Focus Features

James Stewart in Rear Window

What's interesting about Hitchcock is how his films fall into different groupings: the British films like The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, The Secret Agent and The Lady Vanishes show Hitchcock mastering the craft of movie-making and establishing his cinematic signature; then there's the prestigious black-and-white Selznick films like Rebecca, Suspicion and Notorious; finally there are the technicolor, wide-screen glamourous films of the 50s and early 60s like Rear Window, To Catch A Thief, and North by Northwest, where the great technician becomes the great entertainer, though gradually the vision darkens into Vertigo, Psycho and the darkness visible of The Birds.

Even if you look at a single strand from this later period – the films with Grace Kelly – you see the vulnerable victim of Dial M forMurder being teasingly erotic in Rear Window and To Catch A Thief, then being raped on her marriage night in Marnie (the part was written for Grace Kelly, she was slated to do it until it was vetoed by her husband Prince Rainier).  

The sophistication of the entertainments Hitchcock produced in the 50s were due, in large part, to the writer John Michael Hayes, who wrote Rear Window, To Catch A Thief, The Trouble with Harry and The Man Who KnewToo Much.

In his book about the Hitchcock/Hayes collaboration, Steven DeRosa has this to say about Rear Window:

“The short story by Cornell Woolrich, It Had To Be Murder, was anything but a love story. The protagonist, Hal Jefferies, is confined to a single bedroom with an unscreened bay window. The uncomfortably warm weather and lack of exercise have left him with an inability to sleep, and so, to ward off boredom, he takes to observing the nameless, faceless "rear window dwellers" around him.  After noting the abnormal behavior of one neighbor, whose sickly wife has been confined to her bed, Jefferies suspects that the man may have murdered the woman.  It's not until the end of the story that Woolrich reveals the reason Jefferies is confined to his apartment. The doctor says, ‘Guess you can take that cast off your leg now. You must be tired of sitting there all day doing nothing.’”

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James Stewart in Rear Window

What's interesting about Hitchcock is how his films fall into different groupings: the British films like The Man Who Knew Too Much, The 39 Steps, The Secret Agent and The Lady Vanishes show Hitchcock mastering the craft of movie-making and establishing his cinematic signature; then there's the prestigious black-and-white Selznick films like Rebecca, Suspicion and Notorious; finally there are the technicolor, wide-screen glamourous films of the 50s and early 60s like Rear Window, To Catch A Thief, and North by Northwest, where the great technician becomes the great entertainer, though gradually the vision darkens into Vertigo, Psycho and the darkness visible of The Birds.

Even if you look at a single strand from this later period – the films with Grace Kelly – you see the vulnerable victim of Dial M forMurder being teasingly erotic in Rear Window and To Catch A Thief, then being raped on her marriage night in Marnie (the part was written for Grace Kelly, she was slated to do it until it was vetoed by her husband Prince Rainier).  

The sophistication of the entertainments Hitchcock produced in the 50s were due, in large part, to the writer John Michael Hayes, who wrote Rear Window, To Catch A Thief, The Trouble with Harry and The Man Who KnewToo Much.

In his book about the Hitchcock/Hayes collaboration, Steven DeRosa has this to say about Rear Window:

“The short story by Cornell Woolrich, It Had To Be Murder, was anything but a love story. The protagonist, Hal Jefferies, is confined to a single bedroom with an unscreened bay window. The uncomfortably warm weather and lack of exercise have left him with an inability to sleep, and so, to ward off boredom, he takes to observing the nameless, faceless "rear window dwellers" around him.  After noting the abnormal behavior of one neighbor, whose sickly wife has been confined to her bed, Jefferies suspects that the man may have murdered the woman.  It's not until the end of the story that Woolrich reveals the reason Jefferies is confined to his apartment. The doctor says, ‘Guess you can take that cast off your leg now. You must be tired of sitting there all day doing nothing.’”

Hitchcock with Rear Window writer
John Michael Hayes

John Michael Hayes explains how the storyline for Rear Window developed from its details:

“It started with the fact that we had to give Jefferies [James Stewart] a dangerous occupation, a reason to get his leg broken. It was more dramatic having it broken in the line of work, and not just slipping on the stairs. Secondly, I wanted to give him an occupation that would give him an occasion to meet a girl like Lisa [Grace Kelly].  Out of that came her profession.  He's a foreign correspondent, and his editor said, ‘Look, we're out of fashion photographers this week.  We want you to do a layout on an upcoming model named Lisa Fremont.’ And he said, ‘That's not my line of work.’ They said, ‘Well, fill in and do the best you can.’ He did the magazine layout and cover, and that's how they met. She was fascinated with him, and of course he was very interested in her as a woman, but not as a wife in the beginning. He figured models were frivolous, and she certainly has never been off the sidewalk and couldn't live in safari clothes.  He also kind of felt there wasn't much chance for him - with his earthy style and occupation - with a girl who was wined and dined by wealthy men.”

So that's how one thing – to break his leg in an interesting way – led to his occupation, and then led to something that would get him together with Lisa. That's how it grew.  But there was more you could do with it. He had a telescopic lens we could use later with the picture of the flowers going up and down in the garden.  He had flashbulbs to fend off the 'villain.  Out of this grew a whole lot of interesting things.”

Hitchcock found Grace Kelly, with her natural beauty, quiet elegance, endless enthusiasm, and appreciation for bawdy humor, a joy to work with and was determined to create for her a part that would show off these qualities.  While working on Dial Mfor Murder, Hitchcock asked Hayes to meet with the 24-year-old actress, in order to come up with a character that would best suit her.  As Hayes recalls:
“I spent a week with Grace Kelly and got to know that she was whimsical and funny and humorous and teasing.  She was like the girl next door, but she was very sexy and had all these attributes. I had to give her a profession, so I gave her my wife's profession - a high-style fashion model. I combined the best that I saw in Grace Kelly, the best in my wife, and created the character of Lisa, and it went very well. After that, Grace Kelly's wings spread and we continued the character in To Catch AThief."

Woolrich's story provided the skeleton, but Hayes provided Hitchcock with the characterizations and emotional weight necessary to lift the material from its pulp origins to a level of glamour and wit associated with Hitchcock's best work.  The story had been elevated to one about a man's fear of commitment, a theme suggested in Woolrich's story but one that never completely surfaced.

Extract taken from Writing with Hitchcock: The Collaboration of Alfred Hitchcock and John Michael Hayes by Steven DeRosa (Faber & Faber, 2001).