Image Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Rearwindowposter.jpg
“The Rear Window” By Alfred Hitchcock is based on the short story “It Had To Be Murder” by Cornell Woolrich. Thus there are quite a bit of similarities between the two. “The Rear Window” is based on professional photographer Jeffries. He broke his leg while doing a photo assignment and is stuck on a wheel chair in his tiny city apartment. To pass time he views out his rear window which overlooks a courtyard surrounded by other apartment buildings. In the story “It Had To Be Murder” the main character is named also Jeff and he too is confined to his apartment however his profession is not revealed.
The first notable difference between the two stories is the characters observed by Jeffries and the main character in “It Had To Be Murder” Jeff. In the movie the characters observed are a young couple who has just moved in an adjacent apartment, an older lady, a lonely lady, a ballet dancer, a young professional man who enjoys playing the piano often, and a couple where the wife is ill in bed. In the short story by Woolrich the characters are a young couple, a lonely widow lady with a baby, and a the couple with the ill wife. In the movie, Jeffries has a female servant who nags on him for being a “peeping tom”. In Woolrich’s story, the Jeff’s servant is a male named Sam.
When Jeffries begins observing out his window his servant accuses him of being a “peeping tom”. At first he does not observe anything particular, just the same old daily routines. Jeffries also has a very good looking girlfriend (Lisa) but he does not think they are compatible as they live two completely different lives. He is a photographer accustomed to living in harsh conditions and dangerous assignments. Lisa on the other hand is used to the high life in the city and living a life of glamour. In the movie Lisa comes and visits him and treats him dinner and such, however he is actually bothered by this as he does not feel the relationship will last. The servant pushes Jeffries to pay more attention to Lisa rather than his rear window. In Woolrich’s story Jeff does not have a girlfriend.
In the movie, the story takes a turn one night while Jeffries is looking out his window. He notices that the couple with the ill wife is acting differently. The husband one night keeps entering and leaving his apartment into the wee hours of the night. Jeffries remains observing the apartment until he ends up falling asleep in the early AM. Once he awakens he realizes that he fell asleep and possibly missed something important. He realizes the wife is no longer in the apartment. Jeffries also notices that the husband is acting suspiciously, and is clearing his hand bag. The hand bag contains knives and other suspicious objects. In the movie Jeffries instantly becomes suspicious of wrong doing.
In the Woolrich story Jeff is observing out his window and he too notices unusual activity going on in the Thorwald residence. He notices Thorwald is acting strangely, but brushes it off as him just being concerned for his ill wife. In the story Thorwald is seen immediately packing a truck with women’s clothes. In the movie it takes a bit to build up to that point. In the movie Lisa also plays a large role. At first she is concerned with Jeffries behavior and obsession with the Thorwald apartment, however after seeing for herself that odd things were occurring in the Thorwald apartment she becomes interested.
In the movie a police detective (Doyle) visits Jeffries and is asked to do some investigation by Jeffries. In Woolrich’s story Jeff contacts him by phone and the two had not spoken in years. In the movie the detective Doyle quickly becomes irritated by Jeffries as he believes he is wasting his time. In the story the detective is more open to helping Jeff, but just wants more solid proof.
One Jeffries becomes more and more suspicious he sends Lisa to do investigative work at the Thorwald apartment. In the Woolrich story Jeff sends Sam, his servant. In both stories the characters go to the apartment and drop a note. In both stories the main characters, Jeffries and Jeff respectively look for clues in the Thorwald’s expression. However, this is not sufficient to get him locked up. In the movie, Lisa enters the apartment and goes through the wife’s personal belongins. She discovers the wedding ring is still in the apartment and keeps as proof that Thorwald murdered his wife. The girlfriend is arrested as she is caught trespassing Thorwald’s apartment.
Thorwald in both stories discovers the main character has been spying on him all along and pays a visit. In the movie Jeffries defends himself from Thorwald by a camera flash. Thorwald proceeds to attack Jeffries and tries to throw him over the window. At that same moment the police arrive and are able to subdue Thorwald, Jeffries drops to the courtyard as police try to catch him, he survives the jump. Thorwald is arrested. In Woolrich’s story Thorwald attempts to attack Jeff and then jumps into the courtyard to escape the police. He is then shot dead by officer Boyne. In “The Rear Window” Jeffries breaks his other leg and is seen rehabilitating with Lisa, who now has a found interest in Jeffrie’s work while in the Woolrich story it ends with Jeff taking his cast off.
Both stories are good, I personally enjoyed the movie more. It had more characters, more mysteries to it, and found it to be much more interesting. The story was a little confusing in some parts, and wasn’t very clear to me at times. The movie was also short and always interesting, the filming was done from only one perspective, Jeffrie’s view out of the rear window. This made you feel as if you were in the apartment observing with Jeffries. All in all I really enjoyed the movie.
derekd9 
