Rear Window: The Use of Angle and Selective Shoots Guides Audiences

     In Rear Window, the psychological activities of Jefferies in It Had to Be Murder is presented by various facial expressions and body gestures, his conversations with Stella and Lisa, and especially the selective long shot of his neighbors. The scenes of the ballet dancer, the Miss. Lonelyheart and the newly married couples, are all apparently biased and created sense of chaos and cynicism in this middle-class community. Then the focus of the camera has shifted to the Thorwalds which is the main line of the movie. In the novel, the stereotyped thoughts and imprudent judges of readers are guided by the thoughts and judgement of Jefferies; however, in the movie, the judges of audiences are directed by the swing of camera, the selective shoots and editing.

     Alfred Hitchcock has adapted It Had to be Murder to film Rear Window. In the movie, except the setting and the plot were kept, Alfred changed the name of characters, added new roles and story lines and established a new love story. In the original script, the story is straight and clear, it happens continuously in an inductive path; while in Alfred’s version, the story has more extents that filled by the lives of other neighbors and Jefferies’ s observation has expanded to the whole neighborhood. In both version, if at the end Jefferies has found his prediction is stereotyped and conspiratorial and Mr. Thorwald is innocent, the story will be an absurd.