Rear Window: The Making of a Hitchcock Masterpiece in the Hollywood Golden Age
Published by Citadel Press, 2025. 253 pages.
By Jennifer O’Callaghan

I hadn’t expected to read a second book on a Hitchcock film after just finishing Criss-Cross by Stephen Rebello, but since Rear Window is my favorite of the director’s work, and I was already knee-deep in the Hitchcock cinematic world, I figured why not. And just like the Rebello book, there is a ton of information on the making of it. From finding the right writer to tackle adapting the short story by Cornell Woolrich, to getting the studio to foot the bill for an entire neighborhood to be built on a soundstage.  And then there casting as well, along with the design, art direction, and all that other fun stuff that goes into making a classic.

Finding an actor for the lead role would have to be someone that would follow Hitchcock’s direction. When he had worked with Montgomery Cliff in I Confess (1953), the director ran into issues getting him to do what he wanted because Cliff was a method actor, something Hitchcock did not care for. Hitchcock worked in visuals, what the audience was going to see and how that carried the story along. When Cliff didn’t want to do something in particular because “my character wouldn’t do that”, it caused issues with Hitchcock not being able to get the shots he wanted. Hitchcock had said “It’s a movie. You’re an actor. Act.”

Since for most of the picture, Jimmy Stewart’s character doesn’t do much since he’s confined to a wheelchair due to a broken leg. So, a good chunk of his “performance” is the reactions of looking out at what is going on outside his window. When talking to Francois Truffaut, about actors and their job, he stated “In my opinion, the chief requisite for an actor is the ability to do nothing well, which is by no means as easy as it sounds. He should be willing to be utilized and wholly integrated in the picture by the director and the camera.” So, with these quick reaction shots, Stewart had to show a different range of emotions for each person he was looking at, even if his facial expression didn’t change much.

So, there is a lot of interesting information in this book, showing a lot of the whys of what Hitchcock did the way he did it, and why he could be demanding. But on the same token, he also gave a lot of freedom to his actors. Of course, as long as it worked with what he wanted.

We also see, once again, how Hitch dealt with the censors, letting them come on the set before filming started, to understand a little more exactly what and how it would be filmed. As well as, like a lot of directors, purposely filming shots that they knew would trigger the censors and demand it be cut, which was their plan all along. Meanwhile, other more subtle scenes would sneak by unnoticed.

But here is where I had issues with the book. Once the production is done and the film is released, I realized I was only a little more than halfway through the book. The rest of the book goes off into different directions, sometimes coming back with some connection to the film, but it felt forced in a way. We learn more about Grace Kelly, some of her career but a lot of her later marriage to Prince Rainier of Monaco, as well as about Jimmy Stewart, and even Hitchcock’s later films. It’s great information, but as I stated, not really connected to the subject of the book. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all good and interesting information and trivia, but just wasn’t as much on the film itself that I had expected.

If you’re a huge fan of the film Rear Window, like I am, it is worth the read. Just fair warning on the amount of content on it.