“Rebecca – Suite” [Score] (1940) w: Franz Waxman
“Vertigo” [Score] (1958) w: Bernard Herrmann
“Psycho” [Score] (1960) w: Bernard Herrmann
“Obsession” [Score] (1976) w: Bernard Herrmann
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SHOW NOTES
Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” is an epic film, well and truly deserving of its place in the discussion of the best films of all-time. So we’ve done an epic podcast to cover it, and we’ve got an epic set of Show Notes to link you to some interesting discussion of the film. If you love the movie, we hope you’ll enjoy reading more about it.
Our first special guest this month is Murray Pomerance, author of “Alfred Hitchcock’s America” first published in 2013, and “An Eye For Hitchcock” first published in 2004. Murray is a Professor in the Department of Sociology at Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
- Murray Pomerance at Ryerson University
http://www.ryerson.ca/sociology/about-us/faculty/faculty-bios/pomerancem/ - Purchase “Alfred Hitchcock’s America” from publisher Wiley in Hardcover (AU$134.95) or Paperback (AU$33.95)
http://au.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0745653030.html - Purchase “Alfred Hitchcock’s America” from Amazon in Hardcover (US$59.42) or Paperback (US$19.66)
https://www.amazon.com/Alfred-Hitchcocks-America-Murray-Pomerance/dp/0745653030
Our second special guest this month is John Fawell, author of “Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window: The Well-Made Film” first published in 2001. John is a Professor of Humanities at the College of General Studies at Boston University.
- John Fawell at Boston University
https://www.bu.edu/cgs/faculty/humanities-faculty/fawell/ - Purchase “Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window: The Well-Made Film” from Amazon in Hardcover (US$32) or Paperback (US$32)
https://www.amazon.com/Hitchcocks-Rear-Window-Well-Made-Film/dp/0809324008
John Fawell also provided the audio commentary for Universal Studio’s remastered release of the 2008 DVD of “Rear Window”. This audio commentary was carried over to the 2012 Blu-ray release, which is available separately or as part of the 14-movie Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection.
- Check out the Blu-ray.com review of “Rear Window”
http://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Rear-Window-Blu-ray/7738/#Review - Purchase “Rear Window” on Blu-ray from Amazon (US$13.16)
https://www.amazon.com/Rear-Window-Blu-ray-DIGITAL-UltraViolet/dp/B00J2R3W1G/ref=sr_1_1_twi_blu_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1491710571&sr=1-1&keywords=Rear+Window - Purchase “Alfred Hitchcock Masterpiece Collection” on Blu-ray from Amazon (US$42.95)
https://www.amazon.com/Alfred-Hitchcock-Masterpiece-Collection-Blu-ray/dp/B00CQTI9HY/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1491710611&sr=1-1-spons&keywords=Hitchcock&psc=1&smid=A3PUK6M38M0R9N
Filmmaker Jeff Desom created a time lapse of the amazing set used in “Rear Window” which is definitely worth checking out.
http://www.criticalcommons.org/Members/ccManager/clips/spatialized-timelapse-of-hitchcocks-rear-window/view
Or you could just check out 1,000 frames from the movie, courtesy of The Alfred Hitchcock Wiki.
https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/1000_Frames_of_Rear_Window_(1954)
AMC’s excellent Filmsite.org has one of the best write-ups on the movie available anywhere online. It’s a very in-depth analysis of the plot, as well as a brief history of the movie.
http://www.filmsite.org/rear.html
Likewise, Turner Classic Movies has a pretty thorough set of links dealing with the movie, including a synopsis, review, trivia, quotes and behind-the-scenes.
http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/87777/Rear-Window/articles.html
Dramatica have done a comprehensive analysis of “Rear Window”, including a storyform analysis, character analysis and ploy analysis. If you’re interested in how Hitchcock’s film works in any of these ways, this makes for some very interesting reading.
http://dramatica.com/analysis/rear-window
No Film School have done a good analysis of the editing techniques used in the film. ‘How Hitchcock used editing to turn “Rear Window” into a masterpiece of visual storytelling’.
http://nofilmschool.com/2014/07/alfred-hitchcock-editing-rear-window-kuleshov-effect
Dangerous Minds have compiled a series of amazing behind-the-scenes photos, all of which are worthwhile for film historians, Hitchcock fans and lovers of the movie.
http://dangerousminds.net/comments/behind_scenes_alfred_hitchcock_rear_window
If you want to follow us on Letterboxd, we’re always logging and rating films we’ve been watching and occasionally Luke will do some pretty in-depth reviews, too.
Luke Kane: http://www.letterboxd.com/overbreakfast/
Damien Heath: http://www.letterboxd.com/jedikaos/
Cameron Crothers: http://www.letterboxd.com/crot00192/
You can find Celluloid Junkies on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and Pinterest. Luke is also on Twitter, as is Damien.
Thanks again for checking out Celluloid Junkies. We’ll see you next month with a close-up, in depth look at John Huston’s “Key Largo”.